Mind Mastery For Professional Athletes

Instead of closing eyes and doing some inner work, today is the day you get acquainted with the basics of emotional intelligence by watching this video.

Today’s practice is all about listening, understanding and then checking it with your personal life experience. Do you see the reflection of what is being said here?

Step 1: Plug in your headphone / ear-pods and follow the guided practice

Step 2: Download and read This Concept Guide

The energy-field of our body is the playground where the entire game of our mind is being played. NO, it is not played in our head, thatʼs just a semantic error, it is played throughout the entire energy-field of our body.

Your thoughts, your emotions, your fears, your memories, all are spread around the energy-field of your body and by paying attention to the body, you can be the constant observer of your mind. By being in body, you also remain Present. And obviously, when you are present, you have your focus, your resources and full access to your skills.

If instead of 40 days program, I had to do share only one practice, then it would be today’s practice. That’s how important is the skill of inhabiting your body.

I know you are a player, but I want you to learn to be a coach.

Yeah, you read that right. I want you to learn to be a great coach to your inner team, to all the parts of your mind.

Okay, tell me, in which situation would you feel happier and more confident?

Situation A

Where you can go to a coach and speak your mind freely, express your doubts and fear and in return, the coach assures you and supports you to find solutions.

Situation B

Where you’re not allowed to speak to coach, not express your fears or problems, and if you come to speak up, you’re ignored or shouted at?

Will you turn out to be a better player in Situation A or situation B?

Well, I am sure, the situation A sounds a better place to live, learn, grow and play your best game.

So think of the different parts of your mind as your team players and think of you as the coach.

Be like that coach to your mind under whom you would love to learn and play.

The reason your mind is anxious, angry, sad, nervous or scared is because it feels something is not right.

If you don’t listen to your mind, or if you resist the messages your mind is giving you through emotions like anxiety, nervousness, fear or anger, then the parts of your mind will feel ignored…and how can you create a winning inner team if your team members feel ignored and not confident?

Would you like to learn to be the Best Coach to your mind? Then complete today's mind mastery practice.

What Is Rewiring A Behaviour?

Rewiring simply means we bypass the dysfunctional behaviours but keep the intent. Our saviour parts want to help us but in a dysfunctional, sometime obsessive, or even addictive ways…what if we could keep the intent – to help us but rewire the behaviour itself?

Rewiring starts with establishing a cordial relationship with your parts that produce dysfunctional behaviours. Therefore, you cannot hate a part and change it. If you dislike, like, feel bad, resist or get irritated by a part, then you must know that another part of you has taken over the throne and is relating to your original part. Who YOU are is always open. Therefore before you begin to rewire, you must connect with that pattern of guilt, anger, procrastination obsession or whatever it is from your centre – from your base state.

Anxiety is not bad!

Really, anxiety is not always bad. Often it is our body’s message to let us know that something high-stake is going to happen so you better stay alert and be prepared.

But when anxiety rises above a certain level, it blocks our focus and influences our performance negatively. In such times, anxiety feels like someone is delivering an important message but too loud.

At such times, you wish you had some way to bring that anxiety reaction to a level of healthy preparedness to act.

Here is one guided practice presented by Dr. Inna Kozlinska who works as a researcher at a university in the Netherlands and also is passionate about teaching Kundalini Yoga, is a certified Internal Family Systems guide and a certified 3 Minute Start Breathing Instructor.

Sometimes, emotional intelligence is like holding your pee.

Well, we all know that feeling when the bladder is full and you feel you need a release. But just because you feel the pressure to pee, you don’t start peeing wherever you are. You wait until you get to a safe place, so that you neither wet yourself, nor you spoil it for others. Growing up, we develop a fairly good control over our bladder. We can do the same with emotions.

Handling emotions is often like handling pee. You have to release them, but in the right place, in a safe place, ensuring that you don’t lose your focus in the moment and you don’t throw your emotional rubbish on others.

Background Of Today’s Practice

Yes, it is true that all your emotions, worries and concerns are important and that you must address them or do something about them but, there are times, when it is inappropriate to let your emotions take you over.

For example, when you are playing a game, it may not be the time to let your emotions takeover you because there may not be anything you could do about it but by letting your emotions take over you, you definitely lose your focus and precision.

In those moments, all you need is to focus on what is happening. If you can somehow safely, without neglecting your emotions, continue to have your focus, wouldn’t it be a great?

Today’s practice helps you to exactly do that. Keep your focus, when you need it the most, like while you are playing a game, without letting your emotions take over you and also without neglecting those emotions.

Everything is created twice. First in your mind and then in the outer world.

– all the wise ones.

Our brain works in interesting ways.

When you do something, let’s say ride a bicycle for the first time, the brain creates a neural pathway. Think of it like one string is created in our body-mind based on that action. Then every time we repeat the same action, let’s say riding the bicycle, brain keeps adding one more string each time. So if you do it 100 times, now there are 100 strings representing that action. And 100 strings together represent a thick rope, a solid pathway in our body-mind.

That’s why, after repeating something for many times, it becomes easy for us to do effortlessly.

