The mind body connection is powerful. I remember trying to use my thoughts to change how tired I felt while playing basketball once. I was so fucking exhausted but the game wasn’t over and I wanted to win. I had that painful feeling in my ribs that you get when you’re out of shape. I kept telling myself “no I’m not tired, I still have more energy, this feeling isn’t real, I can still push myself more.” The discomfort went away and I had a second wind of energy. I finished the game and played better than I did before the pain started. I know it was just a game of basketball but I felt so powerful because I was actually in charge of my body.
Discussion
I love this story. And I confirm with everything you just said. I experienced exactly the same. Fun fact. Also with bball.
My story: after my time in the army I actually started to intensively playing bball. I was not super talented. I’m not tall. (6ft). But my new mindset shift and relentless attitude put me in a position to play on a professional level making fiat. This was not possible with my skillset or my body but it was with my mind. A valuable lesson that I learned that way. Keep it up bro 👊🏼
I believe this. I think what separated stars like Kobe from the rest of the greatest athletes was his mindset. If you listen to Kobe talk about failure and fatigue in interviews, it’s pretty obvious he selectively chooses his thoughts to control his attitude and body.
You might enjoy the Amazon documentary “Look into my Eyes.” A small town teacher was able to get some of his school’s sportsball players to play through pain and exhaustion using some sort of hypnosis. I found it to be a really interesting exploration of the mind-body connection.
That’s interesting! What kind of things were said during the hypnosis? 🤔
It’s been a few years since I’ve seen it but what I do remember is that it wasn’t some kind of simplistic positive thinking exercise where you tell the kids they’re “the best sportsball player ever.” Rather, he taught these kids how to toggle their mind into a different state. As I recall, the trigger to enter the state was some sort of blinking sequence.
What’s really crazy is that this teacher wasn’t some kind of PhD psychologist or doctor. He’s just some random dude who bought a Teach Yourself Hypnosis seminar/manual from a magazine ad because he had an interest in the topic.
The documentary was made because his students started dying in unusual ways, and their parents tried to pin the deaths on the teacher, claiming that the kids had been under in a hypnotic state at the time of their demise.