Tag Archive: Relaxation

Dec 27

Learn from a Jackass (donkey that is)

Learn from a Jackass is an old motivational, (scratch that) inspirational story. It has been repeated many times. I use it occasionally to make a few points about Mental Training. I’ve no idea where I first heard it; though I know it was years ago. I realized today that it is one of those stories I’ve not used here. So indulge me and learn a lesson from a Jackass.

One day a farmer’s donkey (officially recognized as a Jackass by Webster’s) fell down into a well. The animal brayed (Heehawed) for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to rescue the jackass.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly.
Then, to everyone’s amazement he quieted down. Read the rest of this entry »

Dec 21

Postural Enlightenment mental training X

by Mike Margolies

Postural Enlightenment- (a mental training exercise)

Postural Enlightenment is a way of focusing on how we are doing. Just a short post to remind everyone during the holiday’s to stay focused on what is important in their lives. Team, family, friends can not be forgotten. Your goals are important, but remember to take time for others. This time of year for some brings on a malaise or sadness. I try never to use the word depression as this is a clinical term and as you know I do not work with clinical issues. But from time to time sadness comes into the lives of most of us and we must learn to deal. So especially this time of year, I would like you to look around and pay attention not only to others, but to yourself. Get in touch with your feelings and sort things out. Self awareness is critical to becoming the athlete and person you would like to be. In this light I want you to become aware of one simple thing. It is simple and can change your perspective very quickly.

Let us have good head and shoulders—the basic elegant posture of enlightenment and peace. This is a statement I have seen for many years. I may have heard it stated this way from an associate who was also a yoga instructor. Yoga which focuses so acutely on form can send us an important message.

I can’t tell you how many times I remind athletes that our state of mind can dependent on our posture. The athlete knows the importance of posture, of proper breath, of being relaxed. Of course, you can tell when someone is sad, they slump. Problem is- it’s self-fulfilling. It’s hard to cheer up, mentally, when, physically, you’re slumped. Also notice a person’s or your own shoulders. Are you or they wearing shoulders for earrings? Read the rest of this entry »

Jul 31

Olympic conversation and more

by Mike Margolies

Olympic Conversation and More

Whenever the Olympics roll around I love to listen in on the commentary. A great deal is always about the psychological aspects of competition. So this is about Olympic conversation and more. Yesterday they talked about how the most celebrated beach volleyball players in the world added psychological training to what they do. There are always mentions of athletes cracking under pressure and those that excel with it. The one’s that excel often mention that they work with a sport psychology consultant. I’ve been fortunate to have worked with 14 or so that have gone on to the World Championships and the Olympics. Some have won and some not. It is a competition after all. All of them said their performance was the best that they had to give, win or lose. Isn’t that what everyone wants to come away saying? I’m putting together some examples and I will post them later in the Olympics. It is a great place to observe how athletes cope with being on such a huge stage. Do they lose focus? Does a normally fluid performer look stiff with tension? Are there lots of unforced errors? What were the effects of being successful and coming back for more and what were those implications? All Great Stuff.

Olympic Conversation and More, here’s the more

I so rarely post pictures of myself with clients. I do so only with their consent. This is a picture of me and DeAndre Yedlin. He plays for Sounders FC U23′s and the University of Akron.

Sounders FC U23 Player DeAndre Yedlin with Mike Margolies

That is Soccer of course. The PDL League is perhaps the same as Minor League Baseball A Ball and or other semi pro leagues.. Combination of college and X college players working towards playing professionally. Today he was named to the All PDL National Team. I’m very happy for him. Great work ethic, great attitude and of course a great mental game.

The common theme today is simple. Olympians using sport psychology. One of the best College players in North America using sport psychology. So the question is, as always, Are You?

And I’m not asking everyone to call me. (It would be nice however, as I would love to hear from you). I am saying that you should gather information and incorporate it into your training program.

If you are interested in learning more just go to www.themental-game.com

Apr 23

Some Simple Mind Control Tips

by Mike Margolies

Some Simple Mind Control Tips - Guest Post by Mindvalley

This is another guest post from Mindvalley. In my world of sports psychology I would be inclined to call this mental training, but when it comes down to it, learning to control your own mind is what it is all about. Please enjoy.

Emotional Intelligence in Hockey players

Emotional Intelligence in Sports

Mind control is important for reaching our ultimate potential. Here are some simple tips for achieving higher mental levels:

1. Meditation: Meditating daily is good for us in so many ways. It makes us happier, healthy, less stressed, more positive, and better able to concentrate. When it comes to increasing our mind-power, meditation helps us learn to still and discipline the brain, bringing it instantly under our complete control. The idea is meditate often enough that we actually strengthen our grip over our states of mind. Experienced, dedicated mediator’s have no trouble coming in and out of different trance states and mental levels.

