We all know and appreciate that it takes a certain amount of talent and a lot of hard work to rise to the top of any field, but the mental fortitude required to reach those heights and remain there is often overlooked. For instance, when it comes to sports and athletics, we tend to focus on the technical skills and physical condition that top athletes and sportspeople demonstrate while neglecting to acknowledge the strain that top-level competition can have both mentally and emotionally.
Over the past decade or two, the understanding of sports psychology and its importance has grown, with more and more major sporting organisation employing an entire team dedicated to improving the mental side of their game.
Whether you compete on your own or as part of a wider team, the competition starts well before an actual event and your mindset in the days leading up to it can be as important as your performance on the day. Increasing your performance is something that you work on overtime and sports hypnosis can be the first step you take towards your goal.
Sports hypnotherapy and hypnosis isn’t as simple as visualising yourself scoring that goal or sinking that putt, though it can be that as well. If a call goes against you or you fall behind in a game, people often find themselves performing worse or making rash decisions. Improving the mental aspect of your game will help you overcome these potential stumbling blocks and give you the tools you need to persevere in the face of adversity. In short, when it comes to the negative aspects of competition, sports hypnotherapy can give you a very real advantage
of adversity. In short, when it comes to the negative aspects of competition, sports hypnotherapy can give you a very real advantage
Sports & Self-Hypnosis
While active and ongoing sports hypnotherapy sessions are important, self-hypnosis can be used to provide supplementary support. As a matter of fact, the benefits of self-hypnosis are particularly suited to sports hypnotherapy as the targets are often more varied and personal to the user. In the same way that an athlete will have a nutritionist set up a personalised diet plan and a personal trainer develop them a workout routine, a hypnotherapist can help you determine the areas you need to work on mentally.
An outline of areas that you can improve on through Self-Hypnosis techniques would be:
- Visualising your success
- Improving motivation and determination
- Accepting and overcoming hurdles
- Getting and staying in the zone
- Believing in your own ability to win
Sports hypnosis, like regular hypnosis, improves the way that you think and behave. It engages the parts of your brain that are more advantageous to sporting success. It also disengages the parts of the brain that can cause problems, anxiety and a dip in performance. As you use self-hypnosis more and more, it continues to condition this advantageous way of thinking so it becomes wired into your automatic functions and becomes a natural part of who you are.
Sports hypnotherapy is one of Mark Bowden’s specialist areas and he has created a range of self-hypnosis downloads that can be used to help improve your golf game, intensify your weight sessions, run for longer, and much more. If you’re a sporting professional but aren’t conditioning your brain then you simply aren’t playing to the level you are truly capable of. If you want to change this and learn more about how sports hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis can benefit your performance, get in touch.
Who Is Mark Bowden?
All of the hypnosis downloads available through our app or from our website have been created by Mark Bowden. Accredited with the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy, Mark is also a member of the National Council for Hypnotherapy and the Complementary & Natural Healthcare Council. He has worked closely with celebrities, business leaders and professional athletes, and also produced the first-ever inflight hypnotherapy session in partnership with British Airways.
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