What the Heck is Hypnosis?
June 23, 2008 at 3:47 pm | Posted in Mental Training, Sports Performance, Sports Psychology | Leave a commentTags: Hypnosis, trance
Hypnosis is an odd word – it came into existence as a shortening
of James Braid’s 19th Century term “neuro-hypnotism.” The root
of the word is from the Greek “hypnos,” meaning “sleep,” but has
little to do with the state we know as sleep. Hypnosis is in fact a
deep state of relaxation, during which the subject has released
tensions and worries of everyday life, and can focus their will and
concentration in a way that is usually impossible.
As far back as ancient Egypt, people have been using hypnosis
for healing. In Egypt, India, and Greece, there were places known
as “sleep temples,” where those suffering from physical and
psychological ailments could go to experience ritual healing.
Usually, they would gather in a large chamber, and sacred
chanting and dance were used to induce a hypnotic state, during
which the sufferers were more open to the suggestions of their
physicians.
In the modern world, it is easy to dismiss hypnosis, as most of us
are familiar with it only in the context of the entertaining stage
shows. However, hypnosis can be very useful in treating a variety
of ailments, from anxiety to compulsive behaviors to the treatment
of chronic pain. The British Medical Association and the American
Medical Association have both endorsed hypnosis as an effective
treatment as anesthetic and for psycho-somatic disorders and
neuroses, in 1955 and 1958 respectively.
We’ve come a long way since sleep temples – hypnosis is now
used as a remedy for a variety of problems, from smoking
cessation to dealing with asthma and irritable bowel syndrome.
Even Sigmund Freud was an enthusiastic supporter of hypnosis
as a tool to assist his patients with analysis – however, because of
the rather small number of hypnosis practitioners at the time, he
abandoned his work with the technique. In 1919, he wrote “It is
very probable, too, that the application of our therapy to numbers
will compel us to alloy the pure gold of analysis plentifully with the
copper of direct suggestion [hypnosis].”
A 2003 study completed in Germany gives us even more reason
to believe in the efficacy of hypnosis in treating health issues. It
showed that in a meta-analysis of a group of 57 studies
completed on the usefulness of hypnosis, at least 64% of those
treated achieved success towards their goal as compared to 37%
of those who tried to do it without hypnosis. Even more
surprising, when an additional 76 studies on hypnosis were
included, it was found that an astonishing 74% of those treated
were successful, while only 27% of those who were untreated
achieved success.
Hypnosis is a powerful and effective tool in dealing with a wide
variety of ailments, neuroses, and conditions. The research backs
up these claims. Looking at all the evidence, it seems that it
would be wise for the modern world to reevaluate our views on
hypnosis and start using it to better our lives.
Until then…Peak into Your Future,
Coach Jim Guerci
Do Superstitions Get In The Way?
June 18, 2007 at 12:36 pm | Posted in Golf, Mental Training, Sports, Sports Performance, Sports Psychology | 4 CommentsTags: athletes, superstitions
Athletes by nature are very superstitious. They can tell you about their lucky socks, special shorts or shirt. The items they have are countless. The other things are what they do. It might be how they tie their sneakers, get ready before competition, or they things they say before competing. It seems that athletes dabble in the mystical arts, doesn’t it? Shakespeare wrote: “Nothing is good or bad lest we make it so.” The same applies to our lucky charms and rituals. We create our own meaning out of the most significant and insignificant things. Our tendency is to generalize, distort or delete information in a way that will serve us or not serve us.
There is a technical term for these things. One is called the placebo effect. We may have some idea what this is. The term is translated roughly meaning, to placate or appease. The placebo effect is commonly known in regards to medicine and their trials. One group is given some type of medicine while the other group, the control group, receives a placebo (sugar pill). It has been found in some studies that the placebo group ended up equal if not better than people in the testing group. Now why is that? Good question grasshopper. The reason is that we give it meaning, our subconscious takes it in, and our bodies are transformed. It is essentially a belief pattern. The same is true for athletes and their lucky charms. Athletes place the belief in the item and things begin to happen. It’s not really that mysterious.
I remember in the movie, “Practical Magic” the lead, Aidan Quinn is shot in the heart but does not die. The reason he doesn’t die or even get hurt is that he has his policeman’s badge there. He believed that the badge gave him power; it also seemed to give him life. Do you know any athlete that feels invincible because of their lucky charm?
