MASTER THE MIND - Self Hypnosis for Martial Artists Part 2

In part one of this article we listed the ingredients of what constitutes self-hypnosis and how the use of this valuable tool can improve your performance as a martial artist. In this installment we will cover some advanced concepts such as deepening your experience of trance, applying positive internal dialogue and anchoring altered states of consciousness into your body. This information will provide you with many opportunities for self discovery and more importantly put you on the path to self mastery.

 

Deepening techniques

 

There are many methods of deepening the trance experience. The reason for deepening a trance state is for the purpose of experience and utilizing the more profound states of consciousness like the Theta and Delta states. As mentioned in Part 1, these states provide some very useful and highly beneficial properties. One of the simplest ways of dramatically increasing feelings of relaxation and dissociation is by progressively relaxing the body muscle by muscle. This is done by first noting how your body feels and identifying any areas of stress or tension. You then begin the process by progressively clenching then relaxing areas like your eyes, jaw, neck, arms, stomach etc. After each part has been clenched and relaxed, mentally acknowledge the difference in sensation. By accentuating the feeling of tension it becomes easier to recognize and accept how relaxed the body has become as you have provided yourself with a comparison.

Once a satisfactory level of relaxation has been achieved, the use of imagery can then be applied to further deepen the process. Imagining you are walking down a flight of 10 steps is a simple and direct way of increasing depth. As you proceed to take each step, count down from ten to one, with one representing the deepest level you are capable of reaching in that session. After each count it is possible to reinforce the desire to go deeper by repeating “deeper and deeper”, “more relaxed”, “deeper down” or words to that effect. When you have reached the bottom of the stairs you can then begin to program your mind with imagery, feelings, sounds and positive internal dialogue.

 

Positive Internal Dialogue

 

When engaged in the use of self hypnosis what we say to ourselves affects the associations the subconscious mind creates. As mentioned in part 1, the language of the mind primarily consists of images, feelings and sounds. The subconscious is very adept at creating these associations and will create a stream of information to compliment any internal dialogue. It is therefore extremely important that we use the right kind of language in order to create the types of associations we want the subconscious mind to produce. When involved in a mild to deep trance state our conscious mind’s abilty to screen information is significantly reduced. Using language describing what we don’t want to experience will send the subconscious on a mission to manifest it. The mind being associative has no capacity to remove something from thought. All it is capable of doing is create, create and create some more. Telling yourself in a state of self-hypnosis “I don’t want to be scared at my next tournament/grading” will conjure up images, feelings and sounds associated with you being scared at each tournament or grading you have previously been in. Conversely, making a positive statement such as “ I will feel confident and relaxed from now on at each and every tournament/grading” is likely to create a completely different outcome in the future.

The important steps in ensuring you use positive language in your sessions are:

1. Identify your outcome and the types of things you want to see, feel and hear.

2. Make a positive statement about how you are going to achieve that goal incorporating the sensory based information.

3. Set the time frame from now.

If you follow the above guidelines then you will be identifying for yourself what you are moving towards in your life, which is very different from knowing what it is you are running away from. You will be charting a course of action and identifying with the achievement of completing your goal. Making the language present tense by including words like “from now on” spurs your mind into action NOW. From this moment on, remember that tomorrow never comes and your mind knows no difference between future and past events.

 

Hard wiring your physiology

 

In martial arts there are many examples of mind over matter. Ancient and modern masters have consistently demonstrated throughout the centuries that we are more than we think we are and have demonstrated some amazing physical feats in the process. In most instances the use of a trance state was applied in order to go beyond what the practitioner might consciously consider to be “impossible”. In accessing some of these supra-normal states of awareness in training, they learned to integrate the desired “state” into their body for later use. Tai Chi, Kata, Yoga mudras, Ninjutsu Kuji Kiri and Buddhist Mikkyo meditations can and have been used to link desired emotional/mental states to peoples physiology. The anchoring of an altered state can be easily achieved through the use of bodily positions whilst engaged in trance. An example of this is the stereo-typical image of a yoga practitoner meditating in the lotus position with the legs crossed, feet resting up on the thighs, index fingers and thumbs touching each other and the palms facing the sky. Disregarding the esoteric and energetic reasons for this position being used, it is a classic example of using a highly specific body position to anchor a trance state. As the practitioner continues to use and strengthen the association of meditation with the Lotus position, the ability to go into a meditative state becomes stronger and faster. A modern and highly prevalent use of anchoring an altered state into one’s physiology is the use of a clenched fist pumping the air in triumph. If you happen to watch tennis and see a player win a crucial point then you will see this principle in action. Notice how after the clenched fist action they seem to rise up to a new level with more focus, energy, aggression and determination? The Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt, is a great example of a sports person who uses this technique regularly to psyche himself up.

