SELF TALK
We all normally talk to ourselves and when it comes to golf, most of the time the conversation is not very pleasant. If you think you don’t talk to yourself, see this way, the simple fact you are thinking about something; you are actually talking to yourself. This may involve a number of things, this is the reason for the positive and/or negative inputs that you are generating in your head. We must be VERY careful and pay a lot of attention to what kind of talk we are perpetrating and make some corrections to the inner talk. Have you ever notice that sometimes you are thinking something like: “Don’t go in the water” or “Don’t screw up this shot” or “Don’t loose this put”, etc… Well, let’s discuss about something called subconscious mind. I’m not a psychologist but, if one does a little search one will find out that the subconscious mind is the control of you conscious mind. It’s something like this: you think of something, regardless if it’s good or bad, and then; this something happen! According to psychology, the subconscious mind stores the information you are thinking and somehow works the ways to make that thinking come through. This is a very important concept to understand and take to the heart, when it comes to golf most of the things you think are the ones that actually happen. But, then you may be thinking: “Ok, but for many times I thought of making that birdie and it didn’t happen! Why?”.
The answer is BELIEVING! You may try to deceive your mind but your subconscious is smarter than you think. If you think something but you actually believe something else, SOMETHING ELSE will happen and even worse, you won’t even notice that you have a believing system working against you and hence, you tend to walk away from watching what you think. VERY DANGEROUS! BEWARE!
So, this type of practice certainly will require some training and rehearsal to master. On the other hand, if you are aware that negative thinking may be causing your game to suffer, than you may try to implement positive thoughts little by little until it comes the day that you won’t be forcing yourself to notice the hazards rather than your target. Some books recommend you writing affirmations to help. Let’s say you have a problem of telling yourself, every time you step on the tee block: “Don’t hook it! Don’t hook it!” if you are thinking like that guess what? You are going to hook it!!!!! Write down in piece of paper, before the game something like: “Hit the ball in the fairway” and take it with you to the course, be discrete and make a habit of reading this note every time before you step to the tee and just before you swing think “hit the fairway” and don’t think anymore, just swing. If you do this without doubts and/or fear, definitely you will hit the fairway all the time. Don’t question why it works, don’t question if it will work again, just do it! Our mind is a marvellous piece of art, the most complex piece of engineering, the most amazing frontier of science, the absolute truth of oneself, the most mysterious enigma in the universe. If you don’t believe it, let me tell you this: the brain has more connections among its neurons than there are stars in the universe, ask any neurologist. According to science, there about 100 trillion stars in the universe; the brain has 10 times more connections. So, do you really think you are going to be able to understand it or to question the way it works? I would say, don’t even try J just use what works! Think of the results YOU WANT and FORGET to think about the results you don’t want. When I play golf I normally think of a phrase that helps me to get my thinking straight when my mind starts wondering to the wrong side:
REMEMBER TO FORGET!
I always repeat this to myself if I hit a bad shot that is taking roots in my thoughts, eventually you will notice that as you repeat this phrase to yourself, the bad thoughts will show up less and less until not showing up anymore.
The answer is BELIEVING! You may try to deceive your mind but your subconscious is smarter than you think. If you think something but you actually believe something else, SOMETHING ELSE will happen and even worse, you won’t even notice that you have a believing system working against you and hence, you tend to walk away from watching what you think. VERY DANGEROUS! BEWARE!
So, this type of practice certainly will require some training and rehearsal to master. On the other hand, if you are aware that negative thinking may be causing your game to suffer, than you may try to implement positive thoughts little by little until it comes the day that you won’t be forcing yourself to notice the hazards rather than your target. Some books recommend you writing affirmations to help. Let’s say you have a problem of telling yourself, every time you step on the tee block: “Don’t hook it! Don’t hook it!” if you are thinking like that guess what? You are going to hook it!!!!! Write down in piece of paper, before the game something like: “Hit the ball in the fairway” and take it with you to the course, be discrete and make a habit of reading this note every time before you step to the tee and just before you swing think “hit the fairway” and don’t think anymore, just swing. If you do this without doubts and/or fear, definitely you will hit the fairway all the time. Don’t question why it works, don’t question if it will work again, just do it! Our mind is a marvellous piece of art, the most complex piece of engineering, the most amazing frontier of science, the absolute truth of oneself, the most mysterious enigma in the universe. If you don’t believe it, let me tell you this: the brain has more connections among its neurons than there are stars in the universe, ask any neurologist. According to science, there about 100 trillion stars in the universe; the brain has 10 times more connections. So, do you really think you are going to be able to understand it or to question the way it works? I would say, don’t even try J just use what works! Think of the results YOU WANT and FORGET to think about the results you don’t want. When I play golf I normally think of a phrase that helps me to get my thinking straight when my mind starts wondering to the wrong side:
REMEMBER TO FORGET!
I always repeat this to myself if I hit a bad shot that is taking roots in my thoughts, eventually you will notice that as you repeat this phrase to yourself, the bad thoughts will show up less and less until not showing up anymore.