Positive thinking that can spawn solutions is possible through positive self-talk and awareness. Practice positive thinking exercises to maintain motivation and success with advice from a sport psychologist in this video on horseback riding techniques.
Hi, I'm Tanya Johnston. I'm a sports psychology consultant and it's my job to help riders be psychologically prepared and mentally tough. In this segment we're going to talk about positive self-talk and creating solution oriented thinking. We all have tapes that play in our minds all the time. We say positive and constructive things to ourselves and sometimes we say negative things to ourselves that probably are not helpful in helping us attain our goals. The first key to working on your self-talk is awareness. What kinds of things do you find yourself thinking when you're faced with a challenge? There you are walking a big class on a Sunday, an important classic perhaps. And are you in the ring then thinking, oh, this is great, let's go do this, or are you thinking, whoa, I'm not sure my horse is going to jump the water. You know, those kinds of thoughts, when they start spiraling in to negative self-talk really hamper our ability to ride well in the ring. So our first and most important key in self-talk is awareness. What are we thinking and is is helpful or hurtful. When we start looking actually changing our self-talk, we want to be sure that we're not simply throwing a blanket over something and saying, oh, well just stay positive, right? So if you have, let's say there'[s a new jump in the ring at home, that you're having a lesson and there's a jump that came in to the ring that your trainer put there that you think looks really spooky. Is is going to help to say, oh, I'm excited to jump the new jump; when A you really don't believe it and Bit actually doesn't do much to help you be successful. so the real key is shifting from a negative thought; let's say you're driving to the bar and that's a cold windy day with lots of rain and stormy. And you think to yourself, ah, my horse is going to be really tense and high today and I'm probably going to have a bad lesson. Instead of thinking that way we want to shift gears right? But we want it to be realistic and we want it to be helpful. So, instead we might have a thought like, alright it's cold and windy today I really need to focus on my breathing. And so instead you say to yourself, with each breath I take I will be more relaxed and my relaxation will help my horse. I am going to stay tall and centered in the saddle today, so that my horse knows that I am there for him. Those kinds of thoughts are actually helpful. They still address the situation but they do so in a realistic and positive manner.
Specialty: Sports Psychology