In a Martial Arts context there are many ways to anchor a desired mental/emotional state, you can connect your fingers like a yoga practioner, hold your hands in front of your navel or even put your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Whatever you choose as the anchor for accessing your chosen state make sure you only use it when you are going to access that specific state, otherwise you will create too many associations with that action and the outcome is likely to be dissapointing. Always keep in mind that this is a direct physiological link to your subconscious mind. You are in a loose kind of way doing something similar to hard wiring this connection into your body and creating new neural pathways. If you wish to anchor a different state for later application then use a different technique to anchor it.

Anchoring altered states such as relaxation, anaesthesia, alertness or aggression can be very useful for the martial artist. Some readers may have looked at the last sentence and wondered why anchoring aggression would be useful for a martial artist? For a moment, lets imagine you are walking along the street and for no apparent reason you are confronted by an assailant. Your initial reaction is likely to be shock, once adrenaline kicks in you are well and truly into the flight or fight response. Your mouth goes dry, your arms and legs feel like lead, your heart is about to burst through your chest and you breathe in rapid shallow breaths, your hands and body shake with nervous energy amongst many other physiological and psychological responses. Now, unless you have been confronted on numerous occassions and are used to it, this state can inhibit you from performing what you have been taught within a safe and controlled class environment. The flight or fight response is an altered state of consciousness that is not commonly used as a teaching tool in most martial art schools and people respond in unique ways when exposed to it. Hence, being able to anchor aggression (a far more familiar state than the flight or fight response) into a natural movement comprising of clenching the fists to punch coupled with the lowering of the chin and curving of the back into a c-shape, may change the state you are in and enable you to respond at 100% of your ability. A much overlooked aspect of training for a potential conflict situation is the concept of state dependent memory. This basically means the state you learn in is the state you will be able to recall the information in. Training half heartedly with minimal attention to technique and form is anchoring the wrong kind of response in to your physiology and consciousness. Under the stressful conditions of a life or death confrontation is this the state you would want to draw upon? If you approach your training with the perspective of intentionally hard wiring your physiology with every block, punch, kick, body movement, posture or stance then being mindful of the mental/emotional state you train in takes on a whole new dimension. Furthermore applying self hypnosis to the anchoring process takes it to an even greater level.

 

Conclusion

The use of self hypnosis to achieve improved levels of performance, accelerated recuperation and mental clarity are within reach of the average person. Elite sports people have been using these techniques with great success and so can you. Applying the information contained in this article with the diligence and commitment you apply to other areas of your martial arts training will pay you dividends in all areas of your life. It may also provide you with greater insight into some of the esoteric aspects of the martial arts and unlock components of your training that have previously been dormant.

 

 

 

 

© 2005 Paul Mischel

MASTER THE MIND - Self Hypnosis for Martial Artists Part 1

 

Have you ever wondered how useful meditation is for your martial arts development? Do you try and meditate but find that it is just too difficult to do? Do you meditate but feel like you are not getting the most out of your sessions? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, then you are going to find the following information very interesting and highly empowering.

Years ago when I commenced my training I was not taught how to meditate. It was incorporated into my traditional karate training but unlike the physical aspect of training we were not given any meditation techniques to practice. During the meditation at the end of class time, I would close my eyes, struggle to remain comfortable in the kneeling position, listen to the breathing of the other students around me and wait patiently for the meditation to end.

