Have you ever noticed your environment around you can change the way you act, feel, and view things? Let’s say you walk into a gym that you never been into, alone, and you do not know anyone that works outs there as well. You are probably going to keep to yourself, stare at your phone a lot to avoid eye contact, feel like not many people are friendly, stereotype everyone as meat heads, view yourself as an outsider, and try not to accidentally take someone’s machine, dumbbells, weights, squat rack, etc.
What you are doing is assuming these things due to a new environment, visualizing people a certain way before even stepping into the gym, and imagining these people aren’t friendly before even talking to them. Everytime you step into this gym, you are going to get this perspective. This means your visualization and imagery skills are strong, but now we have to use them to your advantage. A positive advantage.
Flipping the analogy over to a cozier topic, your bed. This is a familiar environment, your own space, your comfort zone (literally), your territory, your happy place. Even though this might be true about your bed, it doesn’t mean it is always easy to get good shut eye every single night. Everything you would do before walking into a new gym, do the same thing about your bed. Visualize a calming location, imagine being in your favorite place on earth, picture yourself hibernating, etc. Once you have the image in your head, find or place something in your room that that represents this image. Give it a connection so every time you visualize the image and see your object, you will be dead asleep in no time.
Here are three strong examples with pairing images with objects:
- Imagine being a bear ready to hibernate for the winter→ stuffed animal
- Visualizing swinging in a hammock on the beach → seashell on your dresser
- Picture laying on a cloud → the fan, moving, blowing air on your face
Written by:
Sarah Grippi
Basketball Mindset