2. Hypnosis: Many people don’t know the difference between meditation and hypnosis. In fact, they are very similar. The goals of each are slightly different, but the end result is ultimately the same. In meditation, we work to bring our mental states under control; in hypnosis, the goal is to reach a relaxed-aware state that is highly suggestible. When our minds our open to such suggestion, it becomes much easier for us to go into deeper and deeper levels of awareness. This is just another way to use our own brains for our benefit.

3. Sound: Music and binaural beats are audible techniques which target our minds sympathetic response to outside stimuli. Listening to certain music or sounds which produce a specific frequency, causes the energy output in our minds to match that frequency. This mimicry means we immediately go into a trance or reach a heightened mental level. It is one of the quickest ways to get a fast taste of a heightened state.

4. Special meditations: special meditations include visualizations, relaxations, projections, and lucid dreaming exercises. Anything that produces a specific emotion or vision in the brain. When we see something in our mind, there is little difference in the response created in our brain between “seeing” and actually doing. This means that targeted mental exercises that make us feel positive, upbeat, intelligent or powerful, actually make us all of those things, when repeated often enough.

5. Art and creativity: Art is also a form of meditation. Drawing something we see in front of us uses a large amount of our minds, strengthening our abilities to reason and concentrate. Working with color, planning and detailing requires a huge amount of focus, and, when used correctly, in the right environment, can produce a very beneficial trance state, as well as some much-needed mental and emotional therapy. There are many forms of craft, art, and creativity. Everyone should tap into at least one.

These five tips should be combined for increased mental benefit. Our minds are our only tools for achieving full self-actualization, and, if we don’t use them in an appropriate way, we can quickly throw away opportunities to become more awake, aware, intelligent, compassionate and successful. We literally have the ability to do and be anything we can imagine and dream. The problem, then. Is expanding our imaginations to reach greater and greater heights.

When we are finally able to switch, at will, between the mental states of beta, alpha, theta and delta, we will have overcome our usual mental and emotional limitations. Our minds will be positive, focused and controlled. We can do whatever we want, and we can ask the Universe to provide us with more of the things that makes us happy and healthy, because we will train our minds to focus on the good. Without the mental ability to follow our dreams, how can the Universe make them come true for us?

This is one reason it is so important to use simple mind control techniques every day. Even though our brains have limitless potential, they are usually left to run wild, and run the show. We have to take over, bring them under our own control and force them to be still and powerful as they can be. This means we have to fight the natural tendencies we have to become preoccupied with the mundane, and turn our attention, always, to self-improvement and achieving our goals. This doesn’t mean we don’t have fun; on the contrary, it means we produce happiness and light everywhere we go!

We are always focused on the good, believing in ourselves, and sending love and light out into the world. We do this by paying attention to our thoughts and guarding our minds against negativity and trivial distractions. This is how we become healthy, happy, successful, fully realized, wonderful human beings!

Interested to learn more about mind control? Check out these articles on easy techniques to always think positively and ways to get more positive energy

Apr 13

Visualization: Follow up on the Masters Golf Tournament

by Mike Margolies

Following up on something from the Master’s that applies to all athletes. I’ve made some comments about this the use of imagery and visualization in other posts, but the comment by Bubba Watson is particularly important.

Bubba got off the course at the Masters and said “I just got into the trees, saw a crazy shot in my head, and now I’m wearing the Green Jacket”.

So let’s look at what this means to an athlete. The ability to imagine success is critical to performance and imagining or visualizing the right picture is important as well. It is not good enough to conjure up unrealistic pictures in your mind, nor is it helpful to have a perspective that will not be of value. Read the rest of this entry »

Apr 03

Panicking or Choking in Sports- Do You recognize the Difference?

by Mike Margolies

In working with athletes on emotional control especially as it concerns emotional intelligence I frequently need to help athletes cope with situations in which they say they choked.

Very often it is a big game or a game that involved added pressure. Added pressure could be anything from a big crowd or critical situation. Sometimes it is not the game, but who is watching. Just having someone important in the crowd, like a special relation, scout or coach that the athlete is trying to impress has been known to increase the level of pressure causing athletes to have a poor performance. We have over time seen instances on TV in major championships where athletes did not cope properly with the competition. There are two negative behaviors that can occur under this type of pressure. Choking and Panicking.

I received a post from an associate about a book called “What the Dog Saw”

I read this a few years ago when it first came out. The author is Malcolm Gladwell and it is available thru Amazon.com He has a chapter in it called “The Art of Failure”. Gladwell does a great job in describing the differences between the two by describing behavior, brain processes, and psychological studies related to choking and panicking.

“Choking is about thinking too much. Panic is about thinking too little. Choking is about loss of instinct. Panic is reversion to instinct. They may look the same, but they are worlds apart.” Read the rest of this entry »

Jan 09

A Visit with The Introvert Entrepreneur

by Mike Margolies

I had the pleasure of being interviewed recently by Beth Buelow. She is Founder and CEO of The Introvert Entrepreneur . We talked of course about “The Athlete within You”. The unique aspect was that Beth works with Introverts that are effective in the business world or are trying to be more effective.