Feeling like I was missing something important in my training, I decided to learn more about the use of altered states of consciousness and enrolled in a hypnotherapy course. Through my hypnosis training I began to learn how the mind worked, how to initiate altered states of consciousness, what they felt like and how to use them constructively. I found the straight forward explanations and practical demonstrations learned in my hypnosis training opened up a new dimension of my martial arts training. It is my hope that in writing this article, students and teachers of the martial arts will be able to apply the following information in order to achieve a greater degree of success in their training and their lives.

This article discusses the differences between the conscious and subconscious minds, identifies different levels of awareness, what they feel like, how to harness them and how to put it all together so that you can practice it straight away. Part two will cover more advanced concepts such as anchoring, auto-suggestion and deepening techniques so that you can take your meditation to the next level.

Conscious vs Subconscious

It is important that we first understand the differences between the conscious and subconscious minds. The conscious mind is regarded as the smaller and weaker of the two. It makes value judgments and creates belief systems based upon information that it either accepts or rejects. The conscious mind has predetermined beliefs about what is possible and impossible and is the part of the mind responsible for defining what we would wish to change or improve upon in our training and lives.

The subconscious mind on the other hand is a large store house for emotions, feelings and thoughts. It is unable to make value judgments and can only respond to what it knows. It is incapable of discriminating between good and bad and therefore does what it is told in a very literal fashion regardless of what the outcome may be. The subconscious is the powerhouse that manifests changes in our lives based upon what the conscious mind has directed it to do. An important and often misunderstood difference between the two minds is that the subconscious is unable to discriminate between a real or imagined event. If the imagined event contains sensory information like colours, feelings and sound then it acts as if that event has taken place. A great example of this is to imagine a lemon. Visualize what the soft plump juicy yellow flesh looks like, imagine sniffing the lemon and inhaling the spicy citrus scent, now imagine biting into the lemon and tasting the extremely bitter flesh. If you have imagined this scene well enough, your salivary glands would have increased production in anticipation of this imaginary lemon making contact with your taste buds! The ability of the subconscious to respond to an imaginary event is highly useful in integrating new techniques. For instance, if you have recently been shown a complex Kata or form and you are having difficulty executing it. Repeatedly, visualizing yourself moving through the pattern, performing blocks kicks, punches or throws perfectly will assist you in executing it physically. Incorporating the feeling of performing these techniques correctly with power and control will teach your body how it should feel when executing them. Hearing yourself breathe in on preparation and out on execution will add realism to your imagined event and teach you how to breathe appropriately when applying the Kata. The more realistic this Kata is made by your imagination the faster you will learn it and the better you will perform it.

The Language Of The Mind

The previous Kata example highlights how important it is to communicate with the mind, using it’s language. Dreams are a great example of how the mind communicates and also provides us with a great insight into how we can maximize our meditation. If you are capable of recalling a recent vivid dream or nightmare you had, what were the significant aspects of the dream that you are able to remember? If you remember complex language and dialogue then you would be one of the very few people to do so. Most people primarily remember images, feelings and sounds. Some people may even recall smells and tastes if the dream has been particularly vivid. This is because most communication is non-verbal and we encode our reality by what we can See (Visual), Feel (Kinaesthesia), Hear (Auditory), Taste (Gustation) and Smell (Olfaction). So is it any surprise that our mind attempts to communicate through the channels it uses to experience life?

When engaging in meditation, the 3 primary modes we can use to achieve significant results with are the Visual, Kinaesthetic and Auditory modalities. This is the reason why most hypnosis and guided meditations use language designed to create associations with images, feelings and sounds. Once you identify for yourself which modality you are most comfortable using as a starting point, you should structure your meditation primarily around that channel and gradually add the other modalities. For instance a person who has a preference for the Kinaesthetic (feeling) modality may be able to achieve a profound level of relaxation by imagining their body becoming physically heavy and very relaxed. On the other hand a person who has a preference for the visual modality may find that visualizing each muscle relaxing then encourages and promotes the feeling of physical and mental relaxation. A person who has a preference for the Auditory modality may find that listening to music set to a certain frequency assists them in reaching deep relaxation. Everyone is unique and it requires a degree of experimentation to discover which modality works best for you as an initial entry point for entering into an altered state. Keep in mind, that you engage all of your senses and just because you may have a preference for one over another does not mean that you engage in this modality exclusively and in isolation from the others. Remember that the example of the lemon commenced with visualizing a lemon but ultimately engaged all your senses in the process.

