Understanding and Controlling the Emotional Brain

Today’s episode features sports psychologist, Simon Capon.  Simon is a hypnotherapist, Master NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) practitioner, as well as the author of the book "It’s Time to Start Winning." Since 2006 Simon has worked with professional athletes, using variety of techniques including skills from NLP and hypnotherapy.  He has inspired athletes, footballers and numerous others to achieve national, international and world titles. Simon’s philosophy is simple, create self-belief and your behaviors and actions will change and so will your results, this will have the effect of reinforcing your belief as a winning performer. Belief in your ability is imperative at high-level competitive sport. For all of the time we spend on learning about training our muscles and nervous system, we probably look into the impact of our mind and belief systems on our results with about 1/100th of the intensity.  This is ironic, because the linchpin for so many athletes in their sport success is one of a limiting self-belief, rather than gaining a few more inches on one’s vertical jump or tenths of a second in sprinting speed.  Not only this, but one’s belief systems have a massive impact on how we train and condition our bodies to the point where a stronger mind can create better physical training results as well. I found Simon Capon’s book after coming across his hypnosis for sprinting (his is the only one I’ve been able to find across the entire world-wide-web).  Shortly thereafter, I read Simon’s book, and found it a tremendous source of information, particularly on using our physiology in a positive way to impact our mind.   On the show today, Simon talks about his process of assessing mental training needs, the link between our body and mind (and how to “hack” into our deeper emotional brain), how to unwire limiting belief systems, and the importance of the present moment (and how to live there, rather than in the past or future).  This was an awesome show that has relevance far beyond just the field of play. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:00 Simon’s introduction to Sports Psychology and Neuro-linguistic Programming 14:20 Simon’s process of assessing mental skills and needs 23:50 The link between our body, our posture, and how it connects with our minds and our performance 34:20 Methods for using one’s body language and posture to create a mental and emotional response 44:15 How we can get a better handle on our emotional brain to keep our performance consistent and at a high level 55:45 How to unwire one’s thoughts caused from prior negative feedback from a coach 1:00.30 How athletes can fully engage themselves in the present moment  “I had a great fear of what people expected from me as a player” “If I was more mentally prepared, I would have fulfilled my full potential (as a player)” “We need to create a state of mind that is exactly the same as whatever we are doing.  So whether we are training or in a competitive state it makes no difference.  The reality is that we are creating habits and automatic responses, so whatever you are doing, it is the same response time after time” “Whenever there has been a poor performance, we get a piece of paper and write all the ways we can make the next performance better… We don’t ask “what went wrong”” “We have to fail to be able to improve.  Failure is a must and it must be accepted as feedback” “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, there is always someone who will come along and take the top spot” “Whenever I come out, you either get all of me, or none of me, and my confidence comes purely from my physiology: proud, tall, shoulders back, head held high, confident in each step”