Archived Newsletters - KNOW HOW TO OPERATE YOUR GOLFING MIND :
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Newsletter August 2024
Your mind has two main parts: the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.
To use a metaphor, your mind is like an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg that's visible above the water represents the conscious mind, which is made up of the mental processes and sensations that you're aware of. The larger part of the iceberg that's hidden beneath the water represents the unconscious mind. About 95% of our thoughts, feelings, and memories are thought to live in the subconscious, while the conscious is only 5%. This means that most of what we think and perceive about life is largely hidden from us, and we have no real control over it.
The Conscious Mind
You are in your conscious mind right now as you are reading this. It is where you probably spend most of your time during the waking day. This is the reading, writing, arithmetic part of your mind that you use to rationalize, analyze, criticize and make judgments to solve your everyday problems. The conscious mind is a vast array of electrical currents of your thoughts which are activated by your intellect and ego. A good analogy would be that your conscious mind is like Spock on the old TV show Star Trek. Spock was a very logical, analytical, non-emotional person.
On the golf course you look at your situation, analyze it and consciously figure out a way to hit your shot. You make hundreds of decisions about club selection, weather conditions, distances, course conditions, and so on. But if you stay in this part of your mind to swing the golf club, you can overthink and be paralyzed by analysis.
This conscious part of your mind that criticizes and judges your performance usually moves you away from your goal. Golfers think in terms of good and bad shots and right and wrong ways to swing the club. This kind of thinking gets you bogged down in negativity, spending your energy on what is wrong. You can then become motivated from a place of fear, of not being good enough. Instead, you need to trust your feelings, visualization, imagery and senses for feedback.
After completing a shot, the conscious mind rationalizes the outcome to give us a reason why we performed the way we did. Golfers will blame many different outside interferences for why they mishit a shot. The problem with this kind of thinking is that it is never original. You just repeat something you have heard from someone else and use it as an excuse. The truth is you missed the shot because you accessed a certain program that is running in your subconscious.
We are all familiar with will power which is a part of your conscious mind. It doesn't last. When you are on the practice range hitting the ball well and you say to yourself, "I am really going to play well today". How long do you think that will last? How long do you think it will be before your will power weakens and you sabotage your performance with old habit patterns after you miss a few shots or putts?
Your conscious mind is only capable of what we call a working memory. It can only access the memory that we need every day to function in the world. Where we really live is in the level below the conscious mind, which is called the subconscious mind.
The Subconscious Mind
The subconscious mind doesn't think or reason independently. It simply obeys the commands it receives from the conscious mind. It stores emotional memories and patterns that can be triggered by current experiences causing emotions without you consciously understanding why.
Have you ever thought you had done all the mental and physical preparation perfectly and then mishit your golf shot? Did you blame your swing and attempt to fix it? Because your subconscious mind is in control, it can sabotage your best effort. If you want to change the mental programs you're running, the subconscious mind is where you will need to focus.
When you first started to learn to play golf, you used your conscious mind to learn the basics. It took understanding, thinking and practice of the different skills. In time, the skills became habitual and stored as a part of your subconscious programming. This is the process you used to learn everyday skills such as walking, writing, eating, tying your shoelaces, typing, or driving a car. Through repetition they have become your habitual programs. Up to 40% of your behavior is habitual.
Your subconscious mind is your personal computer for creating what you desire in your golf game and in your life. When you were born, your subconscious mind was basically software free except for the functions to run your physical body. Every day when you practice or play, you add information gathered through your thoughts and senses to be stored in your internal computer. These programs are now producing the results in your golf game. The subconscious mind makes us into the type of golfer that it perceived us to be based on the programming that has been put into it.
Your subconscious programs are responsible for your successes and failures. It does not matter if the subconscious believes it to be true. It can only operate on the programming that it has been given. If you consistently think and act as if you are successful, then you will develop a subconscious program that expects success and will make it happen.
Know that every day you create programs in your subconscious mind by your thoughts. This part of your mind does not analyze or judge. It accepts literally what you believe to be true without questioning it. It performs like your computer, GIGO, garbage in, garbage out.
Where you really live is in the larger, hidden, subconscious part where your permanent memory is stored. Use the creative imaginative part of your subconscious mind to create programs to be confident, focused, performing successfully every time you think of yourself playing golf. Create a "bounce back" golf mindset program for yourself today by imagining, visualizing, meditating constantly on successfully accessing your potential.
Play "in the zone" with Joan
Entrain Your Heart & Mind for Peak Performances
To train your brain for improving and trusting your game, listen to the Positive Mental Imagery self-empowering guided imagery self-hypnosis CDs/MP3s in the privacy of your own home. Eight different empowerment audios are available at www.pmi4.com/cart
One-on-one coaching: Call +1-828.707.5478 or contact Joan by email pmi4@bellsouth.net for a free consultation to learn about mental golf in person, or worldwide by phone. Learn what is missing in your game so you can achieve your peak performances.
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"THE HEART OF GOLF, Access Your Supreme Intelligence for Peak Performances" explores and explains negative emotions such as fear and performance anxiety, the four Cs of mind blockage, the four progressive stages of learning the supreme intelligence of the heart, and the way to access the zone in competition. It is a player's guide for developing your true inner self by returning to the joy and love of self instead of seeking praise and rewards from the outside world. This guidebook for transforming your life and golf game is available at https://amzn.to/3jEMVuv All royalties will be donated to junior golf.
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