Embarrassment and shame are common feelings in golf and in life. These feelings can surface from the need for perfection or the perceived judgment from others. If you don’t release them, they will sabotage your future performances.

The Seagull Lady

The most embarrassing moment in my golf career happened one year when I played in the South Atlantic Women’s Amateur Championship (SALLY) at Oceanside CC in Ormond Beach, Florida. It is the second 72-hole stroke play tournament on the Florida Orange Blossom Circuit held in January in Florida..

The members at Oceanside participate fully in the tournament in a Member-Contestant tournament, by hosting the contestants in their homes and by participating in all the weeklong social festivities. It began in 1926 and continues to field contestants from all over the world. The golf course is adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean where the cold winds in January can be an additional hazard.

I remember teeing off on the 10th hole with my five-wood to keep the ball in play. As I watched, the ball was barely airborne. It was a topped shot that struck a seagull flying low to the ground. I was mortified! The huge gallery surrounding the hole saw what I had done! As I crawled back into the golf cart, I felt so embarrassed and ashamed that I might have killed a seagull. My cart partner didn’t know what to say. I wanted to hide under the cart but had to continue playing. Someone from the pro shop came out and rescued the seagull. I don’t know if it lived or not. I was left with terribly painful feelings.

The word travelled fast about my incident and by the time I finished 18, I was being known and teased as. “the seagull lady.” My embarrassment grew stronger. Shortly after finishing my round, people from the club came up to me and told me their own golf stories about hitting seagulls. The gulls were very prevalent in the area. When I learned I wasn’t the only one to have had this experience, my shameful feelings abated. Even though this occurrence is as clear in my memory now as when it happened, I can laugh when I think of it.

When you miss a shot on the range, are you embarrassed and look around to see if anyone was watching and judging you? Or do you focus on your practice and use the feedback from the shot’s flight without judging yourself?

Shame is a universally felt emotion. It makes us feel bad about ourselves. Men and women tend to react to it differently. Men with low self-esteem who are embarrassed or ashamed tend to act with anger such as throwing a club or pounding a club into the ground. Women tend to hold their feelings inside and berate themselves. Either reaction is distracting us from taking responsibility for our missed shots.

Embarrassment

Embarrassment is also a universal human emotion that is common in golf and in life. I think it is safe to say that all golfers have felt some embarrassment from their golf experiences.

Poor alignment will cause offline shots and possible problem situations. When I practiced, I put down an alignment stick so I would be square to the target. This is not possible on the golf course. I didn’t want to point my club at the target for alignment because of a fear of embarrassment looking like a beginner. My fear was caused by misinformation. It wasn’t until I saw the gals on the LPGA tour doing it that I changed my fear thought and gave myself permission to do it also. As a result, my shots became more consistent.

Another example of feeling embarrassed would be hitting a ball in the water on a par 3 or hitting a ball OB and quickly hitting another ball to get away from the feeling of being inept in front of others. The truth is the feeling only matters to you because golfers for the most part only care about their own games.

There are many ways you will be embarrassed, and your self-worth attacked on the golf course. The good news is that you can change your emotion instantly by changing your thoughts. I learned to change embarrassment of missing a shot to an emotion of surprise that my shot didn’t come off as planned. Then I was able to regroup by taking deep breaths to think clearly, calming down, taking a couple of practice swings to regain the tempo that I had intended, and carefully going through my pre-shot routine. To do this required practice in changing the impulse to get out of the embarrassing situation quickly.

Give yourself the freedom to allow

Golf is a metaphor for life. If you are experiencing hurtful/painful feelings on the golf course…

1.      Learn how to let situations come and go.

2.      Changing your patterns of thought changes your feelings.

3.      Learn how to feel your feelings and let them come and go.

4.      To hold on to feelings is hurtful and physically damaging.

5.      Let the feeling of love for yourself and your game flow.

Whatever you choose, whether it is anger, embarrassment, blame, shame, or guilt, it is a distraction that keeps you from the most powerful emotion of all, Love. Love of the game is where you will find the fun. The negative emotions will hurt you and keep you from your enjoyment of playing.

Play “in the zone” with Joan

Entrain Your Heart & Mind for Peak Performances

To train your brain to believe in positive thoughts and emotions and to play your best golf, you can listen to Positive Mental Imagery self-empowering guided imagery hypnosis CDs in the privacy of your own home. Eight different CDs are available at www.pmi4.com/cart

If you aren’t able to maintain trust and belief in yourself on the golf course, email Joan at pmi4@bellsouth.net for a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation about developing a new strategy. Learn what is missing in your golf game so you can achieve the success you desire.

