“Your thinking
programs your subconscious mind.”
Behavioral therapy research has
yielded some useful methods to treat health problems and generally enhance body
functioning, using only the power of thought and concentration. One widely-used
modern therapy is biofeedback, in which a person is trained to use his or her own
thoughts to treat a variety of medical conditions. It consists of providing the
patient with feedback about his or her own physiological processes (which we
are not normally aware of), allowing them to gain control over these processes
and modify them to enhance healing. Feedback is provided by a polygraph – a
medical instrument that records several physiological processes simultaneously,
such as pulse rate, blood pressure, and respiration rate – and the patient
needs to focus attention on these signals and modify them using his or her own
thoughts. Biofeedback can effectively treat a variety of conditions, including
hypertension, headaches, and anxiety.
The power of concentration is still
a mystery, and we can only wonder about the limits of our thinking power. As
neuro-technology advances, we are witnessing some remarkable results that only
a few years ago were unthinkable. Mr Hans-Peter Salzmann is a living example
(Spenney, 2003). This man suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a
rare condition that affects voluntary movements, and he is paralyzed. Mr
Salzmann was fitted with what became known as a ‘thought translator’ device, a
computerized apparatus that responds to two electrodes implanted in his scalp.
By manipulating his own thoughts, Mr Salzmann first learned to move a cursor on
a computer screen and is now able to write, using his thoughts as the only
input. After many years of practice he can now write more than 250 words a day.
Even though this will never win him a job as a typist, the repercussions of his
achievement have opened up a vista of incredible potential and served as a
real-life example of the untapped capabilities of our mind.
Mental power has been
particularly useful in sport, with the development of mental training. Broadly
speaking, this consists of rehearsing in the imagination the movements of the
body involved in a particular task; that is, to practice in imagination. When
movements are performed in the imagination, it can have a similar effect as performing
them during actual physical training. Research has shown that visualizing the
movements of a particular sporting activity can produce up to 50% of the result
of normal physical training – and this method can be used for things like
building muscles, developing body coordination, and enhancing performance.
Mental practice is simply doing
exactly what you would do physically during training, but in imagined pictures.
Tennis players and golfers picture themselves going through the swing, hitting
the ball accurately, and performing at their peak. Body builders practice mentally
lifting weights. Athletes imagine themselves rehearsing their techniques.
This type of mental training has
been called ideomotor training because it produces an effect on performance (motor)
solely through the power of thought (ideo).
A typical mental
practice experiment has been to test two groups on particular tasks, for
example basketball throws, with group 1 practicing physical tosses and group 2
practicing only in their imagination – a third group of subjects who do no
practice at all is used as the control. The results consistently demonstrate
that practicing in imagination and practicing with real physical throws both
improve performance significantly compared to the control group.
“We are constantly developing our skills in
order to become more proficient competitors and better partners, and for this
the brain is constantly training and reinforcing, updating existing skills and developing
new ones.”
No comments:
Post a Comment