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Stress Management - Post 4
Today's topic is stress management through planning reaction you would have when stress trigger appears. Previous topic HERE
Planning and preparation are techniques well-known to humanity for thousands of years. They include preparing for predictable situations, repetitive actions, training sessions, martial and hunting dances, visualised meditations, and accumulation of real and virtual good memories.
Used to qualify for certain extraordinary life-and-death situations, martial and hunting dances are long-term educational programs applied from early youth. How did it work?
Several times per year, kids and minors observe ritual practices that include preparation for hunting, weapon selection, chasing, fighting and, crucially, winning and celebrating the victory! By the time of maturity, a youngster has experience of participating in simulation practices(ritual dances).
Therefore, when he joins the real beast hunt, he experiences the so-called mind paradox.
|Our subconscious mind is capable of processing 2.000.000 signals per second as our conscious mind just 40.... So It is fifty-thousand times quicker than the conscious mind|
Thus, if we are trained for the hunt, despite the considerable stress, our blood gets injected with a ‘victory package’ of hormones, instead of just stress-caused adrenaline. Adrenaline alone would just turn the mind off and switch you to the flight program.
owever, thanks to the preparation, we get a mix of (1) adrenaline, (2) dopamine, also referred to as a hero hormone; and (3) endorphin, which reliefs pain and anxiety. This combination helps us to manage the situation and apply our weapon skills consciously. The same applies to martial (war dance or fight with shadow) practices.
Rehearsals include frequent and consistent repetition of smth., for implantation of new programs/blueprints to our subconscious mind or to correct the existing ones.
It is similar in sports. However, professional athletes have to focus even more on mental harmony amid stressful conditions rather than mechanic action, because they need stress to achieve above-the-average results. This is why intermediate competitions are the most important training sessions for sports winners.
Visualisation techniques also have fascinating results. As opposed to the prevailing opinion, we see with our brain, rather than with eyes.
|Our subconscious mind cannot see any difference between our real actions and our virtual visualisation|
And if we visualise correctly we can collect useful, positive memories package.
To illustrate, let me refer to a study which included three groups of basketball players.
For thirty days, Group 1 shot free throws to the basket one hour per day; Group 2 had vacations; and Group 3 had to spend one hour per day on a bench with their eyes closed and visualise, or imagine, themselves shooting free throws. As a result, the execution of shots of Group 1 improved by 10 to 12 percent, Group 2 did not make any progress, while in Group 3 some players improved their performance by 10 to 12, while some of them even by 12 to 14 percent. Why did it work like this for the best shooters of Group 3? Because they invested their energy and emotions in visualising their shots and importantly, they ALWAYS scored points(in their mind)! It made them feel like WINNERS all the time and gave them self-confidence that they will hit the target.
Last but not least, our attitudes and expectations play an important role. If we expect joy and victory, our body and mind behave like winners,
while if we are afraid, anxious or nervous, we exhaust ourselves mentally and when the actual situation comes, we feel tired, helpless and without a necessary hormone mix.
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Next post is about how to deal with consequences of stress.
Go to POST 5