“THE HEART OF GOLF, Access Your Supreme Intelligence for Peak Performances” explores and explains negative emotions such as fear and performance anxiety, the four Cs of mind blockage, the four progressive stages of learning the supreme intelligence of the heart, and the way to access the zone in competition. It is a player’s guide for developing your true inner self by returning to the joy and love of self instead of seeking praise and rewards from the outside world.

“THE HEART OF GOLF” guidebook for transforming your life and your golf game is available now on Amazon and Kindle at https://amzn.to/2MQzjfq All royalties will be donated to Junior Golf!

Did your golf dreams come true this summer?

Dreaming about what you want to accomplish in golf will not bring it about. A dream is a manifestation of what your fondest desires are. To make your dreams happen, you need to let go of the fears that hold you back from accomplishing them. When you see only your shortcomings, you will always come up short. No matter what is happening, your attitude toward it is always your choice.

Thinking about things that do not support your dream is a waste of time and effort. Begin to form the right state of mind by deciding which thoughts and emotions will help you to achieve it. You can use visual images, positive self-talk, affirmations, and empowering emotions to enhance your self-image to make your dreams a reality.

The one thing that keeps you from the results you desire is FEAR. We each have our own fears because our own minds create these fears. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, or the fear of not being good enough are not real. They are imagined as a protection against what might happen. When you are fearful, or worrying, you are limiting yourself from achieving your dreams and goals.

Fear is a powerful feeling and is the opposite of the most powerful feeling, love. The mindset that you have on the golf course determines not only the enjoyment you will have, but also the success you will achieve. Everything in the universe is connected by love. We are disconnected by fear.

Fear can be overcome when you face it fearlessly. When you deal with it, you can conquer it and it won’t last forever. When you play fearless golf, there is no anxiety. Never let fear stop you from following your dreams. Instead of letting it hold you back, use it as motivation to achieve your goals.

Additional information about conquering your fears can be found at www.pmi4.com, Archived Newsletters: May 2009, Do You Have a Fear of Success or a Fear of Failure?, October 2008, Change Your Fears into Control, September 2007, Fear or Fun?, and November 2003, Fearless Golf.

Everything you need is within you

You can change your attitude/mindset and your emotions in an instant. It requires freeing yourself from the mental blocks of negativity of not being good enough. When you keep replaying past mistakes and self-judgments, your energy is at a low level. Energize yourself with a positive outlook, love, and gratitude for being able to play the game.

The determining factor for change is about aligning your choices so that your decisions honor what you truly desire and are not reinforcing what you don’t want. I suggest that if you are taking lessons from a golf pro that you ask to be shown what you are doing correctly, not what you are doing wrong. In every moment there is an opportunity for choice. Choose to reinforce what works.

You need to understand where fear comes from so that you can release it. You need to look within your feelings so that you will know what is real for you and what is not real for you. You need to remember who you are so that you can give up the ego’s fear-based control over your life and your game and return to your true self.

Create a mindset for having fun 

Golf is a game you can play as a means of relaxation, socialization, and a source of enriching your spirit. When you play for fun, you have the right balance of seriousness and relaxation. Dr. Bernie Siegel, the noted Yale surgeon and holistic author of 12 books, says that fun is something that causes time to stand still (living in the moment). That happens when you have having so much fun you want your golf game to go on forever.

When you see golf as a competition, your attitude changes, you want to win and are driven by the need to perform and score well. Your self-esteem is then at risk every time you “play”. If the only way to define success is by winning, then your self-esteem is always at risk. This is very taxing on you because you are constantly on an emotional roller coaster and there isn’t any harmony and balance within.

The reality is that there is only one winner (individual or team) and everyone else loses. So, you must realize that the goal isn’t to win. It is to do the best you can during the round so you will have enjoyed it. I sincerely believe that the best way to do that is by letting go of the judgments, expectations, worries and thoughts you have about yourself. Play the game not as a job or something in which you must excel. If you are playing with better players, it may not be possible to win. If you give it your best effort, you are a winner because you have accomplished your purpose of having fun.

