EP35 Mindset Monday - Energize and Focus Your Mind

This is the empowered athlete podcast Mindset Monday. 10 minutes with Kari Schneider to learn new mindset tactics and tricks to optimize your performance in sport, business and life. Let me take you back to the summer of 2008. It was my first summer not playing for the national team. I had it off. And I got to train the entire summer with Kari on a specifically made program that was tailored to me, my injuries, my body and my goals for that next upcoming season. And I was 34 years old. Well, the result went back over to Turkey and won a European cup in incredible physical condition. Thank you to that program setting me up for the perfect season. Well, now you have access to the exact same thing. Hit email ksempowerconditioning.com that's KS for Kari Schneider and get started on one of Kari's incredible online training programs. The program is tailored to you. It has video of each exercise you're doing so you know what you're doing. Your reps are laid out, the sets are laid out. You can't go wrong. Reach out now to reach your best.

Okay, so last week we talked about how to calm and relax your mind. And I gave three steps for that. And it had to do with distraction, focus on specific things or broad things and allowing negative or other thoughts to come through in order to be gracious and have that calm and relaxed state. So this time we want to work towards a focused and energized state. So we're going to look at three ways to do that. Number one is visualization. So if you really want to be focused, this is a practice that's very important. First thing in the morning and last thing at night especially is visualization, visualizing what you want to happen. So if it's first thing in the morning and you're thinking about your day, visualizing that day, who you want to be in that day, what you want to accomplish. If you are being a certain way, what does that person performing at their top level do when they are being at their top level for that particular task? So visualizing that for your day, visualizing further out for your month, visualizing your long term outcome for that. Those are going to be key ways to get in the state of mind that you want to be for whatever that thing is. So that visualization is really key. And that's number one. Number two is movement. For movement, we want to get in our best state. And state is a combination of this psychological and physiological state thing. And movement is critical for your best focus and your best mindset. So movement is so important. But if you're in a situation where you are about to head into a meeting or you're about to have a big task, or you're about to do the big game, there's two things. You don't want to be in an overly excited state. You want to be in that optimal zone, that optimal state. And if you're in a sedentary job, but you're about to head into a meeting, it's not like you're going to go and do a workout outside and get fresh air and do a jog and get into your best physiological state. So you need to do something physical on the spot. On the flip side, for the athlete about to go for the game, if, or here's the other thing, think of a track athlete who's delayed their event start time because the event is behind. So in that situation they need to reprime or re engage their physiological state every time prior to their event. So making sure you have your own little physiological routine. One thing that we do in our house. You want to try this? I have my daughter here, she's 8 years old, she's seen us do this so many times that she knows exactly what to do. And she was being the MC at school and I had her jumping up and down on the spot before she was about to go because she's got a little nerves. But that physical jumping adds though changes the state of being in a nervous state to an excited state. And that's really important. So I might have her jump around, jumping on the spot and then I might say make your move. Yes. Make your move. Yes. Make a move. Yes. Say yes. Yes. Say yes. Yes. How do you feel?

Good.

So we'll do things like that, not only with them, but for us if we need to get in our best state. And it's a combination of knowing that right in that moment you're going to be in an optimal mind state. But part of it is using that physiological arm pump or jump up and down. Those are the types of things that sports teams have to do all the time. Getting ready and getting energized, not only physically, but mentally as well. So we talked about the visualization, we talked about the movement. Use an 8 year old for an example for getting in your prime state. And then the last one I want to focus on is breathing. We've used breathing for calming our state, for focusing our mind. But breathing can be used for energizing as well. And it's used a lot when it comes to really high performing groups like Navy SEALs or athletes or people who need to get in that prime state. So breathing, one of the ways you can use breathing is specifically box breathing for energizing and focus. So there's lots of ways we can use breathing to match our heart rhythm to our brain state or to relax and focus. But in this state, we want to energize and focus. We want clarity, we want focus and we want energy. So, so box breathing is a key way to do that. And the way that you do box breathing is in four second sets. So you do four seconds of an inhale, four seconds of a hold, four seconds of an exhale, and four seconds of a hold. So it's basically four by four, four seconds and four sets of that in doing the inhale, the hold, the exhale and the hold. So box breathing is a fantastic way to focus energy and keep that higher level of energy with focus and clarity. So those are the three for energizing and focusing today for your mindset Monday visualization, the movement for your physiology is key. And also trying something that uses your breathing and box breathing is the key when it comes to clarity, energy and focus. So I hope that helps for today. Have a fantastic Monday. Get that energy up for this week. That time change can be a bit of a lag, but you can do it. Your circumstances do not matter. It's who you decide to be, not what your circumstances do in your life. Have a great day, guys. Talk to you soon.