Contents
Why thinking like an Olympic athlete can help you in your day to day
Psychology
Self-dialogue or visualization of situations are two keys that can improve our management of stressful situations
If there is something that is synonymous with sportIt is about perseverance and effort. And nothing better to reflect it than big celebrations like the Olympic Games. Elite athletes not only undergo very demanding workouts, but also have a Psychological Support. Getting to that level requires a clear-cut mindset and the ability to handle potholes along the way.
TheraphyChat psychologists explain that, in general, athletes “are aware of the importance of the psychological part in stress management training and anxiety, to promote group cohesion in team disciplines or to maintain motivation. Such is the importance that, on many occasions, that work on self-confidence, flexibility in the face of difficulties or the work of avoiding distractions can be the key to achieving success.
The team of psychologists has gathered various psychological strategies of Olympians that can help us in our day to day, even if we are not athletes. With these techniques, you work on self-confidence, stress management or tolerance for uncertainty.
Athletes’ techniques to use daily
1. Training in problem solving: It allows us to define the problem, make decisions and put the chosen alternative into practice.
2. Jaccobson’s progressive relaxation: It is done by tensing different muscle groups and loosening them while keeping your attention on them. Thus, a state of calm is reached where we can visualize a place that transmits calm to us: this maximizes mental relaxation.
3. The practice of imagination and visualization: We must visualize the greatest number of details of a situation that has not occurred and that worries us. This will allow us to increase our self-confidence and decrease the level of stress.
4. Self-talk: The key is to detect when irrational, negative and inflexible thoughts appear to transform them at that moment into more rational, constructive, flexible and positive thoughts. With this tool, motivation and confidence are maintained and performance is improved.
The courage of Simón Biles
American gymnast Simone Biles has withdrawn from the ‘Tokyo 2020’ Olympics for mental health reason. This, says Laura Palomares, psychologist at Avance Psicólogos, has been “a show of resistance and courage.” Resistance, because in itself he is a person who must have a lot of pressure in his work as an athlete and this generates more anxiety. In addition, he applauds that his act, that an elite athlete speaks about these problems, makes them have a much-needed visibility.
“Taking into account that anxiety is something normal and natural that appears physiologically and indicates that we have something to review or something that is not right, this emotion is protecting us and it is something adaptive,” adds the psychologist. In addition, he assures that Simone Biles, instead of talking about it in such a way that it can continue to be stigmatized, what she does is bring it down to reality as something natural, “something that can happen to anyone, even the strongest like her ».
Keys to dealing with stress
Beyond these techniques, they comment from TherapyChat that there are certain elements that we must work, in general, to cope with stressful situations with greater integrity. First of all there is self-confidence, since it is essential to believe in ourselves to project that security to others. Also, it is important to be motivated. «Set measurable, achievable, relevant and temporal objectives. Facing moments of pressure with the right motivation allows you to stay focused and manage stress in a positive way, ”he says.
On the other hand, they talk about the importance of maintaining optimism and gratitude, as this helps to see what happens as opportunities to grow and improve. Finally, consider frustration tolerance work essential. «This helps to understand that defeats are part of sport and of life. We will not always be able to get what we want in these pressure situations and we will have to be able to accept those situations, “they conclude.