Most people take the mental game for granted; it just seems to be one more element in the process. Any time you compete, there is a mental pressure component that you have to deal with. But where did this component come from? How did we learn to put pressure on ourselves when it matters?
When you were just born, you did not feel or even know the pressure of an archery competition. How we perceive challenges and obstacles all comes from somewhere. At some point in time, you had to experience that when you win, it feels good and losing feels bad. When you win the field day race in elementary school or summer camp, you get attention and accolades. When you lose the race, you are left with a feeling of loss and insignificance. As you experience these things, you remember them, especially when this occurs at a young age when your mind is wide open, especially before the age of 10 when your mind is still forming. You take in everything in your environment, and you learn from the experiences you encounter at that time, both the good and bad. Basically, a lot of the structure of the rules we live by was established in these early years. Concepts about competition and desire to win are generated and stored. These then become the baseline rules we still follow as adults.
Anyone can see the problem with this model. The fundamental laws that we live by are generated from the perspective of a 7 year old. This gives birth to the mental obstacles that we deal with today. Tied to these concepts also are emotions; if this information about competing was recorded with an intense emotion like anxiety or panic most likely when you experience a familiar pattern like competition; you will feel anxious or panicked. The lessons and rules you have created from your past experiences also have feelings attached to them. The end result is that when we experience similar circumstances, these emotions emerge. For instance, you’re at an archery tournament as you progress, the feeling of pressure is building in; you begin to feel hesitation or anxiety, your attention focuses on this feeling, and then you lose focus and control of your shot. But you really cannot explain why it happened. This is because your mind is accessing old information/experiences that had anxiety and or hesitation attached to it. The easiest way to describe this is that you’re reliving an old moment. A moment that is very alive in your subconscious. We are being controlled by a memory/event that we have no memory of, that’s making us behave in a way that is not conducive to what we need. So now what can we do?
Hypnosis is a great way to uncover these hidden concepts and feelings. Once a client is in hypnosis, we are free to locate the forgotten storyline that is causing the unwanted behaviors. Like a childhood experience where the individual experienced panic or anxiety over a competition or academic endeavor. Finding these hidden storylines is not as hard as you think. You see the behavior that you are experiencing such as target panic is tied directly to the event/moment in the past. Once in hypnosis, this event iis automatically found. Once found, the experiences can be rewritten then released into your past where it can never affect your future again. Once this moment is dealt with, there is no reason for the behaviors to exist, thus your target panic is gone forever.
You see, the mental game really can not be fixed on a bale. You can have some success or temporary results, but practice can only take care of part of the problem. Mental obstacles need to be fixed where they live: in the mind. Hypnosis can do this rather quickly; in as few as three or four sessions, most clients see profound change. The mental game, like any other component in archery, only improves if you work on it. What you put it, you get out. Give hypnosis a try to get started on improving this major component to your game today!