Use Rituals to Send Love to Your Children
Repetition is an essential part of ingraining healthy messages in your children. Rituals provide that consistent replication. Rituals communicate messages not only by what you say or do, but, more powerfully, by the actions your children themselves take. Plus, when they engage in rituals, and experience their positive consequences, your children gain “buy-in” and ownership […]
Read MoreParenting: Use Catchphrases to Send Love to Your Children
The messages about love that you send to your children at a young age are so important because love is a powerful, complex, often wonderful, and sometimes painful emotion that will play a central role in their lives. The messages you communicate in your expressions of love toward your children provide the context for the […]
Read MoreCycling: Psych Down or Psych Up to Ride Your Best
In my last post, I introduced you to the importance of intensity in your cycling. I indicated that all of the mental preparation in the world will go for naught if you are not also physiologically prepared to ride your best on race day. After a good pre-race warm-up on your bike or trainer, reaching […]
Read MoreIn Sports, Think Now, So You Don’t Have to Think Later
I just returned from Europe where I spent a week working with a group of highly ranked U.S. athletes during their off-season prep period. After a few days, the feedback I was getting from them was that I was really getting into their heads and causing them to think a lot, in fact, to a few of them, think a bit too much. This wasn’t a surprise to me as I hear this frequently. Between my mental skills work with athletes during practices, one-on-one sessions, team talks (in which we discussed a relevant sport topic each evening), and daily imagery sessions, the athletes were getting their minds stuffed with the mental side of their sport. I was definitely making them think more than they were accustomed. But that is, in fact, my job: to get the athletes I work with uncomfortable, push them outside of what they are used to, and think about things that will take them to the next level. Yes, admittedly, it can feel a bit overwhelming at first, but after a few days, they got used to it and figured out how to incorporate my approach into their usual training regimen.
Read MoreMental Training Begins in the Gym
Most sport psychologists work with athletes on the mental side of their sport in an office setting (usually one hour per week), providing them with mental tools that they can use during training and competitions. This approach makes about as much sense as a coach offering their athletes technical instruction and then telling them to go out onto the field, course, court, or what-have-you and work on it in practice. In either case, the transfer from inside to outside isn’t very good. I have found the most productive work I do with athletes is during their actual practice sessions. I’m able to go to training with athletes and show them how to incorporate mental skills, such as intensity, focus, imagery, and routines, while they’re actually practicing. But, over the last few years, I have discovered an even better setting in which athletes can begin to develop their mental skills: the gym. Yes, using mental skills as a part of your physical conditioning program is a great way to begin to ingrain those skills that will be of such benefit in the quality of your training and when you compete.
Read MoreLatest News: Watch My Psychology of Cycling Lecture
A few months ago, I gave a lecture on the Psychology of Cycling as part of The Medicine of Cycling — Mini Medical School for the Public series sponsored by the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. You can view the 45-minute presentation here.
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