A Journey Through Movement Towards Stillness
Our lives have become synonymous with depending on screens for work and leisure, and on cars for getting us around. Stress and anxiety engulf us. Ultimately, we seek movement, through exercise and physical activity, to reduce the ensuing sedentary lifestyle, and build stillness in our lives. From exercise and physical activity being organically in our lifestyles, to now scheduling time in our routines to build fitness. The one thing that has not changed is the potential of exercise and physical activity – to bring clarity, confidence, and calmness in our lives.
Mental training equips exercisers with psychological resources to explore their inner strengths and capitalize on them to feel calm, confident, and focused – whether that is during workout sessions or competitions.
Exercise psychology, through the implementation of diverse mental strategies and resources, living and thinking perspectives, and the creation of an effective and sustained professional relationship with the Mental Performance Coach, guides fitness enthusiasts to achieve mastery of mental skills such as awareness, confidence, concentration, motivation, managing competitive pressures and reducing stress and anxiety.
Purpose of Exercise Psychology
Mental training guides you to achieve stillness in your fitness journey – unwavering calmness and focus to perform to your potential. The best performances emerge from a state of being, not thinking. Absolutely being in the present, spontaneity, supreme confidence, and enjoyment converge to create great workouts. The ‘I’ dissolves and what remains is the performance. Adaptability comes with realizing you are much more than your mind. Becoming confident, composed, and determined in your pursuit of a physically active lifestyle takes practice, patience, and perseverance – mental training guides you on this journey.
The purpose of exercise psychology is two-fold:
Reactive Pathway
You may have experienced some psychological barriers that may have made your fitness journey challenging.
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Lack of motivation and discipline to follow a fitness program
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Lack of confidence
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Finding exercise to be overwhelming and complicated
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Stagnating or slow progress
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Unhelpful focus – solely on parameters, results, or fellow exercisers/competitors
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Strong dislike and/or fear associated with fitness – unhelpful attitudes, past negative experiences
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External and internal pressures to become fit
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Getting distracted by fleeting trends without an actual fitness program
Integrating mental training when facing psychological barriers will boost your confidence and other mental skills by reducing the burden experienced during workout sessions and competitions and equip you to perform to your potential.
Proactive Pathway
When you are performing positively, making mental training a habit will support you to capitalize on the momentum by identifying the psychological strengths that contributed to your past success and to work on vital psychological areas for improvement for personal growth and achieving excellence in your fitness journey.
Key Psychological Areas
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Building Awareness
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Nurturing Confidence
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Improving Concentration and Focus
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Managing Pressure and Stress
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Coping with Anxiety
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Increasing Motivation and Enjoyment
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Developing Group Values and Culture
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Developing Mindfulness
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Buliding Mental Routines
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Setting goals
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Managing Emotions
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Coping with Exercise Post Injury or Illness
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Guiding Vision
Develop an effective professional relationship with exercisers.
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Work across the spectrum of Mental Training:
Awareness – Learning the purpose and benefits of mental training
Acceptance – Realizing and accepting the value of mental training
Action – Beginning proactive mental training application
Habit – Integrating mental training in a routine
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Prepare a strength-based personalized mental training framework to teach skills such as breathing and relaxation, self-talk, visualization, journaling and more.
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Support exercisers to identify and create an open-minded performance mindset to develop a deeper understanding of themselves and their physically active lifestyles.
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Encourage individuals to transfer mental training skills and knowledge beyond exercise contexts – education, work, and life.
The pursuit of excellence is a collective endeavour
I would love to be a part of your fitness journey. Let’s connect to discuss how I can best support you/your group towards meeting your goals.
Schedule a Free 30-minute Initial Consultation.