I am a cheetah!

I was reading an interesting article today on "positive self-talk". I remember the first time I heard the term "self-talk". It was last year at one of my Running Room clinic sessions. I was training for the Centennial Half Marathon, and we had a guest speaker one night for our classroom portion of the clinic. He was a sports psychologist. He was a great speaker, and really easy to listen to, partly due to his great British accent.

I'm not sure what it is about psych stuff that I find funny. Maybe it's not even that I find it "funny", maybe it just makes me uncomfortable because I grew up in an environment where we didn't really talk about how we were "feeling" or why. At any rate, the sports psychologist with the British accent was talking about the power of positive self-talk.

Basically, "self-talk" is the running commentary in one's head. [Ooh. That pun was so not intended! But I digress...] In keeping with the running example, I could be running along a trail, and think to myself (almost without even realizing it!), "I'm so tired, this is a hard run, my shin is really bothering me, etc..." This would be negative self-talk. The flip side would be "Wow, I'm almost finished, I can't believe how beautiful it is out here, only two more kilometers until I get my lungs back, etc...."

Anyway, it was one week before our event and after giving a lecture/pep talk, the sports psychologist said he'd like to lead us in an exercise, and asked us all to close our eyes and take a deep breath.

Now you have to picture this: the class is taking place right in the middle of a busy Running Room store. There are people registering for events, trying on jackets, and getting their feet analyzed by staff all over the place. I felt a little goofy, but the rest of the class seemed to go right along, so I closed my eyes and breathed. Ummmmmmm...........

Then he started his British monologue:

"You are running through the forest....

You are in good form...

Your arms are pumping...

Your legs are strong...

You are fahhhst and fluid. You are a cheetah!"

At that point I lost it, and laughed out loud. Really loud.

Brit Shrink didn't appreciate my mirth. My colleagues at Second Cup did after that, though. Whenever it would get really busy in the mornings, and I was the Barista, I would close my eyes and recite out loud [really bad fake British accent included]:

"I am fast and fluid. I AM A CHEETAH!"

My co-workers and I would crack up. Customers just thought I was cracked up (in a different way.) Ahh, those days were great. But I digress.

The article I read today reminded me of that experience, and the actual insight I did gain out of it. I think "self-talk" is a very valid concept; Biblical, even. I know it is my tendency to let my mind wander and not really monitor where my thoughts or self-talk is going. And then I wonder why I tend to have a negative outlook a lot of times.

This part of the article intrigued me:

Pessimists and optimists have predictable responses, Boothman explained. The pessimist will look outside, see the rain and think: "Now my day is ruined." The optimist will think: "Hey, free car wash."

Boothman said that by the time we're adolescents, we've established those patterns in our thinking. But not to worry. It's actually very simple to change the pattern.

It's all about how we make sense of our experiences. The cycle that Boothman named "Making Sense" starts with our experiences, and leads through your thoughts, actions, habits and personality all the way to your destiny, which Boothman said, is determined by our the first step in the cycle: our words.

MAKING SENSE

Experiences >> Words >> Thoughts >> Ideas >> Actions >> Habits >> Personality >> Destiny

Instead of repeating your mistakes, Boothman said, try being more flexible and changing your self-talk. Flexibility is an important tool in changing your negative patterns. "As we grow up, we get very inflexible," he said. We have to be willing to change our patterns.

Boothman's theories are based around neuro-linguistic therapy, which is the way we use language to program our neurology. By breaking down the words we use in interpreting our experiences, we can change them.

Changing the words you use, re-making your self-talk, Boothman said, will change your destiny.

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[Argh. I can't figure out how to put my margin back to normal after using the "block quote feature"...]

I have to say, I agree with a lot of what Boothman says in the article. However, I wonder if his cycle is a little mixed up? I would put "words" after "thoughts" and "ideas", but maybe that's just because I tend to think a lot before I say things.

At any rate, it's something worth considering.

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"My mouth will speak wisdom, And the meditation of my heart will be understanding."

Psalm 49:3