Getting In The Zone: How To Be a Superhero Part 3 - Pure Bravery

Doc Ali’s Tight Mind Monday 5-29-17: Be Super-Brave!

In our weekly Tight Mind Mondays we’ve been working on having a super-hero summer. First, we created our persona and super-power. Next, we identified our super-villain and developed a tool to defeat him. In this Tight Mind Monday, we will look at how to cultivate “super-fearlessness” in our hearts and minds.

Are super-heroes fearless? I don’t think so. Super-heroes feel fear just like we do, but what they do differently is they feel the fear and still do what they need to do to save the world! We can do the same thing in the gym; feel our fear and still perform the skills that will move us forward.

Most of us run from fear. We do anything we can to avoid it. Our Tight Mind Tool this week is called, Brave Breath. When you do Brave Breath you learn to be with your fear, make friends with it, and develop the courage you need to overcome it. Most of the time, we teach exhaling your fear and nerves. In Brave Breath you do the opposite. YOU INHALE FEAR, LEARN TO SIT WITH IT, AND STILL BE OK! When you practice brave breath you become more and more fearless because you learn that your fear won’t kill you!

Here are your steps:

1. Imagine something you are afraid of. It might be a skill, something at school, or a situation in your life.

2. Take a deep breath, inhaling all the feelings of your fear. Feel it’s darkness or heaviness. Feel it in your heart and in your belly.

3. As you sit in your fear, imagine you are brave, strong and confident. Say to yourself, “the fear is there but i don’t care.”

4. Exhale courage, and a sense of lightness.

Repeat this process three times.  

Practice Brave Breath in and out of the gym.

Every time you do Brave Breath you learn to sit in fear with confidence and courage. As you do this, you build your super-hero bravery and strength. Brave Breath teaches us just how strong we really are. We can have fear and still be OK. When you make friends with fear, you become truly super-hero unstoppable!

Alison Arnold Ph.D. has been a mental toughness consultant to USA Gymnastics since 1997. For more information of Doc Ali and her summer on-line bootcamps, go to www.headgameswebcamp.com