 

States of Consciousness.

To fully appreciate the different levels of awareness you will encounter during your meditation periods. It is important to know what the various levels of consciousness look and feel like so that you are prepared for the changes in your mental and physical state. One of the greatest hindrances in the process of accessing the deeper levels of trance is the conscious mind’s tendency to babble with internal diologue and cast doubts on the sensory information being received from the subconscious mind. It must be stressed that in order to achieve these states of consciousness, the eyelids can be either open or closed. Trance is a state of mind, not a state of eyelids. The use of the void (mind /no mind state) in combat is a classic example in Martial Arts of altered states being used while the eyes are opened.

Beta State: The Beta state is associated with an alert frame of mind. Our conscious minds are capable of making value judgments and we respond to external stimulus quite readily. Our awareness is primarily externally focused but may also at times be internally directed as well. Beta is an ideal state to consciously identify our goals so that our subconscious mind can act upon them in the trance state.

Alpha State: The Alpha state is usually experienced by most people as a type of daydream state in which our awareness is still partially exteriorized but we have turned a greater protion of our attention to our inner world. It is akin to the experience of driving a car during which we respond to road hazards and changes in traffic speed whilst all the time we are focusing a significant portion of our attention on some mental topic of interest. Before we know it, we have arrived at our destination puzzling over the length of the trip and whether we passed significant buildings along the way. The Alpha state is physically characterized by a decrease in breathing and resting heart rate coupled with decreased muscle tone. This state naturally begins to activate shortly after closing the eyes as a result of the mind attempting to fill in the missing sensory input by creating visual images on the inner mental screen. Phenomena associated with this level of awareness is decreased critical analysis, a distortion in the perception of time and possible feelings of heaviness and increased relaxation.

Theta State: The Theta state is often identified during sleep as the level of consciousness where we experience dreams and exhibit Rapid Eye Movement (REM). Our attention is completely focused on our internal reality and critical faculties are operating at a very limited level. People can feel dissociated from their bodies and may experience time and space in a very different manner to the Beta and Alpha states. People often describe this altered state of awareness as being engaged in the NOW. With no preoccupation on the future and no identification with the past, some individuals experience true freedom from wants and desires in this state. The Theta state is an ideal level to program the mind as all modalities (Visiual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic, Gustatory & Olfactory) can be experienced quite intensely.

 

Delta State: The Delta state is a very deep state of relaxation. Externally it can be hard to distinguish from the Theta state except that REM can be absent at this level. This is a very interesting level of awareness to work with as Hyperaesthesia (increased sensation), Anaesthesia (loss of sensation) and mystical states of consciousness can be worked with at this level. Delta can be hard for individuals to recognize as at this level conscious awareness is very limited. A person experiencing this level of awareness is fully operating under the control of their subconscious mind and can be oblivious to what is happening around them.

 

For martial arts training we would primarily focus our attention on utilizing the Alpha and Theta states for the purposes of improving our performance, accelerating healing, integrating learning, managing pain and overcoming fatigue just to name a few reasons. In the same way one conditions the body to respond rapidly and effectively to potential threats by way of regular training, so to can one condition the mind to manifest these altered states of consciousness by repeatedly engaging in meditation.

 

Practical Applications

Putting all this information into action is much easier than most people would think. The key that opens the door to your mind is your imagination. The more vibrant your imagination the better your results will be. Being imaginative has a unique way of suspending logic which is exactly what we want when seeking out deeper levels of trance. When you look back at the example of the lemon, you were asked to imagine it instead of think about it. Thinking stimulates your logic and analysis of events, imagination assists you in creating and becoming part of these events. The martial arts are full of highly descriptive and imaginative names for techniques and stances. Not only do they provide a frame of reference for the practitioner but also encourage the exponent to adopt a mode of being. For instance, Horse stance does not have the same feelings or associations associated with it that Cat stance has. However, if you pretend to move as lithely as a cat or be as strong as a horse there is every chance you are going to move, stand, strike and possibly even think differently.