Play “in the zone” with Joan

Entrain Your Heart & Mind for Peak Performances

 To train your brain for a mindset to play your best golf, listen to Positive Mental Imagery self-hypnosis guided imagery CDs in the privacy of your own home. Eight different golf enhancing CDs including “Fearless Golf” are available at www.pmi4.com/cart

Listening daily will change the energy that is needed to believe in yourself, trust your golf game, and have confidence in knowing what you can do.

If you lack confidence, control, concentration, and/or consistency on the golf course, email Joan at pmi4@bellsouth.net for a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation about developing a new strategy. Learn what is missing in your golf game so you can achieve the success you desire.

Please share this monthly mental golf newsletter if it has been helpful for you. Forward it to your friends. They may wish to subscribe so they can have more fun playing the game of golf while lowering their scores.

When you first decided to learn how to play golf you probably took a lesson and a golf pro taught you the fundamentals and mechanics of how the swing works. This is a left-brain function. Beginning golfers have lists of body movements written down on 3x 5 cards which they take to the golf course and refer to before they swing. They are constantly thinking about what they should be doing. How well does that work for you?

Over the years I have observed golfers who practiced what they were told to do, and it didn’t bring them the results they craved. On the range I watched a Curtis Cup golfer repeating the same perfect swing every time. Her divot with every swing was in the same perfect six-inch divot space. Her perfect swing looked great, but it didn’t hold up in the tournament.

And, in a USDA Senior Amateur final I watched a friend who was upset when she “lost her swing.” She told us later that she was attempting to swing flatter as her pro had instructed her in a previous lesson. It was apparent to us that she was swinging too flat and needed to do the opposite to get her swing back on track.

When you are ready to hit the ball, it is imperative that you switch from your left brain to move into the right hemisphere of your brain to stop analyzing, stop thinking, and stop judgment. The process to do this is your pre-shot routine. It is where we move from the thinking, analyzing, judging part of our brain into the right brain where we use our senses to activate our bodies.

Trust is the key

There was one question that my mental golf professional guru asked me that changed my game.

When will you have learned enough about the golf swing? As every golfer would, I answered; never.

The more I thought about it, it made sense. At the time I was a 5-handicap international amateur tournament golfer, had complete knowledge of the golf swing, had years of tournament golf, and was still thinking about how to improve my swing. I finally realized the importance of changing my mindset. I stopped taking swing lessons.

That is when I began to trust my swing. After that I only participated in sessions with a golf professional whose expertise was in the short game. He took me out on the golf course and showed me how to play the golf course. He showed me how to hit trouble shots and shots from 100 yards in and around the green to score lower.  Golf then became a game for me to have fun creating the grand possibilities of scoring shots.

Why do you play golf?

The very first time you hit a perfect golf shot you were probably amazed at the length and trajectory of your shot.  The smile on your face and the joy in your heart were produced from the feeling that resonated within your body. That is what golfers seek. It is the ultimate good feeling. That is what we are seeking in life. Joy. Happiness. We have been deluded into thinking we are seeking perfection. The fulfillment is not in the winning, because that is an ego trip.

There is a difference between reason and feeling. Golf is an inner game. It is an inner search for Self. Golf will teach you who you are through your feelings. This is where the call of the heart comes into play. That is where the inspiration is. It is the driving force to love yourself enough to enjoy every shot and every opportunity to create the wonderful feeling. That is the power that resides within you. You have had this power all along, but you listened to another way and were distracted from your inner knowing in the hope of creating the results you desired. Trust and believing in your senses will transform your game. This is how you can play the game…. Easily. Joyously.

Make peace with yourself. As all the different aspects of the game change, apply your wisdom to trust yourself. Release all fears and anxieties. Stop worrying about all the non-essential thoughts that are interfering. Being in the present is the only thing you need to trust. When you give up the need to control, you are in the state of allowing the game you seek. Let go of the want for success and look for the love of the game to be fulfilled in your heart. That is where the enjoyment truly is.

© PositiveMentalImagery 2021 – All Rights Reserved

Play “in the zone” with Joan

Entrain Your Heart & Mind for Peak Performances

To train your brain to play your best golf, you can listen to Positive Mental Imagery self-empowering guided imagery hypnosis CDs in the privacy of your own home, available at www.pmi4.com/cart

If you aren’t able to maintain trust and belief in yourself on the golf course, email Joan at pmi4@bellsouth.net for a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation about developing a new strategy. Learn what is missing in your golf game so you can achieve the success you desire.

