Your mind has a mind of its own!

OK, so you've spent days practicing and preparing. It's now time to perform and your mind either does one of two things: races with a million thoughts or goes blank without one thought in sight. You might try to distract yourself by talking to your teammates or you might respond by telling yourself to lock in and get in the zone. You showed up ready to give your all and now is not the time to freak out. But the more you try to control your thoughts, the less in control you feel.

As a former athlete and coach, I know this moment all too well. I would walk into the gym super ready to play my game when my mind would take off on a hurricane of thoughts I tried to pretend were not happening. "Who's going to block your shot today?" or "You think you will air ball this game?". These were the types of thoughts that would sneak into my mind. Secretly, I made deals with myself that if I saw someone coming, I would pass instead. Or, maybe instead of shooting so many three's, I should try to lay it in more. I was literally talking myself out of the game I came so ready to play. And no matter how many times I told myself that I was not going to go down that path of negativity....these thoughts always caught up with me no matter what.

What I wish I understood then is how normal those moments were. In fact, those very thoughts happening in my mind was my brain doing exactly what it was designed to do: scan for danger or threats to my life! You see when you are facing moments where the pressure to perform is present, you trigger the feeling of danger in your brain without even knowing it. To your brain, this moment is just as dangerous as a bear running towards you or feeling trapped.

Your job in these moments is to do the opposite of what your instincts are telling you to do. Instead of trying to resist these thoughts, or worse pretend they aren't happening, what you should try to do is to embrace them. Weird, right? Why would it make sense to allow these thoughts to run free? Wouldn't that just make you believe in yourself less? Well, by making space for your brain to shape these thoughts, you also make space to tell your brain not to treat these thoughts as threats. Instead, they are a normal part of the game. Believe it or not, every great athlete in history has experienced the very moment you have. The difference is, they didn't push the panic button when these thoughts showed up. Instead, they allowed themselves to feel the weight of the moment, then they trained their brain to normalize this feeling so that they wouldn't freak out. Over time, your brain will realize this isn't imminent danger.....this is just a normal part of our game. We got this!

“I've never been afraid of big moments.I get butterflies.I get nervous and anxious, but I think those are all good signs that I'm ready for the moment.” -Stephen Curry