Here are some key points to remember for your next meditation session:

1. Trust and believe that from the moment you close your eyes. You are already in the Alpha state and engaged in trance.

2. Breathe deeply in order to increase the feelings of deeper relaxation. This assists in slowing your heart rate and provides yourself with an auditory cue for trance.

3. Visualize, Feel and Hear to the best of your ability positive images resulting in successful outcomes. For example: performing a punch or block with strict form, feeling the technique through the full range of movement as if you were actually doing it. Imagine seeing the angle and direction of the technique as if you were seeing it through your own eyes. Imagine what the sound of your technique travelling through the air would sound like and listen to your breathing as you inhale and exhale on preparation and execution.

4. Be like a child in the way you use your imagination. Being playful and treating your meditation / self hypnosis like a game will take the pressure off you to achieve results. Being serious and results focused is something your conscious mind is preoccupied with. Let it go and just enjoy.

 

In Part Two we will explore how you can store these trance experiences in your physiology, systematically deepen your level of altered consciousness, and illustrate how your inner dialogue can make or break you.

 

© 2005 Paul Mischel

What kind of day are you having?

I had an interesting day at work the other day that left me thinking about the way we subconsciously suggest things to ourselves by way of our dialogue with others.

Having been woken up throughout the night by my 17 month old son. I woke up in the morning, bleary eyed, sleep deprived and feeling very cranky and grouchy to say the least. Making the mad dash through the peak hour traffic to get to the other side of the city didn’t put me in a much better mood!

Being a Wednesday, I was travelling out to one of the stores that I have been mentoring and this required me to be on my game. Not only would I be training staff, I would also be serving customers as it’s part of my mentoring approach to practically demonstrate sales skills and product knowledge.

After downing an extra extra strong coffee on arrival at the store, I am feeling a little more with it and alert. As the day progresses and various customers have been served and in-store training has been completed, my early morning crankiness seems like a thing of the past and I am feeling much better.

Then I have the following interaction with a customer which has prompted me to write this blog entry. It goes something like this:

ME: “Hi There, What sort of a day are you having?”

CUSTOMER: “I’m having an OK kind of day. What about yourself?”

ME: “I’m having a good day, and as it progresses it gets better and better!”

CUSTOMER: “Oh really, what prompts you to say that?”

ME: “Nothing really, I just thought it was a great suggestion to offer!”

The customer looks rather startled and we both have a laugh about it. Before we both know it, we have great rapport and the interaction ends with an easy sale.

The questions I have are: How often do we tend to focus on the bad things that have happened to us throughout the day and how have we perpetuated these less than useful states?

The famous French Psychologist and Pharmacist Emile Coue coined the following term:

“Every day in every way, things get better and better.”

Coue knew well the power of Auto-suggestion and the benefits of repeating positive suggestions to create positive change. He left an indelible imprint on the field of Psychotherapy and Hypnotherapy and as a result of this simple realisation millions have been assisted to make positive generative change in their life.

I don’t know about you, but from now on, every day in every way I will be making better auto-suggestions for myself.

P.M

Virgin Posting

Hello There,

Welcome to my blog High Performance Living.

If you have ever wondered or been curious about such topics as meditation, self hypnosis/hypnotherapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), physical fitness and conditioning, weight management, bodybuilding, sports performance, martial arts, metaphysics/spirituality, mind body interactions and healing.

Then this may be the blog for you!

My intention for creating this blog is to share and learn with others who may have similar interests in these fields. All of the above listed topics are my passions and thankfully I have managed to incorporate most of these ingredients into my career.

If you are curious enough about the topics I have listed and are interested to see how this blog unfolds. Then take the Red Pill and subscribe to this blog and find out for yourself how deep the rabbit hole goes.

P.M