“THE HEART OF GOLF, Access Your Supreme Intelligence for Peak Performances”  explores and explains negative emotions such as fear and performance anxiety, the four Cs of mind blockage, the four progressive stages of learning the supreme intelligence of the heart, and the way to access the zone in competition. It is a player’s guide for developing your true inner self by returning to the joy and love of self instead of seeking praise and rewards from the outside world.

“THE HEART OF GOLF” guidebook for transforming your life

and your golf game is available now on Amazon and Kindle

https://amzn.to/2MQzjfq

All royalties will be donated to Junior Golf!

It is of the utmost importance to have a clear mindset before going to the golf course. You are the only one who thinks in your mind so you are the only one who can create or change your mindset. At UCLA they did a study and found that 90% of the thoughts we think today are the same ones we had yesterday. If your thoughts are about the past, they are often about mistakes you think you made, or about feelings of guilt or regret for past decisions.

If you keep listening to the voices of fear and agitation, you are focused on what you do not want and you try to compensate by physically practicing your golf swing. This is a misalignment of your energy. When you do not get results from practicing, you try harder but still your game does not improve. For better results instead, use your mind to communicate with your muscles and cells to produce the ideal game you desire.

Spiritual Energy

Golf is a spiritual game. It transcends the physical. It is different from any other sport. It is not forceful… it is graceful… it has power, but it also has gentleness… It can be difficult, but it also can be easy… It is calming, but it also can be very exciting… If you are in touch with your spirit within, you can experience all the spiritual qualities.

Shift your energy from fear to empowerment by releasing the negative thoughts and allowing your heart-centered and heart-driven energy that reinforces your true, authentic power. Let go of your sense of importance, not only of yourself, but of what goes on around you. Let the love of the game that flows through your heart be your mindset instead of your false ego mind. Be proud of where you have come from, and confident in the success of what you can create.

Heart Energy

Recent research in neuro-cardiology shows that the heart is the major governor of intelligence in the body. The heart is our electrical power center as well as being the pump that supplies blood to the entire body. The heartbeat is so powerful it generates 40 to 60 times more electrical output than the brain. Its electric signal can be measured on any point on the body.

The heart is considered a single entity that has its own complex nervous system that sends messages to its nerve centers, so it acts independently to learn, remember, and produce feelings. Information sent from the heart to the brain affects not only perception, emotion, and learning abilities, but also coordination.

Emotions such as anger, frustration and anxiety cause the heart rhythms to become irregular which causes an energy drain in the brain resulting in doubt and insecurity making it difficult to make decisions. On the other hand, feelings of love, caring and appreciation increase the access to clear, effective thinking and problem solving. These emotions produce more coherent heart rhythms thus reducing the disorder in the nervous system.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we are doing. While mindfulness is a natural state of being, it can be accessed with the practice of relaxing your mind and body. We already have the capacity to be present, so it doesn’t require us to change who we are. Mindfulness is being completely awake to the present moment and being aware of what you are doing while you are doing it.

When you are mindful, you are fully invested in the present moment; not dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. You are experiencing being in the now with all your senses. It is imperative that your body is relaxed to accomplish this process.

Golfers have a tendency to project the present into the future by thinking about upcoming holes and what they need to score to achieve a desired outcome. This is a perfect example of creating stress within your mind and body. With this awareness of judgment of how you are doing, mindfulness is the solution to reduce the stress and bring your mind back to the present. Practicing mindfulness involves breathing methods, guided imagery, and other practices to relax the body and mind and help reduce stress.

Guided Imagery

Guided imagery is a powerful ancient practice that focuses and directs the imagination. You are guided to use your imagination to focus on images by creating scenes in your mind. It harnesses all your senses; sight, taste, sound, sound, smell, and sensation designed to trigger specific changes in physiology, emotions, or your mental state.

Self-Hypnosis

Hypnosis is a natural, relaxing state of mind of focused concentration where you can control your body and mind. When hypnosis is self-induced it is called autohypnosis and is often referred to as self-hypnosis. In fact, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis because you are the one doing the programming.

Your subconscious mind where all your information is stored is like your computer. GIGO. Garbage in, garbage out. Or in hypnosis terms, whatever you program in, you will get. This part of your mind does not analyze, criticize, judge or condemn. In hypnosis only positive suggestions are utilized to reinforce self-awareness, self-confidence, concentration, relaxation, consistency, how to play the game of golf to shoot lower scores indicative of your personal best performances.

