Another year is drawing to a close and I thank you for your support and feedback in my mission to help golfers have more fun while playing “in the zone.” In 2012 I will be beginning my 20th year of counseling golfers how to balance their mental, emotional, physical and spiritual bodies for lower scores.
Now is the time to reflect and think about what was good and what not so good in the past year. We sometimes get so caught up in our busy lives, that life passes us by. Take the time now to write down what made you happy and what you learned in 2011. Celebrate yourself and constantly remind yourself of your greatness.
Use your thoughts to create your world, and the golf game that you desire. Enlighten yourself with positive visions. See the good in all the things you are experiencing and you will feel the happiness deep within yourself. Feel it, see it, experience it, and react to the happiness you have created. Feel the shift in perception. You create in your world exactly what you focus your attention on.
Here are mental, emotional and spiritual attributes to bring you into balance for a more rewarding life and golf game:
• Be aware. Thoughts, words and deeds are the tools of creation. Every act you perform is an act of self-definition. It is important that you use your full awareness to speak and act consciously instead of just repeating what you have heard from others.
• Focus on what you desire, and not on what you don’t want. Choose the results you want. Have complete trust that it will happen. The degree of your trust will be the degree that the results will happen.
• Put yourself at the head of your gift list. Be kind to yourself. Think, talk, play golf, and live your life the way you would like it to be. Play for your own enjoyment, not to please others.
• Turn frustration into a smile. Smile through adversity. When you are frustrated in traffic, at the shopping mall, or on the golf course, acknowledge the emotion as an opportunity to change. Smile inwardly to change your physiology and send lightness into your heart and the world instead of darkness.
• Turn worry into action. No one has ever accomplished anything by worrying about it. When you begin to fret about something in your life, let go of your attachment to the outcome. Formulate a plan and execute it. Affirm what it is you want to manifest NOW. For example, instead of worrying about hitting the ball on the first tee, formulate a plan to relax, and then focus on your tempo and target.
• Be grateful. By being grateful for the things you do have in your life, you create a positive attitude and send positive energy into your mind and body, and also out into the world.
• Forgive yourself for your mistakes. Understand that making mistakes is the best and fastest way to learn and grow. Forgive (give for) yourself for being human and give yourself the gift of letting go of blame and guilt. Return to a peaceful and harmonious state of mind.
• Make your self-talk positive. Monitor your thoughts. Change the words “if only” to “next time.” Stay in the present by changing fear thoughts from the past, and anxious thoughts of the future, to thoughts of what you want to happen in your life right now.
• Make happiness a habit. Look for the “good” in all situations. Have faith in the perfection of your life experience. Know that you do not always know what is best for you. Acknowledge that on another level you are creating every situation for your learning experience.
• Use your sense of humor. Children laugh 500 times a day and adults only around 50 times. When you laugh your body produces endorphins to make you feel good. Humor can take the tenseness out of a situation. Humor builds self-esteem if you can laugh at your humanness.
• Accept your circumstances. Acceptance is surrendering to what is; your feelings, your problems, your relationships, your golf game. Before you can change what is, recognize that this is the way it is right now. Resist the struggle. Accepting the situation brings a peace to your soul. It releases the pressure and brings relief. When you relax, you change your heartbeat, physiology and energy pattern. Then you are better able to see what to do next.
• Do random acts of kindness. Fill in a divot, fix a ball mark, return a shopping cart, or pick up trash. You will not only feel better, you will be helping the environment and creating good will.
• Love what you are doing. You will never be good at anything unless you love it. Enjoy the process of creating what you want. If you are “in love” with what it will give you (the results) it will run away from you very fast.
• Believe in yourself. You have practiced, studied, and played this game so that you can participate fully in it. Focus on the process of hitting and enjoying each shot, knowing that you have done it well many, many times before.
• Create a habit of being optimistic and cheerful. When you go to bed at night, visualize the pleasure you are going to have the next day. See yourself waking up cheerfully ready to participate fully in the day’s activities.
• Maintain a balanced emotional level. Practice being in “the zone state” in your everyday activities by breathing to relax your mind and body and by focusing your full attention on what you are engaged in doing.
• Train your brain to be and do what you want. Repetition is the key to performing at your highest levels without conscious thought. Create patterns of thought (habits) in your subconscious mind by replaying over and over what you want.
• Think clearly and decisively. Do not make choices out of fear. Use discernment. Admit the fear, feel it, and do it anyway. When you are feeling fear on the golf course, recognize it, feel it, and manufacture a plan to relax your mind and body. Focus on your tempo and target and swing as if you had always hit that shot perfectly.
• Schedule downtime. To restore balance between your mind and body, take 10 minutes during the middle of the day to sit quietly, close your eyes, let go of all thoughts and breathe to relax. Ten minutes of this kind of downtime is like taking a two-hour nap that will restore your mind-body balance.
• Have fun… Golf is a game. Play for the pure joy of playing. Let your participation be your ultimate reward without being dependent upon the rewards of praise or prizes.
Let the brightness of the holiday season shine in your life bringing you
peace, harmony and love for yourself and all that you do.
Play “In the Zone” With Joan
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© Copyright PMI 2011. All Rights Reserved.
Learn how to play on automatic pilot “in the zone” for your peak performances. Contact Joan at info@pmi4.com or 828.696.2547 for a free 15-minute consultation. Learn what is missing in your game so you can achieve the success you desire.
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