By Michael Kraeuter
I have been tapping into the power of my mind since I was a youngling. I grew up with many ailments such as asthma, allergies etc…I missed more school sometimes than being in an actual class. My mom had to homeschool me just so I could keep up at some points. In the depths of my memory, I recall this one time I was sick, and my mom told me to visualize that superman was flying around inside of me knocking out all the baddies to help me get better. I have a very active imagination probably due to being isolated in my house when I was younger. These practices have become common place to me during my life. I always tell people I live in “Mike World”. I suppose that this is the world I visualize using my imagination.
What does this have to do with awareness and training our minds…?
We hear sayings all the time such as.
- Mind over matter.
- Sports are 90% mental and 10% physical.
- Your mind will quite a thousand times before the body will.
- Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.
- Whatever your mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.
I could go on and on…
This leads to my time working towards my BS in Exercise Science and Sports Studies at Rutgers University. I opted to take a class called Sports Psychology. We delved into how the mind plays such a huge part in sports performance. One topic that really caught my attention was mental visualization. So much so that I wrote my semester paper on the topic.
Why did mental visualization catch my attention?
The main reason was is that I was fascinated that I was already doing it. Around this time, I was competing for Rutgers on their Varsity Swimming & Diving team. I only started competing in swimming when I was a senior in high school. Just to let you know how much experience I had, I learned how to do butterfly during the warm-up of one of my high school swim meets just so we could have someone compete in the 200 IM (I finished it legally by the way scoring a point for our team!).
Everyone on the team had basically been swimming their whole lives and I was mostly self-taught. I used the power of visualization to improve. Our coaches videoed us so I could see what I looked like in the water. During and after practices I asked very specific questions to help hone my mental picture of what I was doing in the water. I also listened to every word the coach said and worked on implementing it.
When I was swimming during practices it was almost like having an out of body experience. While my body was swimming my mind’s eye was sitting in the stands, walking up and down the pool deck while I swam. I was literally watching myself swim and giving myself constant feedback. I watched my teammates swim and watched videos (this was way before YouTube, so videos were much harder to come by). While I was watching those videos, I imagined myself doing what they were doing. I literally dreamed and daydreamed of swimming. I was not only practicing in the water but out of the water. Even before races I would have a video playing in my mind on how I wanted to swim the race. The crazy thing was, what played out in my mind is almost exactly what happened in the pool. There were times when I would visualize a new technique and when I got in the pool my body would automatically be doing what I practiced in my mind.
Looking back, the most important practices were the ones out of the water. Those practices allowed me to rehearse things over and over the way I wanted it. I could adjust and make changes without getting fatigued. I even got to the point that I could feel the water and smell the pool.
Right now, we have the most perfect time to really hone and learn these skills. To reflect and turn our attention inwards. Visualization is just one area of mental training.
There is the practice of the breath or pranayama, awareness of thoughts and emotions through mindfulness, body awareness through somatic practices, attitude awareness through recognizing self-talk.
This mental training gives us skills and tools that will help anyone become better humans, be kinder, more compassionate, more patient, more daring, more focused, you name it. This is essential equipment for anyone in life. These are lifelong skills and tools that will help you work with your negative minds in and out of the pool and feel good in our own skins. If we could raise awareness of all individuals, we would create a space full of curiosity, growth, and most importantly fun!
This all sounds great but how do we start?
I believe in simple is always better. Einstein once said, “everything should be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.” Not saying this process is simple or easy.
The simplest thing to start out doing is anchoring our attention on the breath and just sitting with your thoughts. Take away distractions such as your phone, Netflix, etc…yes, you will have to be “bored” for this. Most of the time we pull out our phones, turn on Netflix or something like this to distract ourselves from what may be going on inside. Some of us may be realizing emotions and thoughts coming up during this time because we are less distracted than we have ever been. During this process, maybe write down what is going on inside like in a journal. Most importantly when doing this, do this non-judgmentally. Remember the things going on are just thoughts and emotions, they are neither right or wrong, good or bad. We are just getting them out into the open to be heard.
The simple act of breathing and noticing our thoughts and emotions will allow us to start on the process of becoming more aware. We may start noticing our breath more, our body, thoughts, emotions, self-talk, etc…It is like peeling off layers of an onion, you first just need to get started.
Be like water my friends!
Here is a series of videos I’m working on called Mindfulness with Coach Mike. This is where I do my best teaching and delving into the power of mindfulness. They are geared toward kids but hopefully anyone can get something out of them, if anything they will put a smile on your face.
ABOUT MIKE KRAEUTER
At the current moment Mike is the Head Coach at the BLUE WAVE Swim Team in Ashburn Virginia. Holds a BS degree from Rutgers University in Exercise Science and Sports Studies and is a Certified Human Potential Coach. His background in coaching ranges over 20 years in the coaching profession, working with all levels honing his unique perspective he likes to refer to as Holistic Habit Optimization, where everything becomes practice. Looking at yourself as a holistic being full of stacked up habits learning to optimize them for a life that flows like water or more simply H2O – Life. Be like water my friends!
You can learn more about Mike on his Facebook page here.