February is the month of love. The feeling of love comes from your heart. The feeling of hitting a perfect golf shot resonates in your heart. Discounting that feeling by judging the result keeps you in your thinking mind.
When you love something, you don’t have expectations. You just enjoy the experience.
It took Billy Joel 30 years to regain his love of song writing to produce a new song this year. Find your joy and resultant success now by loving to play golf.
Golfers experience this feeling of love on the golf course when they let go of trying to make things happen, stay in the present moment, and experience the joy of being “in the zone.”
Love is who you are. Whenever we disengage the great filter called “self” and lose ourselves in play, we shift our focus from survival pursuits into larger patterns of connection with unlimited possibilities.
Love is a state of peace inside where you are focused in the moment. There is no worry, fear, doubt, indecision, humiliation, feelings of self-doubt, unworthiness, inferiority, or superiority. Any impulse to aggressively control your game will move you into these feelings of self-judgment.
When you let go of judgment and evaluation, what is left is awareness. Awareness is the key to all change. Develop your awareness by using your imagination and intuition to discover your authentic self.
Love is a force. It is also the pure essence of being. Even after you have stopped playing golf, you will remember with feelings of love the experiences you had that were so exhilarating. We know with our minds. We believe with our hearts. When you play from your heart, you are free and your possibilities are limitless, especially when you least expect them.
Your life and your golf game are miracles waiting to be fully explored and discovered. Only an open heart can unlock the treasures that wait for you. Love is what makes the world go around. Love is what makes life worth living. Love is the feeling of the utmost high. To play golf well is to love playing golf.
Self-Judgment of Lack & Limitation
One of the mental keys for successful golf is to let go of self-judgment. When you think about how you are doing, or how to do it, you are judging yourself, and your performance under the guise of helping your game. When you judge yourself, you are likely to feel anxious, guilty, embarrassed, or angry. These feelings will ultimately sabotage your golf game, lower your self-esteem, and keep you from being successful.
In the rounds of golf where you are in the zone and everything seems to flow in perfect order, your heart rhythms, blood pressure, and brain waves are entrained, or in sync. When you have a passionate love for what you are doing and are playing at your peak performance level, you have bypassed the fears of the ego.
The power to do this is in the heart. By activating feelings of the heart, you gain powerful insights that we call intuition, or inner wisdom. You intuitively know what to do.
Your mission is to discover and embrace the real you, not the person you think you must be to be loved or accepted. Your hopes and dreams are waiting for you. Claim what your heart already knows and turn your dreams into reality. Love is the intuitive knowledge of our hearts. Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned about limiting our belief in ourselves. When we release the self-limiting and self-sabotaging thoughts, we free our minds and can return to love.
Change Your State from Fear to Love
Everything in the universe is connected by love. We are disconnected by fear.
By 1965 Arnold Palmer had fallen into a prolonged slump. He said, “I suddenly got to worrying about disappointing everyone. For the first time in my life, I guess I was afraid.”
You will have your share of heartache on the golf course, but it doesn’t have to be negative. See it as another vitally important experience that is useful to learn from. Then bring your awareness back to your heart to remember why you love to play this intriguing and seductive game.
Every thought and emotion you have produces chemicals and affects your central nervous system. When you are frustrated on the golf course and your body produces adrenaline, there is an easy way to use imagery to bring your state back to peace and calm. All you need to do to access this state is to move your thinking from your head to your heart. Holding the feeling of love for thirty seconds will balance your hormonal system.
To change your state and move into your heart, think about someone or something you love. For example, think about your pet. Imagine your pet giving you its unconditional love by jumping up and down, being excited to see you, licking you and wanting to play with you. With this easy imagery, your heart is filled with love, and the frustration you experienced moments ago dissipates.
When golf becomes too serious, the fun vanishes from your game because it is no longer just a game. Examples of this would be wanting to beat your opponent or to shoot your lowest score. The research about being in the zone/flow state shows that the fun is gained from the pure purpose of experiencing the game. If your motivation to play is dependent upon the prizes or praise, and you don’t get them, your amount of enjoyment fluctuates depending upon how many external rewards you receive.
You have probably experienced the separation of mind and body and heart and called it indecision or doubt. It is when you know in your heart you want to choose a certain club, and your rational mind talks you out of it.
You will be creating at your highest level when the electrical patterns of your heart and mind are entrained. This is done by creating positive attitudes and beliefs in your mind and by feeling emotions of love and fun and in your heart.
Remember why you love the game of golf. All great athletes play their sports from their hearts. They “know” how to enjoy using their talent and skills to perform for their own enjoyment. In their hearts they “believe” they deserve to be the best and win. Use your imagination to visualize and feel yourself enjoying playing at your personal best.
Being in the flow or zone happens when a golfer is totally engrossed in the process of playing. Happiness is experienced in the heart, not in the circumstances. The fun happens when the golfer’s mind and heart are entrained in the challenging activity that matches the person’s skills. You forget about yourself and are one with the feeling of euphoria that comes from being in love with playing the game. The mystery is then solved, and you want the feeling and game to go on forever!
Play “in the zone” with Joan
Entrain Your Heart & Mind for Peak Performances
Additional newsletters on all aspects of the mental golf game are available on the Positive Mental Imagery website at www.pmi4.com Archived Newsletters.
To train your brain for improving and trusting your short game, listen to the Positive Mental Imagery self-empowering guided imagery self-hypnosis CDs/MP3s in the privacy of your own home. Eight different empowerment audios are available at www.pmi4.com/cart
If these golf tips are of value to you and you would like to improve your mental golf game, call Joan for a complimentary 15-minute consultation. She can be reached by phone at 828.707.5478, by email at pmi4@bellsouth.net or through the Positive Mental Imagery website or blog.
“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 at https://amzn.to/3jEMVuv
All royalties will be donated to junior golf.
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