If you’ve been following me for long, you’ll know I’m a firm believer in using affirmations, or positive statements, which you repeat over and over to yourself (they can be so incredibly powerful – trust me I’ve even used them at the dentist!).
And you’ll have noticed that I’m always going on about concentrating on what you WANT instead of what you DON’T want and how important that is in helping you to focus on what you need to DO and how you need to BE for your competition.
This week I had an email land in my inbox from one of my lovely skaters asking for a little bit of help because she was feeling nervous about an upcoming performance. Well I happen to know that like many of you, this particular skater is very creative, and so I shared one of my favourite creative exercises to help you to focus on what you WANT and turn it into your own customised affirmations.
Here’s what you do:
- First of all think about your upcoming competition or event. You are probably experiencing all sorts of feelings and emotions about it. Get a notepad and write down a list of all the emotions you are feeling about it, good and bad. Use your imagination to think about the emotions you might be feeling on the day, too.
- When you can’t think of any more, look at the list and circle all the negative emotions and feelings you have written there. They will be all the ones you DON’T want to feel! They’ll be things like “worried” “anxious” “nervous” and so on.
- Next, using some brightly coloured pens, underline all the feelings and emotions which are positive and which you would like to be feeling on the day.
- Now go back and look at all the circled words again and think how you would like to feel INSTEAD. Write down the new, positive feelings and underline them too.
- You will now have a list of underlined, positive words. Find a fresh piece of paper, take all of these (positive) words and make a brightly coloured ‘word cloud’ from them. Be as creative as you like and make it decorative and beautiful. Make sure the words are nice and clear so you can read them easily.
- Stick the word cloud on your wall, and before you go to bed say the words out loud to yourself, starting with “I am…”
Download this poster for your wall to remind you what to do: Affirmations with Emotions
In this way you are creating your own customised affirmations. Try it out anytime – they are really effective at keeping you positive and focused on how you want to feel. And if you’re feeling positive there’s much more chance that you’ll be performing well and with confidence.
You can download my Affirmations audio track here. I use this with my one-to-one skaters to get them feeling motivated and positive about training or competitions. Listen to them every night before you go to sleep.