Mental Rehearsal

Scientists have found that mentally rehearsing your golf swing will improve your swing because your mind is programming your muscles as you imagine/visualize yourself hitting the perfect shot.

The best time to mentally practice your golf game is at night or in the morning while you are half-awake in the relaxed Alpha State. Rehearse what you want to happen that day. The only place you can practice perfectly is in your mind. Program your mind for the success you desire.

Golf Enhancement CDs

Stop struggling with your golf game. You can improve just by listening to the CDs that I have created using the above techniques. The CDs cover the areas where golfers have the most mental and emotional difficulty that keep them from having the success and fun they deserve.

Change comes from the mind first. Listening repeatedly to the suggestions on the CDs will program positive beliefs to overcome the negative programming from the outer world.

Listening daily will change the energy that is needed to believe in yourself, trust your golf game, and have confidence in knowing what you can do.

To train your brain to play your best golf, listen to Positive Mental Imagery self-hypnosis guided imagery CDs in the privacy of your own home. Nine golf enhancing CDs are available at www.pmi4.com/cart

Play “in the zone” with Joan

Entrain Your Heart & Mind for Peak Performances

If you don’t maintain trust and belief in yourself on the golf course, email Joan at pmi4@bellsouth.net for a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation about developing a new strategy. Learn what is missing in your golf game so you can achieve the success you desire.

“THE HEART OF GOLF, Access Your Supreme Intelligence for Peak Performances” explores and explains negative emotions such as fear and performance anxiety, the four Cs of mind blockage, the four progressive stages of learning the supreme intelligence of the heart, and the way to access the zone in competition. It is a player’s guide for developing your true inner self by returning to the joy and love of self instead of seeking praise and rewards from the outside world.

“THE HEART OF GOLF” guidebook for transforming your life and your golf game is available now on Amazon and Kindle at https://amzn.to/2MQzjfq  All royalties will be donated to Junior Golf!

The Tokyo Olympic Games with 339 events, will begin in a couple of weeks on July 23^rd after a year’s delay due to the coronavirus pandemic. This is a good time to learn from these world-class athletes about how they develop their self-confidence and body confidence to perform in front of millions of viewers. 

Golf has only been part of the Olympics three times: in 1900, 1904, and then in the 2016 Summer Olympics when it was reinstated. This year in Tokyo the men’s stroke play will begin on July 28th and the women’s stroke play will begin on August 3rd^.. To refresh your memory, in 2016, Justin Rose of Great Britain and Inbee Park of South Korea won the individual gold medals at the new Olympic Golf Course in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There were no team medals awarded.

There is such a high level of competition in the Olympics, we watch in amazement as the athletes perform their superhuman feats of athleticism under conditions of external noise, internal fear thoughts, distractions, pressure and anxiety. These athletes have trained their minds to tune out these conditions and immerse themselves entirely in the routines that they have practiced over and over, physically and mentally.

For the past 29 years I have been helping golfers and other performers learn how to access their peak performances through an understanding and awareness of Self. The mental game of golf is about being stronger mentally by changing your beliefs of lack and limitation and changing the internal judgments that came from someone else’s beliefs and values. When you have the self-esteem to believe in yourself and your abilities, there is no internal struggle, and you can allow yourself to play “in the zone.”

What is the Zone State? 

When a golfer is in the right mental state, they can access their peak performance throughout the round. They can feel as if they are in another world and someone else is swinging the golf club for them. They can feel as if they are in a trance, in an altered state of awareness called “the flow” or “the zone.”

In this state, the golfer can experience feelings of total calm and peace (no fear); ease and effortlessness in swinging; a heightened sense of intuition; ease of movement; total enjoyment; weightlessness; a sense of euphoria; increased power; intensified concentration (no indecision or distractions); mental clarity (seeing a line on the green or a line to the target); and being in complete control.  Golfers “in the zone” typically play with more accuracy due to an increased sense of feel and awareness. They hit the ball longer and shoot lower scores indicative of their peak potential.

To gain control you have to let go of control 

When you are “in the zone” you do not worry about the results or the thoughts you have about yourself. You allow the feeling process to continue without effort instead of trying to control your shots. That is when golf becomes fun. When you are “in the zone” your mind is relaxed, free of tension, and absorbed in creating your shot. When you give up conscious control of trying to make things happen, your peak performances manifest.

