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Hypnosis - How can athletes and high performers use its power?

Hypnosis ??!!

Do a search for "Athletes who use hypnosis" or something similar. If you're wondering why the word "hypnosis" appears here, next to Mindset Wins and Attitude of a Champion and Peak Performance, consider that perhaps the athletes and teams you found in your search know something about winning. In other words, they all use it because it gives them what they need!

Hollywood and stage hypnotists have done a great disservice to legitimate hypnosis by conflating it with "mind control". They work hard to create the illusion that the hypnotist takes control of their client's mind. Not so - in fact, hypnosis for athletes actually gives the athlete more control over himself or herself. Most issues that athletes deal with (self-confidence, negative thoughts, lack of focus, etc.) are rooted in emotions. Emotions are rooted in the unconscious mind and hypnosis is the way to align the unconscious mind with conscious goals. 

Hypnotherapy is something different - hypnotherapy is like any other clinical therapy - it's used to deal with psychiatric issues. Sports performance that can be improved upon is is simply not a psychiatric issue.

What's Hypnosis Like?

Hypnosis is a totally normal process. All of us go in and out of trance states many times each day. Totally focused on a book or a movie or a video game is a trance state. Being in "flow" or "In the Zone" for a sport is a trance state that athletes strive for. In other words, we don't realize that we're in a trance state because we haven't been trained in how to recognize trance states.

"Hetero-hypnosis" (normally just called hypnosis) is when a hypnotist guides a client into a trance state. Self-hypnosis is when the athlete does it by themselves. The most important aspect of a trance state is the the conscious mind is willing to step aside and allow interaction directly with the unconscious mind. Emotions, beliefs, limitations, negativity all reside in the unconscious mind and working with that part of the mind is the best way to manage them.

Everyone's experience of hypnosis is different and may be different for different trance states (e.g. relaxed and open versus intensely focused). It may feel relaxed or floaty or heavy. It may feel happy; it may feel relieved that most of the monkey chatter of the conscious mind fades away. You're awake and alert. You'll remember as much as you would from a normal conversation.