I read something the other day that said only 30-50% of people have an inner dialogue running in their head. I was flabbergasted to read that! I believed EVERYONE has that incessant inner voice droning non-stop just like I used to have.
9 years ago I was introduced to this sport with a funny name called pickleball. All it took was one time playing in our driveway with the neighbors and I was hooked. I quickly became addicted and had to get my fix every day if possible. By the time I was 50 I was playing in tournaments around the country. I remember my very first tournament I was so nervous my hands were shaking. At times I was so crippled by my inner dialogue I had trouble simply hitting the ball over the net. I definitely did not play up to my potential and was disappointed in my performance.
A few years went by and the self-talk continued to plague me. I successfully medaled in many tournaments and also tanked in others. I would wonder to myself: how can I keep this disruptive part of my brain from ruining my performance and peace of mind? I remember thinking “This sport is supposed to be fun, not a punishment!”
Anyone who has ever had the “yips” (inability to get your serve in play after having done this correctly hundreds of times before) will tell you that it is truly debilitating. All it takes is for you to miss your serve one or two times during a critical time in a game. Then, next time it is your turn to serve, your inner voice keeps repeating “you’d better not miss it like you did last time!” The brain is remembering that past negative experience and expecting it to happen again in the future. So once you are put in that same situation again, the brain starts expecting the worst. The subconscious loves to put past events on a repeating loop until it’s reconciled.
The reason this occurs is that when we have an emotionally charged event (missing our serve or other shot at a critical time), it is stored in our subconscious for future reference. This often triggers a dominance of one side of the brain over the other side and this neural pathway gets reinforced more as we keep believing it’s going to re-occur. That neural pathway gets stronger and stronger…until we do something about it! I knew I had to get my inner voice under control or it would end my competitive pickleball playing days.
Enter PSYCH-K®! I believed when I signed up to take my first PSYCH-K® Basic Workshop that I might be learning how to say good riddance to my negative self-talk; that roommate that no one wants to live with. And I was right! You see our beliefs create our reality. When we believe that we’re going to miss that serve or hit a bad shot, our subconscious is creating that reality over and over again. When we use PSYCH-K® Balances to create a Whole Brain State, we are re-scripting those limiting beliefs into self-empowering beliefs! This allows both hemispheres of the brain to work together in a state of coherency and open new neural pathways that generate positive results that we choose!
Of course these emotionally charged events don’t just happen in pickleball or performance in general…they happen in life! Maybe you gave an embarrassing speech at a speaking engagement and this has left you petrified to speak in public ever again. Or maybe you were told some bad news right after hearing the phone ring and now you are scared that every time you hear a phone ring you will receive bad news again. It’s all the same-it’s those emotionally charged events getting stored in our subconscious for future reference.
PSYCH-K® has been a literal game changer for me and there’s no limit to the things we can create a Whole-Brained State for! When we reach this state, we are operating at our full potential.
Change your subconscious beliefs and transform your life! Let the real YOU shine through!