Attaining Wisdom Through Golf - Connecting Mind And Body For Optimum Performance

I want to give you a very powerful tool for when it comes to regulating your thoughts and therefore performing at your very best.

I'm talking about using the power of the body scan. No matter who you are or what you do, whether you're a professional athlete, an office worker, or an artist, having a mind-body connection will help you perform at your absolute optimum.

While this may be obvious for athletes or people involved in some kind of physical activity, it is often overlooked for the rest of the population. However I'm here to show you how this is one of your most accessible superpowers that will transform the way you react and cope with your daily challenges.

Getting In The Zone

If you have ever operated in the zone, then you know what a wonderful feeling it is. Whether you're playing a sport, writing an article, fishing, or even doing your tax returns! It doesn't matter what the activity is, there is a certain peace that comes to you in the zone, you may have heard of it referred to as flowstate.

The problem is often that no matter how many times you've been in the zone before, it can be very hard to achieve that feeling again.

In fact the harder you strive for it, the less tangible and unreachable it becomes, until you just give up and hope that the feeling will come to you again.

I have talked a lot about flowstate in the Incredible You! Series and one component that we visit often is that of meditation.

It is through meditation that we can train ourselves to get in the zone, however meditation is not that easy for most people. In fact it wasn't until I started viewing meditation as a test of will, rather than a form of relaxation, that I myself was able to learn how to do it right.

Finding The Trance

When we meditate we sync into a meditative trance; this isn't a trance whereby we are somehow under a kind of weird hypnotic spell. It is simply a place of calm whereby we are alert and aware of our thoughts, yet at the same time disassociated from them.

The great thing about this kind of trance, is that once we understand how to get into it, we can trigger it anytime we feel the need.

We do this by using the body scan, in golf we use it to anchor us to the particular moment in time and place that we are about to take our shot from.

In normal everyday life, you can use it to rid yourself of distracting thoughts in order to carry out the duties you need to.

In order to do so, just like anything else, you need to practice it. So let's get into that and go through the steps that will help us become mental ninjas in this area.

The Steps

Step 1: Make sure you are not going to be disturbed, phone on airplane mode etc. However give yourself a time limit (you may not want/need this as you progress), set your timer for 5 minutes.

Step 2: Sit (not lie) down on a comfortable chair/cushion.

Step 3: Become aware of your breathing without trying to take conscious control, notice the way your breathing will happen with or without your attention.

Step 4: Starting at the top of your head, moving slowly shine the light of your attention onto your scalp, forehead, eyes, ears and jawline.

As your attention moves downwards, try to notice how much tension there is in the particular area you are focusing on. Play around with the tension, notice how much natural tension you need to hold yourself upright, and how much is simply excess tension.

You will tend to really notice this around the neck and shoulders, where most people hold their extra tension.

Step 5: If you haven't done this before, then you will probably have to repeat this step over and over again.

Each time you are distracted by a train of thought that has you thinking about something else and not concentrating on your body scan. Start over at the top of your head and try and get as low or lower than the point at which you were distracted. Hopefully you will get down to your feet before your time runs out.

Step 6: Increase the time you do this by 30 seconds each day (you may find that 5 minutes is too long for you, that's fine just scale back to 2 mins initially), by adding small amounts of time like this, you won't even notice how long you are able to do this for!

Live Use

Once you have gotten good at this, which if you do it everyday for at least five minutes, will not take long. You will be able to do this in public places, or just when you are doing random tasks.

It will connect your mind to your body in a way that brings you back to the moment and will help you get into that beautiful zone that we all crave to be in.

A hidden benefit is that it will also improve your posture, as it will make you aware of the bad sitting and standing habits we all slowly fall into.

Once you have mastered this young Padawan, you are ready for the next stage of your training!

HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND IN THE ZONE? HAVE YOU EVER BEEN THERE? ARE YOU AWARE OF MIND-BODY CONNECTION TECHNIQUES? WILL YOU TRY THE ONES ABOVE?

AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!

Title image: Dharm Singh on Unsplash

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