Perfect Penalties Sample [3:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (505)

We’ve all seen it. An international soccer player (who of course is highly experienced) just crumbling under the pressure of taking a penalty kick. The crowd, the team, the manager, the fact that the whole match may be won or lost on their penalty shoot can unnerve, distract and even devastate the performance of the coolest player.

The right mind for the job

The more a player physically practices their penalty shots, the better their body ‘remembers’ how to do it. Thinking will just interfere with this process. One of the biggest myths in sports psychology is that you have to fill your head with ‘positive thoughts of winning’. Not so. When you are standing there about to take your penalty shot, you should have no thoughts at all – negative or positive. Why would this be?

In the zone

To do anything really well, we need to be in the right frame of mind. We need to be process focused rather than outcome focused so that we can go into what’s known as ‘flow’. So when the soccer player is taking a penalty he needs to be not focused on any possible outcomes of the shot, such as what others might think of him if he scores or misses, winning or losing, the team’s place in the league, etc. All that is not the shot. All that is outcome. Connected to, but not the same as, the penalty action itself.

Process is just about being ‘in the moment’, with no thought, just instinct. Being ‘in the zone’ or in a state of flow means total focus to the point where the whole of outside reality disappears. In this state, there is no crowd, no match, no other players. There is only the ball and the net and the self. And all these three merge into one at the crucial moment.

This state of mind is akin to a profound wide-awake hypnotic trance state. In the new psychology sports section download for hypnosisdownloads.com Perfect penalties I have aimed (if you’ll pardon the pun) to train the brain to reliably enter the zone state when taking penalties.

If a soccer player is good enough to score when taking a penalty, if he can score, then he should do so reliably.

I’m looking forward to some feedback on this one.

All the best.

Mark

 Know Yourself Sample: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (62)

From time to time we hear people talking about ‘finding themselves’ (have they looked behind the couch?). Alternatively, they might claim that they ‘need to get to know themselves’. This project may include holidays (sorry… spiritual journeys!) to the ‘mysterious east’ to join a commune, or such like.

But really, learning about how you ‘work’ and coming to a greater understanding of your own foibles, idiosyncrasies, strengths and weaknesses can be carried out anywhere. It doesn’t have to be considered – or treated as – a great ‘spiritual quest’.

For the latest hypnotic session I’ve been working on a session called ‘Know yourself’ for hypnosisdownloads.com.

A benefit of psychology

When we learn about psychology we can know others better – but in so doing we should also come to understand ourselves more. The new hypnotic download is meant to take some key psychological tools and encourage people to use these tools when appraising themselves.

For example, psychology has taught us about ‘cognitive dissonance’ – the way we unconsciously use rationalizations and justifications to explain away uncomfortable facts to ourselves. The more a person employs cognitive dissonance the further they move from self-knowledge.

The Know yourself session also encourages us to use the notion of the ‘Observing Self’ – the part of us that can stand aside from emotion and be detached (which doesn’t mean beating yourself up).

I have also included sections on automatic associations – habit versus free will – and the importance of unity versus lots of different selves for different occasions. Of course, it’s appropriate to behave differently in different circumstances, but not to totally change our identity when we are with different people!

This may seem like a rather ambitious download, but I am looking forward to feedback.

All the best

Mark

 Return to Education Sample [3:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (290)

We hear certain phrases all the time when people are signing up for the Uncommon Knowledge Hypnotherapy Diploma Course. Phrases like ‘I have been out of education for an awful long time!’ or ‘I haven’t been in a classroom for thirty years!’

Some of these people left education with PhDs and some just left education… early. But the point is it makes no difference. Learning to be a great therapist is a ‘doing’ skill and a ‘watching’ skill as much as an ‘understanding the role of emotionality in life’ skill or a ‘knowing what people need to thrive’ skill.

Of course, our Hypnotherapy Diploma is a very special kind of course, and rather different from your average adult education programme. But adults who are returning to education after many years can feel a frightening lack of confidence whatever course they embark upon. And why should that be so?

Bad classroom associations

A common cause of that scary feeling for many is an underlying belief that they are not particularly good at ‘academic learning’. Those who were made to feel dumb at school or college, or hated their time there for some other reason, are quite likely to have such a belief – often entirely misplaced.

One thing the new hypnotic download I’ve recently created for hypnosisdownlaods.com focuses on is building up the perceived differences between then and now. For example, the ‘success’ of education is highly susceptible to the motivation of the person being educated. It is so often the case that others attempt to educate us at a time when we are just not ready to learn (or possibly are too busy discovering other delights…). But an adult who is choosing to take a course is clearly indicating that they are motivated now.

The Returning to education hypnosis session is, I think, profoundly relaxing and reassuring, and seeks to create positive blueprints in the mind for relaxing, feeling confident and having a ‘learning mind’ in an adult education setting.

I hope many people find they can learn more enjoyably and vastly more effectively because of it.

Mark