Leaner, Stronger and Faster with Hypnosis – Installment 3

Hypnotist Meredith Locher

by Meredith Locher

Welcome back to even more information preparing you to support your clients in getting leaner, stronger and faster. We’ve been focusing on getting leaner, but now it’s time to get stronger and faster! Next issue, I will share more information about successful weight release as I wrap up this column, but this article will be focused on working with athletes.

Almost universally, athletes are very open to and interested in using visualization to boost their skills and overcome blocks. Coaches recommend visualization techniques and high profile athletes talk openly about their use of mind control and visualization as a regular part of their training and competitive season. Just last year, the world watched as Michael Phelps blasted the competition in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games winning gold not once, not twice, but eight times! At a mere 23 years old, he has already won 48 career medals and 16 Olympic medals (8 gold in Beijing, 6 gold and 2 bronze in Athens 2004.) Phelps has been quoted as saying, “The more you dream, the farther you get.” He knows that imagining breaking records is the only way to break through the records set by champions who precede him. Phelps struggled with ADHD, a rocky relationship with his father, and continuously being teased at school for his big ears, strangely configured body and gawky expression. Many people could not and do not overcome the same hardship, but he knew the power of clearing his mind and visualizing himself achieving his goals from a very early age. Michael Phelps has talked openly about his use of self-hypnosis techniques and visualization throughout his rise to stardom. If he is not proof of the power of hypnosis in improving athletic performance, I don’t know who is!

As Hypnotists and Hypnotists, how do we successfully help athletes to overcome their blocks and increase their successes? It is actually very simple. We remove emotional blocks to success using the 5-PATH® process or regression work and forgiveness work. Taking advantage of the heightened suggestibility that comes from the insights gained by regression or forgiveness work, we wrap up by giving specific, individualized suggestions to the athlete increasing confidence and belief in the self and abilities. Then we guide the athlete through their sport using guided visualization or more accurately, guided experiencing for those who do not “see” while in hypnosis. While guiding, we focus on building confidence in desired areas so the athlete can experience doing it successfully which will translate into increased confidence and success in competition. We tend to get what we expect, so building a higher performance expectation in the mind translates powerfully to performance in the sport.

Of course, nothing in life is that simplistic so let’s get into the caveats:

Save the 5-PATH® Process for Off-season

Emotional work such as Age Regression Work and Forgiveness Work is always best done with athletes when they are NOT competing. Athletes need to be focused and strong during season and if emotions are stirred up, it will most likely affect their game negatively and decrease their confidence in hypnosis and the process. Also, the 5-PATH® process (or any of phases 2-5) can be draining for many reasons, but mainly due to the reorganization of information that takes place in the mind throughout the process and fatigue is never helpful to an athlete.

I will discuss the importance of doing the deeper work with my athletes since there are blocks to success we won’t tear down in any other way, but work with them to schedule at appropriate times according to their sport. Often, if an athlete has breaks in between their competitions, we can complete the process quickly using double sessions. I always plan so the client has at least a couple weeks after our process is complete before they compete so they have time to practice and train with the new information integrating into their brain.

During the season, Direct Suggestion and Guided Imagery are the best tools and are very effective in boosting performance. I will also anchor relaxation techniques when appropriate for athletes who struggle with anxiety. Not all athletes can use a physical relaxation cue such as the finger rub, so I work with that athlete to identify a trigger that will work best such as picturing a color in their mind or a word and will anchor that with the relaxation response.

Not All Athletes are Created Equal

Of course, just like the individuals you work with for any other issue, it is important to do the work in the Pre-Hypnosis Interview to find out specifics about what the athlete does, what they are having trouble with and what they want to do better. This information will be very useful for Direct Suggestion and guided experiencing. The more specific we get with any client using their own words, the more acceptable the suggestions will be and the more effective you will be.

Use the Athlete’s Hero

One of the many great things about working with athletes is that they always have an athlete they wish to emulate. Finding out who they want to be more like is such a terrific short cut because with just a few words, you can capture exactly what the client wants to achieve. Saying something like, “And now with each swing, your swing is becoming more and more like Tiger Woods’, with all the focus and precision of his swing,” is so much easier than trying to describe everything Tiger does in his swing. The hero makes it possible for me to communicate effectively with any athlete without requiring me to know a great deal about what they do technically in their sport.

Also, it can be very powerful to have the client step into the shoes of their hero and do the sport as if they are in their hero’s body and feeling how it feels to have all that confidence and power. After allowing the client to spend some time in their hero, I then, direct me client to step back into their own body bringing with them the same skill and confidence they experienced while “being” their hero.

More to come next column when I will share more details about successfully working with athletes as well as more about weight release as I sum up “Leaner, Stronger, and Faster with Hypnosis.”

You can find more information about Meredith on her website for Hypnosis in Los Angeles.

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