Many of us may know or have heard how Hypnosis can be used to enable people to make great changes in their lives. Hypnotherapist Denise Nosrati gave up smoking successfully and easily after being a hardened smoker of thirty cigarettes for longer than she cares to remember. Many people have used Hypnosis to lose weight, conquer fears and phobias, or to eliminate exam or driving test nerves. There are many different ways in which the power of Hypnosis can be utilised to help people to achieve things which they previously never believed possible. Inner Vision Hypnotherapy has practices in Sheffield and Chesterfield and Denise has helped many clients make changes in their lives and feels extremely privileged to have been able to assist them to make these changes happen. She says “It has been wonderful to watch as clients have lost excess weight, got rid of fears, phobias and nerves and emerged as far more positive minded, successful individuals brimming with confidence and self-belief.”
The power which exists in our own minds should never be underestimated and Hypnosis is an exceptionally powerful way of tapping into that power. It was with this in mind that Denise undertook further studies and has now turned the focus of her work onto Hypnosis in Sport. She works with athletes from a variety of sports to help them to raise their game to a higher level. Hypnosis will work well on people of all ages, from any sport and at any level. An athlete can practice and train vigorously but if their mind isn’t in tip-top condition, or if there is any fear or doubt about any aspect of their life, then their performance is likely to be hindered considerably.
One of Denise’s current clients is twenty two year old Leeds born Daniel Gardiner. Daniel has always been involved in a wide range of sports since the age of thirteen and because of his all-round sporting abilities; he decided to focus on the decathlon. Since the beginning of 2010, Daniel has been training with the Olympic coach Toni Minichiello at the Institute if English Sport in Sheffield. He trains alongside double World Champion Jessica Ennis.
He says “I moved to Toni Minichiello in order to progress from the junior ranks to the senior ranks. As a very successful junior I wanted to emulate this success at the senior level. As a junior I was ranked 5th in the world for decathlon and I was also two time national decathlon champion and national long jump champion. Although Toni looks after my decathlon as a whole, I am also coached by former UK competitor Mark Johnson in Leeds for my pole vaulting”
Daniel turned to Hypnosis when he found that he had developed a mental block regarding the pole vault. Daniel explained that over the past two years he had found that he was becoming more and more nervous of pole vaulting and that during most of his training sessions in this discipline, he was doing more run-throughs than actual vaults. He couldn’t think of any particular incident which had caused this but was very much aware that his confidence in pole vault was at an all-time low even though in all other aspects of the decathlon he was thriving. In fact although Daniel’s goal had always been to compete in the Olympic decathlon, he was even considering turning his back on decathlon and concentrating on doing specific events instead. However, since he began having Sports Hypnosis, Daniel’s confidence has just grown and grown and he has recently managed a vault just 5cms short of his personal best. Daniel comments “it’s been a very long time since I’ve been able to even make an attempt at those heights!”
Pole vault coach Mark Johnson says “I can always tell when Dan has had a Hypnosis session with Denise as he turns up to training refreshed, confident and very much up for the session ahead. I think it’s great, because as a pole vaulter myself I know how much of a mind game it can be”.
Denise explains “Through hypnosis it was possible to speak to the powerful sub-conscious part of the mind and re-programme Daniel’s view of pole vaulting. It was important to help Daniel to re-frame his vaulting performance and make him feel good about his ability. I took him back to a time when he’d been really successful and pleased with how he’d performed and got him to re-create the feelings that he felt at that time. We worked on powerful techniques and strategies to enable him to bring these same feelings to mind during training sessions and competitions. Success breeds success and it’s important to focus on success because your thoughts, feelings and behaviour are always linked. When somebody’s confidence is low, there’s a tendency to over-think what they can’t do rather than maintaining a positive attitude. Daniel had been very successful in the past and desperately wanted to return to that level of competency, but unfortunately his lack of confidence was having a ‘snow-ball’ effect – the less successful he was in training, the more negatively he viewed his performance which led to the next session being even more unsuccessful.
By communicating with the sub-conscious mind while the conscious mind is at rest, permanent changes can be made. It’s all about getting the sub-conscious mind in agreement with what it is that you want to accomplish in life. Powerful suggestions and instructions were given to Daniel during the hypnosis sessions which actually made him WANT to pole vault again. Daniel noticed a difference right from the very first session in his motivation and self-belief and fully co-operated with me by bringing in sport specific goals for him to work on. He has been an absolute pleasure to work with and his performance in pole vaulting has improved considerably and he is now fully committed once more to pursuing his dream of competing in the Olympic decathlon.”
Daniel says “I’ve had a great start to the year. I won my first senior Championship in the Heptathlon in January at the England Combined Events in Sheffield. In February I was crowned British University long jump Champion with a leap 0f 7.28 and so I now believe there is a chance for London 2012 which would be amazing. I couldn’t think of anything more perfect than my first Olympics being in front of my home crowd. Training with Jessica Ennis also helps me a lot, she’s such a great athlete but at the same time she’s so down to earth. She’s always offering great advice and hopefully one day I’ll be up there with her!”
This is just one example of how Hypnosis can enable athletes to learn strategies to get them on the right track towards achieving their goals. And now it’s time to prepare for the superstars of world sport who will be coming to the UK for the greatest sporting show on earth, the London 2012 Olympics. As the host country the eyes of the world will be on Britain to watch the world’s elite sportsmen and women as they compete in 26 different sports to try and win one of 302 Olympic gold medals. And although many people will be thinking that with The Olympics being staged in London it really isn’t relevant to cities outside of the Capital but that really isn’t true. Our elite athletes are preparing for the Olympics in towns and cities all over the country and Sheffield is just one of them.
This is an exciting time for Britain as a whole with London providing the stage on which we will showcase some of our finest athletes. Most sports personnel are very aware of the importance of a positive mental attitude, but sometimes there’s a need to delve a little more deeply into how to work on strategies which will help them to develop the mental edge on their competitors. Our athletes are working hard right now honing their skills. There are some fantastic sports men and women out there who are pushing themselves and training hard so that they may achieve their dream in London 2012, but are they totally prepared to win the Mind Game?
Sports Hypnosis has enabled many people to unlock their true potential and eliminate obstacles or barriers they have encountered. Hypnosis can provide the difference between giving a good performance and an outstanding one, it can also be the difference between standing on the podium collecting Gold in 2012 or watching someone else do it!
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