People who are serious about their sport are determined to find anything that will give them an edge over their competition, as well as help them perform at their best. Self-Hypnosis and imagery are being used by many of these athletes to improve their performance.

While some regard hypnosis as some mystical or magical form of mind control, it is actually a genuine psychological tool, which has been proven to be highly effective in bringing about positive change while developing new habits and behaviors. I have worked with many athletes from all sports and have seen them achieve incredible gains in their personal performance.

Since the unconscious mind is really the driving force between most of our beliefs and behaviors, it makes sense that a technique, which elicits change at the unconscious level, can be highly effective. Self-Hypnosis can help you overcome issues of self-doubt, which may be keeping you from moving to the next level. It can help you hone skills, fine-tune a technique like descending at speed, and have a level of self-belief and confidence, which will enable you to excel beyond what you may have previously thought possible.

Self-Hypnosis can also help you acquire the intense focus required to be at the top in your sport. It is a brilliant tool to use if you want to overcome performance anxiety or pre-event jitters which can make the difference between winning a gold medal and coming in 6th place.

As a triathlete or cyclist you should visualise yourself in your event as you want it to go. By using imagery or visualisation, you are conditioning your mind and your body to carry out the movements in reality just as they have performed them hundreds of times in your mind. It works very simply - your nervous system cannot tell the difference between what you vividly imagine and reality. This can be seen if you are lying in bed at 3 in the morning and you hear something outside that you believe to be someone breaking into your car. Your heart rate increases, your breathing rate gets rapid and the muscles tense up. Even if it is a cat on a bin if you believe it to be what you imagine your body is reacting to that stimulus !!

Even if you are not training for the Olympics or competing as a professional athlete, hypnosis can help you attain higher levels of performance. You can work with a hypnotherapist, listen to hypnosis CDs or learn various self-hypnosis techniques such as those mentioned earlier. You may find your performance improving much more than you thought possible!

Find out more about Self-hypnosis and Imagery with Alan Heary :

Alan is running workshops : "Learn Self-Hypnosis and Advanced Imagery for Sport" (2014)