Being “in the zone” is when you have let go of all the restrictions imposed by conscious thought and you have created a heightened state of effortless and unwavering concentration, calm, and confidence. It is when your brain and body are in such harmony before you swing that they act as one, and the swing occurs without conscious effort or thought. Golf is different from other sports where we react without time to think. In golf, as the ball waits for us, we can spend too much time in extraneous confusing thoughts.

The zone state or flow state is when a golfer is totally focused and has full involvement and enjoyment in the process of playing the game of golf. Your energy then flows in the direction of your potential. This is what it means to be centered, in the moment, or in the present. You are completely engrossed and giving all your attention to the task at hand. Self-judgment is gone. Your emotions are positive, energized, and aligned with the process of shot making. There is no awareness of anything except the creation of the present shot.

Achieving this higher state of consciousness is how the Olympic athletes can perform seemingly impossible feats that seem too difficult to achieve. The zone/flow state is like being in a meditation of action and awareness.

Use Mental Imagery for Increased Flow 

Visualization is a psychological tool that teaches athletes to focus on every aspect of their performance rather than on winning. It is a process of watching themselves experience each nuance of their performance in their minds.

Another term for visualization is mental rehearsal or mental imagery where your inner mind uses all your senses to create the event that you desire.

The first ingredient to become more consistent in your golf game, is perfect practice. Practice doesn’t make perfect, only perfect practice does. The best place to practice is in your imagination, mentally rehearsing perfection repeatedly, creating a habit. Once you have visualized doing something, it is already done except for the physical execution. With mental imagery athletes not only imagine/visualize, but they also truly feel themselves playing the game.

In 1964 Maxwell Malte, the author of Psycho-Cybernetics discovered that your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an imagined and a real experience. Scientists have found that mentally rehearsing your golf swing will improve your swing because your brain is creating stronger neural patterns telling your muscles how to move.

At night or in the morning when you are half-awake is the best time to practice your golf swing/game. Train your brain for success and increase your states of flow by rehearsing what you want to happen that day. In your mind is the only place you can practice perfectly. Program your mind. All thought originates in the mind. You are your mind, and you are your golf swing.

If you have trouble visualizing or mentally rehearsing what you desire in your golf game, eight mental golf guided imagery CDs are available at www.pmi4.com/cart.

Moving into “the zone state” is your overall goal 

The process to allow movement into the zone state of awareness is to:

• Have a positive attitude.
• Trust your intuition & decisions.
• Relax your body and mind by deep breathing.
• Let go of mental interference
• Focus on the task at hand.
• Use imagery to program your shot.
• Be totally absorbed in your pre-shot routine.
• Enjoy the process of feeling.

For further information about how to achieve these mental keys, go to www.pmi4.com and link on the monthly Archived Newsletters.

Play “in the zone” with Joan 

Entrain Your Heart & Mind for Peak Performances

© PositiveMentalImagery 2021 – All Rights Reserved

One of the keys to having a good mental golf game is to have NO SELF-JUDGMENT.  The less judgmental you are towards yourself and others, the more balanced and centered you can be.

Judgment is the comparison between how something seems and how we think it should be. We would like to believe that we could hit every golf shot perfectly. And when we don’t do that, we feel frustrated, embarrassed and humiliated, and we reject ourselves because we feel inadequate. And so, we pretend to be what we think we should be (perfect golfer) by demeaning ourselves with words or physical actions of disgust. In other words, we pretend to be what we are not (perfect), because we are afraid someone else will notice that we are not what we pretend to be.

There are three parts to your “self”:

1. The way you see yourself.
2. The way you think others see you.
3. Your true authentic SELF.

Humans punish themselves endlessly for not being what they believe they should be.  It is the Judge, the Victim and our belief system within that make us do this.  The way we judge ourselves is the strongest judge there is. When we miss a shot in front of other people, we try to deny the mistake and take the attention from us by covering it up with excuses and rationalizing why it happened. To be a champion golfer, you need to seek your own approval, not the approval of others.

To maintain our balance and composure, it is necessary to look at the game of golf/life in a different perspective. We need to forgive ourselves for being human, for making mistakes. This is the answer to Judgment. It requires a change of attitude and a new belief system. Golf is management of imperfection. Each shot is a story. When it is over, you begin a new story.  Instead of blaming yourself for your mistakes, learn from them so you won’t repeat them. When we are “in the zone” and playing at our peak performance level, we are trusti9ng and allowing—– just enjoying the experience.