Another facet of this is the ritual. They will chant, tie their shoes, say a prayer, warm up a certain way. All athletes will have certain rituals that they must follow. Why you might ask…because they say so. They claim that if they don’t do it that all will be lost. Many times they are correct, but why?At one end of the scope is the nocebo effect (Latin nocebo = “I will harm”). This is the opposite of the placebo effect. The body fights itself. In a study with clinically depressed people, they found that their cells attacked one another. The results of the nocebo effect can be devastating, even resulting in death. I remember a story of two women. One woman was given the diagnosis of a heart murmur, which is not a serious heart condition. Another woman was given the diagnosis of a galloping rhythm, which is a serious heart condition. The one woman who was given the diagnosis of a heart murmur subsequently panicked and died from a massive heart attack. The other woman, on the other hand, lived well into her eighties. When this woman was asked why she able to live so long she replied, “Because the doctors told me my heart was as healthy as a horse.” She interpreted that a galloping rythym was something good and she reaped the rewards.The key is the interpretation of information given. We create the meaning no matter what it is.
Our filters are geared to see the good or the bad, the beautiful or the ugly, the opportunities or limitations. Again, this life is our story. Let’s create the story in our favor. Can you imagine the placebo effect on our lives? How would your life look if your life story were told in your favor rather than the critiques point of view? If you are facing a challenge, what good meaning can you take from the experience? We are a culmination of our experiences. Perhaps we struggle to find the meaning, but life has a beautiful way of coming full circle. We become the supporters of someone in the future who face the same things we did years earlier.
We have what I call “X-Ray vision” because we have the ability to see right through them and help them as human beings. These moments connect us to the people and the events around us. The moment becomes richer and in turn, we become richer.
Until then…
Kick butt and be a champion!
Coach Guerci
Are The Voices In Your Head Coaching or Catastophic?
June 17, 2007 at 10:37 pm | Posted in Golf, Mental Training, Sports, Sports Performance, Sports Psychology | Leave a commentTags: athletic performance, Confidence, good luck
All the athletes who I’ve coached come to me with their problems with athletic performance. They act as if they forgot how to compete. They use such phrases as I used to, I can’t, I don’t know if I can, and the big one…I forgot how to. In dealing with athletes and clients, I closely listen to the words they use. People are constantly communicating with you. Most of the communication is so subtle while other communication is so blatant and so obvious that we miss it. I’ve trained myself for an extraordinary heightened awareness. It takes some training, but with our wonderful ability to create a habit, I’ve been able to do it. I love to teach anyone how to do it. I can sum it up in one word…decision. I will get into that in some later post.
Getting back to communication using words being our flags and highlights which we often mix. People’s words get lost in the buzz of society, media, and our own thoughts. When you focus on the communication, it expands to extremely revealing ways. Above, I mentioned the athlete killing phrases my athletes and clients use. Look back at them for a moment. Now, I have to give you the inside scoop about words. I have learned that our human history harkens back to a time of magic, wizards, and enchantment. There are the paraphernalia of these people of power and we all know them because it’s a part of our mythological history which we tend to push off as fanciful and just stories. The items of power are the wand, the spells, incantations, and curses along with the talismans and lucky charms to ward off evil. These things are still alive and well in modern society. Now they are not hidden in some secret enclave or secret societies. They are right in front of our eyes and we can’t see it. That’s because we are in a spell too. Do I have your interest peaked?
I’ll break it down to a less “out there” terms. Let’s ground it. There are the phrases that we repeat over and over that cause major breakthroughs and breakdowns as an athlete. Anything we repeat over and over has to engrain itself in our subconscious mind where we unconsciously act upon the thought. I believe the last statistic in regards to how many times a thought goes through your mind it 100,000 times. Hey, if someone is repeating something that many times to me, I’m believing it. It kind of sounds like brain washing or mind control. Well, it is, however, we relegate the power outside ourselves when the power lies within all of us.
We provide our own mental nutrition, look for others outside ourselves to confirm that thought, and then provide evidence in our performance. Remember me mentioning about magic wands, well that thing is right inside our mouths. We wag our tongues using spells that we have picked up along the way. The spells and incantations mesmerize and encompass our minds. We are quite literally entranced by our own words. We speak, think and act on these words daily. Since understanding this, I have instructed my athletes and clients to be vigilant guards to their minds, only letting in what will help them because that support will be repeated over and over. An athlete’s mental nutrition is of utmost importance. Some athletes watch every morsel that enters their bodies, but allow their minds to host an open house in each interaction.
Other high performing athletes are accused of single mindedness. These are the athletes who are munching on high octane thoughts, thoughts which catapult them to the highest ranks and accolades. So our mythology shows us that we are the wizards casting the spells upon ourselves. I won’t get into what we do to each other. I will save that for another posting. We use the wands, words, and charms to help us or hurt us. The unbelievable fact is that we make up the story. We create all the characters, situations, dramas, the rises, the falls; it’s all made up by us. Let’s start telling us a different story, one that makes us legends in our own minds. Until then, our subconscious mind can only follow through with the dominant thought. What’s dominating your thoughts…victory and the agony of defeat?
