The Art of Mental Rehearsal
My previous post on an Easy Meditation for Men has been quite popular, and was an excerpt from my upcoming book (please give me feedback on potential book titles here), so I wanted to offer another easy way to include meditation in your life.
This post is an excerpt from the follow-up to my first book from the chapter titled, ‘Practice Makes Perfect’.
“There are many forms of meditation and all of them strive to improve mental focus.
What I’m sharing today is fairly easy to put into practice, but it does take practice to do it correctly. It’s known as the Art of Mental Rehearsal, and there has been quite a bit of research done on this subject.
In essence, when you mentally run through a physical experience, your mind believes it is a real experience. In other words, practicing something over and over in your mind is almost as good as practicing something for real.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a speech, a race or a hobby like golf, when you mentally rehearse the physical actions of a specific activity, your brain builds a hardwired connection to the physical actions.
My Sifu (Kung Fu instructor) used to use the term ‘building roads’. A great example of this concept was used in the movie, the Karate Kid; where the kid is asked to wax the five cars owned by the teacher.
You might recall the wax off/wax on scene? He was told to rub the wax ‘on’ in one direction, and wipe it ‘off’ in the opposite direction. Of course the kid didn’t understand the power of building mental roads until Mr. Miagi attempted a couple of strikes at him post waxing, and his wax on/wax off techniques proved to be the essential training for blocking strikes.
Obviously in that example the physical practice was the learning mechanism, but it’s been proven that mental rehearsal of physical actions makes the individual physically better at the activity, then when not using mental rehearsal.
This trick is now used by athletes worldwide to improve their results!
There is a caveat to this type of mental stimulation and focus as it requires a bit more than just thinking about the physical act. You must re-live it as if it were actually happening!
Using running a race for an example, you would start by visualizing the racetrack, the feel of the wind in your face and the sound of the crowd. You go through all of your normal stretching exercises one by one. You must recreate the feelings of nervousness and excitement.
As you approach the block, you hear your coach shouting at you and the roar of the crowd as the other runners take their places. You bend down to take your position and you feel the sun on your back and the beads of sweat on your face.
The crack of the gun explodes in your ear, so you leap forward with every ounce of strength you can muster. You can hear your sharp breaths and feel your lungs pushing the air in and out as you round the first turn to take the lead of the pack.
You never look back and lean into the corners to take advantage of the momentum. Your feet are flying across the track in a total blur while your arms sweep forward and backwards to assist with the momentum.
As you approach the finish line, you feel the racer next to you put on their extra steam, so you reach deep down into yourself and find that last ounce of extra energy that keeps you a step ahead of your competitor by a split second. You heave your chest across the line and break the tape first!
You were running so quickly you now must slowly break the stride. Once slowed, you fall to the ground grasping for air; totally worn out by your efforts.
Congratulations, you’ve just won the first of many mental races…keep up the great work!
How does it feel?
I hope this gives you an idea how to incorporate a different type of meditation into your life. You will not only improve your focus and mental abilities, but you will also improve your physical outcomes too!
Think well and be well”
Write On!
Check Out My Post on Easy Meditation for Men
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