Reflections, Reflections

Very nice article by By Michelle Cleere, Sports Psychology Consultant:

One of the female triathlete's I was working with for a period of time was dealing with several challenging issues, but the most difficult issue for this athlete, as is true for many athletes, was her "negative self talk". Negative self talk is concerned with all the negative things we say to ourselves, the thoughts we have about ourselves and what we say to others about our performance.

Back to my athlete: after becoming aware that a negative thought process was an issue for this athlete, we decided it might be a good idea for her to keep a journal of her thoughts so she could become more aware, more conscious of how she was talking to herself about her training and how her body responded to that.

The following week she brought her journal in and we went through it together. There were numerous negative thoughts going on for this athlete that she was not at all aware of and was actually a bit surprised by. As we continued to talk I asked her to do an exercise with me. How about instead of saying [for example], running is hard and I hate it (because she was going to run regardless), how about saying something more positive like, a) running can make me healthy and I feel better as a healthy person b) running allows me to have time for myself and I need time to myself c) running is freeing or d) running is fun if…

So, I asked her to make a list of some of the negative things in her journal and we worked together to come up with a complimentary list of positive thoughts that make sense and are personal to her. She came up with some very good thoughts, but as we talked about the exercise and replacing negative thoughts with positive thoughts, she wasn't sure she could actually do it.

Not every counselor that deals with negative thinking problems ensures that the person think of positive things that actually make sense to that particular person. It's no use saying, "Just think positive!" if the positive ideas are completely unrealistic and impossible in a particular context. Which is not the same as someone thinking something possible is impossible as a consequence of their negative thinking.

And look what a cool exercise to help people become aware of their negative thinking:

For one full day, take a handful of paperclips and put them in your left pocket. Every time you say something negative you are going to take a paperclip from your left pocket and place it in your right pocket. At the end of the day count the paperclips in your right pocket. Why? First, you are going to be aware of the paperclips throughout the day which will make you more conscious of your thoughts. Second, this exercise will help you to become aware of how much negative thinking you are using. Third, thinking about how many paperclips were transferred from left to right will give you a rare opportunity for growth and reflection.

You know what I just thought? For people who are already aware of their negative thinking issues, you can do a variation on the above: keep count of every positive thought and every negative thought for a day. Tally up the score and see which side is winning. Hopefully, the positive, by a landslide. :-) Even if not, it can give you a measure to set up goals.

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