Until then…
Kick butt and be a champion!
Coach Jim Guerci
How Does One Become A Sports Performance Coach?
June 16, 2007 at 1:50 am | Posted in Mental Training, Sports Performance, Sports Psychology | 1 CommentTags: Sport Perfomance
Anticipating the birth of anything new brings on a bit of anxiety wanting everything to be just right. And so, I begin my journey in the world of blogging. Being the perfectionist that I am, I thought everything in life needed to be scripted. This is glaringly no so. I remember a quote that someone told me. They said, “If you want to make God laugh, show him your plans.” The words are simple and profound for a guy who plans out his life, sets goals, and achieves most of them. The quote is not to discourage you, but to let you know that there are things in life that are outside your circle of control. I’ve found that the little detours in life, if approached with an open mind, can lead to much bigger things where we can expand beyond who we are today.
I will be communicating with you via this blog to give you some insights in the world of athletic coaching and personal achievement. Please understand that I am a coach that centers his attention on the mental aspects of competing and achieving. I’m not a teacher of athletic technique, rather I am a teacher of mental technique. As long as I’ve taught and coached, I’ve seen great athletes perform consistently at their worst and mediocre athletes transform themselves into consistent high achievers. This paradox has been my passion and I have studied it for years. The last few years have been a culmination of my learning. Using the principles I use to coach athletes, I’ve turned it around to help myself. Currently, I’m way beyond my comfort zone, but that is such a good thing because I’m getting used to it and I am now willing to push myself even further.
Last year, 2006, I term as the perfect storm. During that year, I turned 40, my wife’s dad died suddenly, followed by my dad a week later. Now my dad’s death was not a surprise; he was sick with cancer and began to slip quickly in the beginning of the year. Every morning and evening, I would head to his house to give him his insulin shot and other medication. While holding a fulltime job and a family of my own, it was challenging to say the least. However, it was the most rewarding time of my life.
To give you some background, my dad and I had the typical argumentative relationship through my teens and early twenties. Miraculously, he “grew up” after I got married and started a family of my own. He became my best friend, something I thought could never happen. We would share so many great times together.
Well, as life would have it, he steadily became sick with prostate cancer, even though he had it under control for over 10 years. The beginning of the year started the roller coaster with trips back and forth from the hospital. That’s when I began helping him prepare to die. It sounds so heart-wrenching, but it wasn’t. It was an intense time of friendship. He shared his stories of being a cop, an agent in the government, and of being a human being who happened to be my dad. I shared the stories of my life; experiences of being a dad, coach and teacher. I would never think that our relationship could be any closer, but it became just that.
Towards late March, his health was failing further. I saw a strong man’s body transformed into something indescribably weaker. However, paradoxically, his spirit grew and became more magnificent every day. As I came over with my typical coffee and doughnut, I took care of his medical business for the day, he asked me to stop for a moment. I was caught off guard since I can be a very on task kind of guy, breaking my routines can really throw me off. He asked me to sit down and just listen to what he had to say. He told me that he was a dad and cop during his life, that he hoped to change peoples lives through the way he carried himself everyday. He went on to say how very different I was in this world, something he always struggled to understand. He said now he understood. He said, “You have a great gift inside you, a gift of raising others to their greatest self. I’ve watched you do it in your classroom, when you coach, and how you take care of your family. There are so many people who you have helped realize the potential within themselves. However, you hold back because of what others might think. It’s time to let that go and play all out, like any great game. You’ve got to share this great gift and the heck with what others have to say, base what you do on results; the results will open their minds.” Talk about your breath being taken away and slapped across the face with reality; and he did it with the most loving and kind words. I thanked him and moved throughout the next few days in a complete haze. It was as if I was given a tremendous download that was now installing.
Two weeks later, I made my typical morning journey to his house. My brother Bill stayed the night to help out. After giving him his medications he kicked my brother and I out of the house. He said, “You have families and a life to attend to, get out, I’ll be fine.” Later that morning he died. It’s as if he knew this was his time.
The journey began on that day. I have committed myself to helping others achieve to their greatest potential. I play all out every day. I have studied and honed my skills and bring it freely and willingly to every student, every athlete, and every person who is open to the experience. What I have learned, I have field tested. It’s not so “out there” but it does take an open mind. Remember, I’m the son of a cop…I’ve got to see results. My blog will serve as an area where I can share and educate.
All the skills I teach are not confined to the arena of sports, but they are true skills and strategies in the arena of life. As a tribute to my dad, I bring this to you.
So welcome, knowing me will certainly change your life as knowing you will certainly change mine.
Until then…Peak Into Your Future!
~Coach Jim Guerci
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