However, that is not the most interesting thing. The most interesting thing about how our brain works is that whether you actually do something or just vividly imagine doing it, your brain will add one string. Yeah, the brain add one string, it adds to the pathway even if you are not doing something but only imagining doing it vividly.

And that’s a brain hack!

You can learn a new skill faster by observing someone do it, and then using the visualization technique mentioned in today’s practice to master it quicker than ever.

For best results, it is recommended to do at least 10 rounds of visualizations, twice a day. First, immediately after waking up and second, just before you go to sleep. If you can’t do at those times, then at least try to do during the day whenever you are relaxed.

Observing nature is not only fulfilling but also revealing. I was watching some animal documentary where they showed a river that was home to a lot of crocodiles. However, that river was the only source of water so other animals had no choice but to risk whenever they were thirsty.

A lone wild-buffalo came to quench thirst, but was very cautious not to go deep into waters. It was having water almost on the edge of river when a stealthy crocodile pounced upon the wild buffalo from under the water…however it could only manage to get one leg in its mouth.

And then ensued a fight between the wild buffalo’s survival instinct against the crocodile’s hunter instinct.

But what was interesting was, the buffalo was not trying to fight the crocodile instead, it was trying to pull out of water onto the river bank while the crocodile was not trying to attack more but trying to pull the buffalo further into the water.

They were both trying to take the battle on their turf. And it makes sense because the buffalo loses it’s natural power while in water while the crocodile gets weaker outside the water.

Every creature in nature is wired with this simple instinct to act in their ‘power zone’ probably the only exception the humans.

The Power Zone

One of the major difference between people who exhibit Emotional Intelligence and people who struggle with it is this…

People with well developed Emotional Intelligence (EI) spend their most time in their power zone. They know they can only win on their turf. While people who struggle with EI, they spend a lot of time away from their power zone.

What then is our power zone?

Our power zone is determined by our focus. For example if our focus is on the following, I’d say we’re in power zone.

What is the best possible course of action (or inaction as the case may be) for this situation?

Anything else – why am I suffering, this is too much suffering, I wish I don’t have to face this situation, God why me?, I don’t like how this situation is developing…that is like the wild buffalo being pulled in deep into the waters, there’s no chance it’d come out safe.

People with EI focus on solutions, people who struggle with it focus on why there are problems.

Try today’s practice to discover how you can be in the power zone.

Anxiety and nervousness are not always bad. They are a way your system is telling you that something very important is about to happen and you can’t afford to mess it.

In a way, it is your body-mind’s message to you to be more alert.

So, if you want to deal with anxiety and nervousness, the first step is, STOP hating it. You can’t hate a messenger.

Now, take a look at the image in 'resource', you’ll need to use it during today’s practice.

The world prepares us for success but no one teaches us how to handle failure.

It is not our skills to be successful that determines how far we will go but it is our ability to handle failure that determines how long we will stay in the game and how far we reach in the game.

You are already preparing for success, let’s also begin preparations to handle failure and losses. Go ahead and do today’s practice.

If you live in a cold country or have visited one during winters, you’d know that almost every morning, the cars windshield (the glass in front of driver) is covered with snow.

Even if you are the world’s best driver and your car is the most powerful car in the world, you still won’t be able to drive that car without clearing that layer of snow from your windshield. Therefore, every driver in cold countries has a morning routine – clear the snow or ice from windshield before they start driving.

When you are taken over by strong emotions like anger, frustration, or fear, it also creates a layer of thick snow and fog in your mind. You can’t see things clearly, you can’t react or respond to things clearly. And imagine going into a game with that energy still on your mind’s windshield…you get the point, don’t you?

All you need to perform at your best is clear head and presence in the moment.

If you manage to have these two things, you will be able to use all of your skills and bring out everything that you’ve practiced for years.

Today’s practice is will show you how to clear that layer of snow stuck on your mind’s windshield so that you can have clear head and presence. You can use it whenever you want. After an emotional drama, before a tense game or just to about anytime.

Breath Of Fire by Dr. Inna Kozlinska

Today’s guided practice is presented by Dr. Inna Kozlinska who works as a researcher at a university in the Netherlands and also is passionate about teaching Kundalini Yoga, is a certified Internal Family Systems guide and a certified 3 Minute Start Breathing Instructor.

Even the best of the best players come across a dry patch, and it will happen to you too.

There will be times, when in spite of all your glorious statistics, you just don’t click…you just can’t perform to your best. In sports, this is often referred to as – a player is out of form. It has happened to the best and it will happen to you, at some point.

But for a lot of players, when they go out of form, when they can’t make enough goals or shots or points that they were known for, they also lose their focus. And once that happens, many players make self destructive decisions or actions.

It is important that during such dry-run phase of your life, even if your game is not at it’s best, at least you keep your focus. And if you can keep your focus, the day is not far when you will find yourself bouncing back again with your peak performance.

So with this understanding, let’s do today’s mind master practice.

The other day, I was watering the grass in yard when suddenly water stopped. I went to check the water pump, it was working perfectly, I then went to check the water tap to which the garden hose was connected. Even that worked perfect.