In this interview, you’ll learn:

The Introvert

What it means to have an “athlete within”
The power of being AMP’ed up and finding your real motivation
Why internal motivation – an introvert strength – is key to long-term success
How to express yourself “on the field”
Why being active requires relaxation

It was a very cool conversation. Athletes come in all sizes, shapes and personalities. There are advantages in being extroverted or introverted. In the soccer world the two best players in the world split. One is an extrovert and the other an introvert. The introvert right now is the best player in the world. The thing that is important- introvert or extrovert, is to use the mental skill sets needed to to be successful like Relaxation, AMP Motivation, Stress Management, Visualization, Hypnosis and more.

So many of us move forward without utilizing our most important asset, our mind. If we think of our mind as the key to using skills we can grow with to handle adversity and success. Sport Psychology not only offers solutions to athletes, but to everyone. An athlete has such a short time frame to make the most of what they have. Since we all have an athlete within us, why not utilize mental skills not only to play a sport but to excel in business and in life.

The entire podcast is found on Beth’s website. Please head there now and check it out. The Introvert Entrepreneur

I am grateful that Beth invited me into for just a moment into the lives of the people she works with every day. I met Beth a couple of years ago at a workshop for introverts. Myself, well I’m a closet extrovert. I’m in Introvert that masquerades as an Extrovert. Here’s to being proud of who we are.

Dec 05

Hypnosis Demonstration

by Mike Margolies

Hypnosis Demonstration

Lecture and Hypnosis Demonstration for the Issaquah High School Psychology classes. History and use of hypnosis and how it is applied to sports. As I have been mentioning I recently made fourteen Hypnosis / Guided Imagery for Sports mp3s for a company called Best in U. I’ve already written that my involvement in hypnosis goes back maybe 40 years. I have used hypnosis with athletes and others individually and in groups. But until two weeks ago I never had done an active demonstration with an audience. So here is the story.

The day before Thanksgiving I did a lecture and demonstration for the Issaquah High School Psychology classes. My son is in the class and I have known the teacher for 10 years or so. This was the first time that I had volunteered to come into his class. I wanted to provide the students with something interesting that would get them thinking about how important psychology is to sports and other types of performance. I knew from talking with my son that this would be of interest to his class. His teacher Josh Moore was excited to have me in to provide a real link to his students on applied psychology. I asked him if as part of the presentation he would like to be hypnotized.

He had seen stage hypnosis before, but had never had a directed experience. I thought I would be just coming into class one day and do a short demo. Instead Mr Moore asked me to come in on a short day prior to Thanksgiving. This gave him control of time and place. So instead of meeting in the classroom he set it up that I would do the lecture in the brand new Issaquah High School Theater with three sections of students instead of one. Instead of 40 minutes I would have 90.

This was interesting for me as I said because with all of my experience I never had an occasion to do a stage like show using hypnosis. This was going to be fun, and in truth a trip for me into the unknown. Could I do a rapid induction on a single subject in front of my sons friends? Just have to see I guess. So here is the rapid induction.

If you go to my YouTube channel you can see more, including the teacher laughing, singing and demonstrating other aspects of hypnosis. My YouTube channel is SportPsychConsult . Just click on the link and like magic you are there.

This is of course only the demo. The first part was a lecture on hypnosis with class participation so they understood important concepts like relaxation, suggestibility and concentration, all critical aspects in performance success in sports and life. The video is grainy because we were negligent in asking someone to light the stage for video. We ended the session with a great Q & A session.

Nov 24

Imagery-more than fantasy II

by Mike Margolies

I’d like to give write today on Thanksgiving a few notes of gratitude to some good friends. Some that help me day to day, and others that pop in and out of my life. I can’t name them all, but I will call out a few by their first names and perhaps they will know that I am thinking of them. I imagine us all one day sitting around the table drinking good wine (or tequila) and celebrating our friendship. In no order, they are Kindra, Deborah, Ken, Michael, Don, Jon, Tiffany, Toni, JoLynn, Bobby, Matts, Ellen, Marg, DJ, Fancy and of course my family. To my extended family I want to also wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.

So why is this post titled Imagery. We use imagery every day all day. It is critical to our process as human beings. I thought that I would offer up on this Thanksgiving Day part of one of the chapters from The Athlete within You. I have been thinking so much about how imagery is intertwined in what we do that I wanted to write something today. So what follows is an excerpt from my book. My thoughts in this area are becoming clearer than they have in years as I prepare more mp3 programs for Best in U. After over three decades of study maybe it’s about time.

This is from the middle of a chapter on Imagery.

Michael Jordan

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot . . . and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why . . . I succeed.” Jordan was always willing to get back up. He was always willing to take the last shot. Moreover he had the extreme confidence to know that he would in fact make the shot.
Read the rest of this entry »