Tackling Yourself

Since this issue is dedicated to tackling sports, I’d like to give you a helpful drill, for not only tackling sports, but for every sport, and more importantly for life.

Of the many sports I’ve participated in over the years - one of them was American Football, which I played in high school, I realised early on that there was a fundamental element within yourself you must take control of, before your outer performance in any sport, or anything in life, will flow effortlessly and shine with perfection. Contact sports, due to their nature, can sometimes bring this home a lot quicker because if it isn’t your gonna get flattened!

What am I talking about? What could bring you greater performance in any area of your life by simply bringing it under control?

Negative Thinking
How many times does the voice inside of your head sabotage any action before it is even taken?
How noisy is it inside generally, consumed by thought? How unfocussed are your thoughts? Jumping form one random topic to the next, interspersed with good thoughts and bouts of negative thinking?

Or do you not even realize any more, have you become so identified with your compulsive thinking, so lost in it, you believe it to be who you are? Let’s get that out of the way first - you are not your thoughts! So how do we solve this? First you must become aware of it, when you are aware of your compulsive and primarily negative thinking you are no longer identified with it.

The Drill
This is a very simply drill that’s as old as life itself. I’ve heard many great authors including Dan Millman and U.S Anderson speak about it in their works.

All you simply do is go and buy yourself a notebook and a pen, and for the next week, or at the very least for the next two days, simply record all the thoughts you have. Don’t analyse them, don’t debate with yourself about what they should or shouldn’t be, just simply record every thought or thought pattern you have, pay special attention to the element of any thought pattern you get lost within.

After the week or few days is over, the first thing you’ll probably notice is the sheer volume of shit you carry around with you every single day! And next you will probably notice how predominantly negative your thinking is. Now take your notebook and burn it, you don’t need it, and as you watch it disappear in flame, realise also you do not need all the shit you carry around with you in your head, it’s baggage you don’t need, let the flame burn up your negative thoughts.

This drill is helpful to both people who have never examined their own thinking patterns before and to advanced meditators alike; even if you have done this drill before it is useful to do again. I recently did this drill again for two days when there was, what some people would classify as a storm on the surface of my life, it proved to be both interesting and useful in this time.

You have now been made aware of the problem, and by that very act you have begun to detach from your thoughts, and just by simply being aware now of your thoughts, you will find that they both start to quiet down and begin to shift to predominantly positive naturally. Now you are aware, there are at your disposal many tools to quieten your mind, and develop positive thinking patterns and beliefs, I suggest you do your own research into these, what do you think this site is all about………

The adventure awaits……

Kelso