That’s when I saw my dog playing with the garden hose. While playing with it, he had twisted it at couple of places, which had caused a block in the flow of water. There was water at the tap, but because of blocks, it was unable to flow to the other end. The moment I untwisted it, there it was – a beautiful, stream of cool water splashing over plants and grass.

Our body-mind is also like a hose through which our potential flows effortlessly. But due to strong emotional experiences the pathways of our energies are blocked, just like the twisted garden-hose. If only we can untwist those blocks, release those blocks, all of our natural potential that we have gathered using practices and trainings will flow naturally.

To be our natural self, all we need to do is remove the blocks, including the energetic blocks.

Today’s practice will help you to achieve exactly that.

Once again, today’s practice is presented by Dr. Inna Kozlinska.

Hello and welcome to today’s mind mastery practice.

We are entering the final phase, last three days of this program.

Until now, you have learned basic presence skills, basic mind transformation skills and also worked on some of the common blocks experienced by professional athletes.

These last three days are special. They are special because in these days, you will be introduced to what I call A champion’s routine.

The Power Of Routine

You are a master of that which you do everyday.

What is it that you do everyday?

Aren’t you better in your game compared to most other people on the planet?

And is it not because you practice your game, you train your skills, almost every single day?

Routine is what makes a champion a champion. Consistency is the key to mastery. And therefore, if you want to be a champion, you got have your own routine.

The End Of The Day Routine

Today’s practice is champion’s end of the day routine.

Today’s practice is divided into three parts.

Step 1: This step is for about 10 minutes while sitting with closed eyes.

Step 2: This step is about 5 minutes with open eyes while you make some notes.

Step 3: Guided Practice while you are in bed, the last thing before you sleep…which is a guided practice for about 14 minutes.

IMPORTANT: You don’t have to do all the steps together. You can do step 1, then do some other activity. Then step 2, and then some other activities and finally step 3 just before you sleep. It is important to do all 3 steps, but they can be done separately during an evening.

Step 1: Digesting The Day’s Experiences

For this practice, sit relaxed, yet alert.

Here is a list of some questions. Read each question, then close your eyes and let the answer come from within.

1. From all the different experiences I had today, which was the most challenging experience of the day and why?

2. What emotions I experienced during that challenging experience? (Now close eyes and allow yourself to fully experience those emotions in your body-mind…how do they feel…how do you experience them in your body-mind…where in body-mind… keep focusing on them for a couple of minutes until their intensity become lesser. )

3. What do I learn about myself, the world and life from today’s challenging experience?

4. What one or two new things I learned today? (It could be new knowledge, some new information, new skill, new technique or just a new insight about life, health, body, mind, how the world works, business, study or anything.)

5. What is one thing that I handled better today than before? (Maybe you handled your emotional reaction better, maybe you were more conscious in your communication with someone, or you just made an amazing move, shot, kick or save in your game.)

6. If I could do something better than what I did today, what it is and how would I like to do it better next time?

7. Do I need to apologise to someone or to myself because I acted in a way that hurt them? If so, when am I gong to do that?

8. Am I ashamed of anything I did today? How does the experience of shame feels like? What is the message my from that shame?

9. Am I ready to digest today’s experiences, learn from them, keep what is important and let go of what is not important?

After getting answers to each of these questions, finally, close your eyes for about a minute and tell your mind…

Is there anything you want me to know about today? Whatever it is, this is the time. I am listening.

Then be alert and listen. If nothing comes up, it is fine. If something comes up, thank your mind.

Now you can move to step 2

Step 2: Create A Better Tomorrow

A lot of stress is unnecessary because it is not caused by situations but by our unpreparedness. Some simple planning and logistics can help us avoid stress and instead, help us focus our energies for more productive things.

Peak performers in any field – be it sports, arts, business or from any other areas, they have more or less clear idea of how they want to use their energies next day.

Therefore this part of the routine is not only important but inevitable.

For this process, initially I recommend to sit with pen and paper / notebook.

Note down the answers to these questions on a piece of paper, in a diary or on a document in your phone or computer.

1. What are three most important things I want to accomplish tomorrow?

2. Then schedule those three things – as if you are scheduling appointments to an important meeting.

3. What is the best way I can spend my morning tomorrow? Doing what? How? Where? With whom?

4. What is the best way I can spend my midday and afternoon tomorrow? Doing what? How? Where? With whom?

5. What is the best way I can spend my evening and night tomorrow? Doing what? How? Where? With whom?

6. What are some of the things I must avoid tomorrow to make sure I am on track?

7. In general, how do I want my day to be tomorrow and what can I do to ensure that my day goes as I want it to?

With this step done, you’re ready for the final step that can be done whenever you are ready to sleep.

*** If you want to use a pdf worksheet for this practice, which you can print and fill in your answers, then write in the comment’s section ‘I want the worksheet’. You will receive the worksheet in your email.

Step 3: Guided Practice

Remember, this is the last thing you do before sleep…it is even possible that you might enter sleep while doing this practice. So go and complete anything else if you haven’t yet that you need to do.