Managing emotions is an essential learning

I have always thought that the main skill a person must possess concerns the control of the emotions. A self-control that is positive and does not generate further mental and physical tensions. To achieve this goal I oriented my life to the study of emotions, so much so that at the age of 24 I gave my first seminar at university precisely on the psychophysiology of emotions. At the same time I had begun a long psychotherapeutic journey that lasted 7 years. And at the same time after conducting an experimental thesis on hypnotic age regression, I learned the exercises of autogenic training and meditation, which many years later I continue to practice.

Much of the work I do with athletes is based on these issues and educating them to manage the stresses of their daily lives. Today, in my opinion, there is a tendency to trivialize this work on self. The worst thing is to think that it is about learning how to do exercises, as if meditation or concentration were achieved simply by learning psychological techniques.

They are not. These are teachings that must be experienced as profound existential changes if they are to be useful in improving athletes’ sports lives. Sun Tzu wrote a phrase that I really like and that sums up well what I mean:

“Through order deal with disorder; through silence, deal with clamor: this is the method of controlling mental readiness. Turn distance into closeness; discomfort, into comfort; hunger, into satiety: this is the method of controlling vigor.”

Therefore, we need to search within ourselves for what is limiting us or bothering us or not allowing us to improve our competitive performances. If we have disorder in the mind, we must understand that we must seek order. Only at this point do psychological techniques intervene, as they are the tools we can use to achieve this goal. First, however, we must have understood what limits us. Often athletes do not like to compete on a particular field or against an opponent, or in certain competition situations they find themselves uncomfortable. With this understanding we must train ourselves to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations.

With this short blog I hope I have managed to explain what I mean by mental preparation for competition.