Description

MENTAL TOUGHNESS TRAINING

MENTAL TRAINING

You should train your self-confidence and concentration in the same way that you train your strength and fitness. Even if you know everything there is to know about mental toughness, it is only when you start training and applying the principles that change will come.

SEVEN PROGRAMMES

As you can see, there are seven programmes included in the training. The length of the programmes varies between 10 and 25 minutes. You should train the same programme at least 5 to 7 times before moving on to the next programme.

WHEN and WHERE?

You decide when to exercise. If you have difficulty finding time, you can exercise when you go to bed. Although the exercise programmes end with suggestions about alertness and vigour, you can simply decide to ignore these suggestions. Instead, you can let the exercise transition into sleep. By being relaxed as you drift off to sleep, you will also enjoy better quality sleep. You also decide where to practise and whether you want to sit or lie down. You don't need to find an undisturbed environment either. It can actually be an advantage to train in an environment that is as ”distracting” as possible. Once you have learned to relax despite all the distractions around you, this in itself is an important part of MENTAL TOUGHNESS TRAINING.

ENJOY

Don't think of exercise as a ”duty” but as a privilege. Remember: Exercise doesn't take time – it saves time through the effects it produces. Also, remember to enjoy your exercise.

Good luck!

MENTAL TOUGHNESS TRAINING (MTT)

MTT is a systematic, long-term training programme designed to develop the abilities and attitudes that form the core of mental toughness, as described in the book Mental Toughness Training.

MENTAL TOUGHNESS TRAINING

Mental toughness is a concept that can be linked to both body and mind. In this training series, the seven most important areas of application have been selected. They are arranged in a development series and should be trained in the order in which they appear.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE MENTAL TOUGHNESS TRAINING PROGRAMMES

• THE TOUGH BODY
• THE TOUGH BASIC FEELING
• THE TOUGH SELF-ESTEEM
• THE TOUGH TARGETS
• THE TOUGH DISCIPLINE
• THE TOUGH ATTITUDE
• THE TOUGH CONCENTRATION

The training programme aims to help your body function even better. The programme is limited to the body's motor functions, but you can apply the same principles yourself to influence the body's other functions. Another aim is to make your ”body image” more positive by creating a greater friendship between you and the amazing creation that is your body.

Relaxed efficiency

Leif Jansson et al. have shown that the most important muscular difference between better and poorer physical performance in sports, work, on stage, etc. is the ability to relax the antagonists, i.e. the opposing muscles. However, in order to do this, one must first learn to relax all muscles. Only then can one, with the help of images, for example, activate the correct muscles while the antagonists remain relaxed.

Reduced base voltage

The programme therefore begins with a short exercise in tensing and relaxing. This part is short because I assume that most people have practised this before. If you have not, I recommend that you supplement the programme with Mental Basic Training. In the next step, you will learn how to relax through breathing. The relaxation that has been practised through physical tension/relaxation is now created through a ”trigger effect” of exhalation. The goal is to reduce the basic tension in the body to a minimum.

Ideomotor function

Every movement and performance consists of such a complex coordination of hundreds of sub-movements that it would be impossible to achieve this on a conscious and deliberate level. The body handles this best on its own. If you still want to control your body, the best way to do so is through images of the goal of the movements/performance combined with images of the movement/performance itself. Create the goal image and the performance image and then ”let it happen”. In the programme, you can practise this by getting your left hand to start floating in the air.

Mind and Buddie

It will be easier to apply the exercise ”Image – let it happen” if you divide yourself into the part that creates the image (”Mind”) and the part that carries out the ”order” (Buddie, nickname for ”body”).

Be kind to your body

The programme also aims to develop a friendship with admiration and trust in Buddie, your amazing body (Buddie is a nickname for buddy).

The aim is to create an inner sense of security and safety. It should exist as a ”basic feeling” throughout life and form part of the basic state into which the future you are creating will be programmed. To this end, I have for many years used the symbol of an ”inner mental space”.

The mental home

In this programme, this is expanded into an ”inner mental home” with seven additional rooms. The ”mental room” still remains, but now as a central room or ”experience room".

The seven rooms

Behind the centre room is the library, where all memories are stored. Negative memories can be ”drained” there, while positive ones are picked out and taken to the experience room or the VM room. In front of the centre room is The World Cup room. VM stands for ”Visions and Goals,” and it is in this room that the future is created and programmed. To the left of the central room is bedroom with your ”magical” bed. Sleeping there often means deeper, more relaxed and more refreshing sleep. To the right of the central room are two rooms, conference room, where you can confer with your ”inner advisor” or with your various ”ego states.” The second room is the dining room, where mental dishes are served that give you energy. There is also a cleaning cupboard and bin bags. There is also a cellar as a symbol of your subconscious and a attic as a symbol of the superconscious, i.e. the high values and values, the place of meaning and existential questions.

Self-esteem is fundamental to well-being and good performance. Self-image is a summary of self-respect, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-assurance, inner dialogue, etc. Unfortunately, for most people, self-image is a product of how they interpret life. When things go well, it rises; when we experience failure, it falls. Mental training reverses this relationship and says that it is your responsibility to first strengthen and improve your self-image and then let it influence what happens. However, this cannot be done through intellectual reasoning but must be done through programming in the mental space. In the programme, the ”Jante Law” is replaced by its opposite, the principles of the ”Viking Law”.

Before starting the programme, you should select three goals for the future. These can be from the same or different areas of life. The goals should be transformed into situation-based images, i.e. they should be concrete future situations that symbolise that you have achieved three important and attractive goals.

This reinforces the determination to implement the measures necessary to achieve the programmed goals at any cost. This also includes feeling greater pride the tougher the training is.

Life becomes what we make it. An important part of this is our attitude and interpretation of reality. For example, by adopting a more optimistic interpretation of what is happening, we can improve our performance in sports, work and school. In addition, we gain better health as a bonus. However, our way of experiencing ”life” is so programmed and automated that it cannot be changed through desires or willpower, but through programming in the mental space. Here you will receive, among other things, a pair of ”life glasses” with which you can perceive, interpret and program life in a better and more positive way.

The ultimate goal of mental training is to be able to live in and enjoy a life process (lifelong development) where concentration on the present and focus on the process are central. To prevent the future and the past from disturbing the present, the future is programmed so that it guides but does not interfere. In the same way, the best is taken from the past. The created future and the selection from the past are linked to the present so that they guide and energise the development process that becomes central to a good life.

Float

This creates a sense of flow, which involves both ”external success” with peak performance in a relaxed and energy-saving way, and ”internal success” in the form of feelings of satisfaction, meaning, joy, balance, security, harmony and happiness. The programme is the start of a training process to achieve these goals.

Finally

With this training, you have embarked on a journey that will hopefully never end. Perhaps you can now inspire others to join you on this exciting journey.