“I think I fail a bit less than everyone else.”  —-Jack Nicklaus

When you are playing well, your mind is quiet, free of tension, relaxed and absorbed in what you are doing. There is no judgment, only trust and enjoyment.

When you are playing poorly, your mind is judging your performance and probably producing the following scenarios:

• You are giving yourself a lesson and trying to “fix” your swing.
• You are judging your performance as right or wrong, good or bad.
• You are emotionally upset with high scores.
• These thoughts are bringing up feelings of failure and doubt in your ability.

When you let go of the judgment and evaluation of yourself and your performance, what is left is self-awareness.  When you are aware of yourself, you are playing “in the zone” where there is no judgment, only intensified concentration and total focus on making the shot.

“When I am in a zone, I don’t think about the shot or the wind or the distance or the gallery or anything.  I just pull a club and swing.”  —-Mark Calcavecchia

Albert Einstein was “in the zone” when he developed his Theory of Relativity, E = Mc2.  He allowed his creative mind to create while he was doodling and daydreaming. When you let go of the judgments, worries, and thoughts you have about yourself, your self-judgment disappears. Then you are “in the zone” having fun and playing the game of golf.

You go against yourself when you judge or blame yourself or other people.  When you have good self-esteem and feel good about yourself, you take responsibility for your actions, on and off the golf course. Then you are tapping into your Authentic Self by using the mental tools of responsibility, acceptance and forgiveness.

“Mistakes are essential to progress.  The willingness to learn from them is the backbone of any progress. The object is to succeed, not to count your mistakes.” —-Tae Yun Kim

When you judge or blame yourself for a missed shot, you go against your true Self and set up a rejection of yourself, which in turn sabotages your game. Some professional golfers routinely blame outside interferences so they won’t judge or blame themselves.

Your miss-hit golf shots do not reflect upon you as a person —- Your mental/emotional reaction to your missed golf shots does!  When you fail to make a good shot, know that you have just failed at that task. It does not mean that you are a failure.

Become a magician!  Use your thoughts and words and pictures to create the life and golf game that you desire. Let go of judgments that sabotage your game and put you into an internally self-created prison. Give yourself permission to enjoy the game of golf with its ups and downs, with its perfect shots and imperfect shots, with its humiliating situations and its joyous moments! Remember that golf is a game where an inch can make the difference between total disaster and absolute perfection! See the round in its entirety. Don’t be trapped by a few miss-hits into judging your whole performance by them. Reinforce and enjoy the good shots.

Peak performing athletes rarely put themselves down. They talk to themselves positively about what they are attempting to create. They change past negative messages that come up into positive empowering ones.  This is a part of their mental training program.  They repeat positive mental affirmations and training routines until they are wired into their brains, body and spirit and become a conditioned response.

You are your most important critic.  Nothing is more critical than the opinion you have of yourself. What you say to yourself in your inner mind is the most important conversation you will ever have.  You become confident by affirming yourself.

Keep doing your best.  If you always do your best, there is no way the Judge within can find you guilty or blame you.  When you give it your best effort, you learn to accept yourself. Practice, learn from your mistakes and look honestly at the results. This increases your awareness of your Self.

Reinforce the good that you want to create in your golf game.  Be your own best coach.  Encourage and treat yourself as well as you do the others in your foursome. Tell yourself to LET GO of self-abuse and self-rejection that comes from never measuring up to being perfect.  Accept and love yourself more than anyone ever loved you.

At its highest levels, golf is a game where you are feeling all the goodness, happiness and euphoria of the Universal Force.  Happiness is not getting what you want. It is being happy with what you get.  Every day congratulate yourself for what you did well during the day. You probably made fewer mistakes than you thought.

Play “in the zone” with Joan!

Entrain Your Heart & Mind for Peak Performances

To train your brain to play your best golf, listen to Positive Mental Imagery self-hypnosis guided imagery CDs in the privacy of your own home, available at www.pmi4.com/cart

If you aren’t able to maintain trust and belief in yourself on the golf course, email Joan at pmi4@bellsouth.net or call 828.696.2547 for a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation about developing a new strategy. Learn what is missing in your golf game so you can achieve the success you desire.

“THE HEART OF GOLF, Access Your Supreme Intelligence for Peak Performances” explores and explains negative emotions such as fear and performance anxiety, the four Cs of mind blockage, the four progressive stages of learning the supreme intelligence of the heart, and the way to access the zone in competition. It is a player’s guide for developing your true inner self by returning to the joy and love of self instead of seeking praise and rewards from the outside world.

This guidebook for transforming your life and golf game is available now: https://amzn.to/3jEMVuv

All royalties will be donated to Junior Golf programs!

”

With the advent of Spring, I am beginning my 29th year of counseling golfers how to balance their mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual bodies to produce lower scores on the golf course by accessing “the zone state” of being.

It has been my pleasure to work with golfers because they are willing to try anything new that could produce their peak performances. Peak Performance is a state in which the person performs to the maximum of their ability. It is characterized by feelings of confidence, effortlessness, and total concentration on the task.

Most sports are determined by how well you react to the action. Golf is different. The ball waits for you to hit it. However, your emotional mindset reacts to your programmed thoughts and controls your golf game.

Whatever is going on in your mind determines whether your inner state is peaceful or resisting. The good news is that you can be in complete control of your inner realm by releasing any resistance and by allowing your subconscious to create the effortless shot that you have trained it to make. Stay focused in the moment by using your pre-shot routine for every shot.

Change is constant. When you allow it, you are utilizing the natural laws of creation. As you resist change, you are creating opposition to those natural laws. To play to the best of your abilities, you must face your fear and anxiety feelings instead of giving in, or avoiding them, which only brings up more avoidance. Face your fears whenever you can because it is worse for your performance to avoid what you are afraid of instead of facing it.

As you shift your energies within, then your outer world can change. What are the thoughts and energies that you bring to the surface on the golf course? What would emotional freedom and peace feel like? The choice to stay emotionally in a fearful situation, or to expand beyond it is up to you. Discern what it is that you want alive within you and move beyond what you don’t want to carry forward.

Golf is an inner game. Get to know yourself well. Before you can be set free, you have to be aware of the “monkey mind” chatter going on in your head. How we feel is determined by our emotions. Our emotions are influenced by our thoughts and beliefs.

When we think positive thoughts, our brain releases feel-good chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. But when we think negative thoughts, our body releases chemicals like cortisol and adrenaline; the stress hormones that cause the “flight or fight” response.

As every player knows, golf is played in the mind as much as it is with the body. Controlling your mood of feeling and managing the inevitable frustrations that are part of the game is critical if you plan to improve your scoring, and most importantly, enjoy your time on the golf course.

Golf is a reflection of the journey into your inner self through exploring the mysteries of this royal and ancient game. At its highest levels of hitting perfect shots, and achieving your fullest potential, your spirit quietly soars “into the zone” where you are in a state of euphoria and trust. No longer is your spirit dampened by past experiences of fear, anxiety, indecision, distractions, and self-limitations. The joy you experience is in the moment, and not in the outcome of your score.

Before adding up your score after you complete your round of golf, ask yourself if you had fun and enjoyed your experience. Your answer will tell you whether you had a mindset of resistance or allowed yourself to enjoy your time on the golf course.

I have been writing monthly newsletters since 1999 that include every facet of the mental golf game. Log on to www.pmi4.com Archived Newsletters to find information relevant for improving your mental golf game.

Play “in the zone” with Joan

Entrain Your Heart & Mind for Peak Performances

To train your brain to play your best golf, listen to Positive Mental Imagery self-hypnosis guided imagery CDs in the privacy of your own home, available at www.pmi4.com/cart

If you aren’t able to maintain trust and belief in yourself on the golf course, email Joan at pmi4@bellsouth.net or call 828.696.2547 for a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation about developing a new strategy. Learn what is missing in your golf game so you can achieve the success you desire.

“THE HEART OF GOLF, Access Your Supreme Intelligence for Peak Performances” explores and explains negative emotions such as fear and performance anxiety, the four Cs of mind blockage, the four progressive stages of learning the supreme intelligence of the heart, and the way to access the zone in competition. It is a player’s guide for developing your true inner self by returning to the joy and love of self instead of seeking praise and rewards from the outside world.

“THE HEART OF GOLF” guidebook for transforming your life

and golf game is available now on Amazon at

https://amzn.to/2MQzjfq

All royalties will be donated to Junior Golf programs!