Subject: Unleash Your Evolutionary-Self of Strength, Power, Cunning, and Success
Date: 2019-07-16a
Dear Athlete,
You are the product of millions of years of successful evolution. Billions upon billions of beings have succumbed to a stronger foe, leaving only the strongest. You now stand at the top of that mountain. Your heritage is one of strength, power, stamina, reflex, cunning, and wisdom. You have all that within you. The professional, the victorious, the successful, the prosperous have all tapped into this reservoir. How about you? Do you want to know how to unleash your evolutionary-self that holds your strength, your power and your success?
Athletes have worked for years, with thousands of hours of practice building their mental and physical strength, stamina and dexterity. Yet, with all that, there is something more. That something is the synergy that can be had when mind, body, emotions and consciousness are working in harmony.
I wrote the enclosed book, Symbiotic Psychology: The Synergy Between Mind, Body, Emotions, and Consciousness for athletes to understand how mind, body, emotions, and consciousness work as a team. Each system is the result of billions and billions of conquests where only the strong, the powerful, the cunning, the clever and the wise have survived. The time has come for each athlete as an individual to tap into that wealth of power that lies quietly, silently – dormant – within everyone.
The “I” Team: Mind, Body, Emotions, and Consciousness
The mind, body, emotions, and consciousness have evolved together to work together as a team. This each athlete’s “I” Team. An athlete is physically strong, but ate they “I” Team strong? Is their mind, body, emotions, and consciousness working together in harmony? Are they honoring the millions of years of evolution that make up their heritage?
The key to understanding the harmony between mind, body, emotions and consciousness is to understand what emotions exactly are. Emotions are an individual’s conscious perception of their body’s biochemical balance created by the cognitive activities of the mind. Emotions are not just something that feels good or feels bad, although that becomes a very important distinction.
An athlete’s emotions have an evolved relationship with their mind and body such that when they think they are strong and their body actually is strong, their emotions feel good. Different emotions are perceiving different bio-chemical conditions of the body such that as an athlete continues to feel good, their body’s biology will be good. (Reference Section 2: “Emotions as an Evolved Biological System of the Symbiotic Psychology book.)
An athlete’s emotions are indicators of their health and well-being. Emotions are telling them that the harmony of their body’s biology is becoming strong or weak. Negative feeling emotions are the body’s way of saying “you are creating conditions within your body that will cause, if it hasn’t already, weakness, lethargy, clumsiness, ineptness and sickness.” Positive feeling emotions are the body’s way of saying “you are creating healthy, strong and vigorous conditions in your body.”
By entertaining negative emotional thoughts, an athlete is weakening their body’s biology. By entertaining positive emotional thoughts, an athlete is strengthening their body’s biology. This correlation between mind, body, and emotions is such that must exist for homo-sapiens to have survived their evolutionary challenges. (Reference Section 2: “Emotions as a Biological System”) For your body’s health, what feels good is good and what feels bad is bad.
Now a “feels good is good” attitude is fine if a person is living in a world of one. But they are not. A person has to do more than find thoughts, actions, and behaviors that feel good for their physical health. They have to find thoughts, actions, and behaviors that feels good for their physical health and feels good for themselves as a person living in a society. Driving in a fancy car and having expensive clothes to wear may feel really good but being thrown into jail for theft isn’t going to do an athlete’s sports career any good – if not just plain destroying it.
Don’t Confuse Physical Pain with Emotional Pain.
A pulled muscle, a strained knee or a bruised hip are just some minor injuries most athlete’s are probably are well acquainted with. “No pain, no gain” may make sense with developing your physical prowess. But what about emotional pain? What does emotional pain mean? Should an athlete just ignore it and hope it will go away? Maybe. But that is developing emotional ignorance and an ignorance to their body’s health, harmony, and well-being.
It is far better to be emotionally aware and to consciously take steps to maintain an emotional sense of well-being. One may just have an “emotional bruise” that will heal easily. But just as physical trauma is serious business, emotional trauma from life’s journey – and especially the emotional trauma from brutal injuries and accidents during practice or competition – must be understood and be carefully nurtured. Emotional trauma from sport injuries can easily affect an athlete’s performance long after their physical recovery. (ref. Section 7.2: “Trauma and Addiction Corrupting the Cognitive-Emotional Relationship” of the Symbiotic Psychology Book.)
Negative feeling emotions are an athlete’s body’s signal that “you are screwing up.” Mind and body are getting out of sync. Biochemically, something is going out of harmony. Maybe an athlete’s coordination will be off which affects their timing and therefore their muscles won’t be doing exactly what they thought they would/should.
The ways and means of evolution have a tendency to eliminate those who don’t respond to their emotional systems. In sports, those who don’t attend to their emotional signals may be left with their shot, their kick, their swing, their vault, their “whatever” looking like a rookie. The “air ball” in basketball is a great example. So is a missed field goal in football, a missed goal in soccer and a bad putt in golf.
What you saw was mis-perceived.
Therefore, your aim was mis-conceived.
Your muscles were deceived,
because your emotions were not believed.
With the presents of emotional pain or emotional trauma, an athlete is more likely to get injured. Something – whether it’s their muscles, nerves, the senses like perceptional awareness, or ‘whatever” – something is not working in harmony. The “I” Team is in trouble. When an athlete is in competition and pushing themselves to their limit….when they are putting tremendous load and pressures and heavy demands on their body….when they need all of their parts working together in harmony….what are ANY unresolved negative emotions going to do to upset one’s performance? How bad are these unresolved negative emotions going to affect an athlete’s power, strength, cunning or awareness?
Emotions mean something. Negative emotions mean, “Something is NOT working together! Something is NOT in harmony as it was before! Something – we don’t know what – is going to give!” BLAM! POW! SNAP! And they are out for the season. Their emotions were telling them something wasn’t quite rights.
Will you listen to your “emotional speak” now?
Make right your emotional might;
without that light there ain’t no sight.
Tonight… fight smoke tonight
OR Tonight…. Be Smoke tonight!
Emotional pain – ain’t no gain!
Ain’t no gain with emotional pain.
Being Emotionally Strong Means Being Emotionally Aware and Wise
Do the pressures of the next challenge make an athlete reach into their evolutionary soul to bring forth all their power, strength, courage, and stamina? Is there so much excitement and anticipation to keep still? This is the emotionally positive what-if-game. In fact, there is no what-if with such excitement and anticipation, there is only this is “my game.”
Or, have an athlete’s thoughts turned them numb to where their brain is no longer working? Has the spectacle of the event made the brain – like a pinball machine gone “TILT” – unresponsive and unable to compete? Are their thoughts creating nervous energy to the point that they can’t sit still, not because of excitement, but because of nervousness and fear? Are they focusing on an emotionally negative what-if-game?
An athlete’s power comes from being and maintaining an emotional state of feeling good. Negative emotions are also wonderful. They have their place. They are telling a person exactly what they do not want. But don’t stay there dwelling on what is not wanted. Make a diamond out of the charcoal. Use that negative emotion to find thoughts and actions that feel good and go there! Go to where your power and strength are.
Section 8.2: “Cognitive-Emotional Rehabilitation and Strengthening Exercises” outlines a list of tools and exercises to use and to get one’s off of the mentally negative weak and onto the mentally positive strong. Emotions are like a perpetual coach signaling which is which. These are an athlete’s Superhero exercises to get their mind and emotions working together as a synergistic whole. Synergy is where 1+1 = 3 or 5 or even a lot more. The greatest athletes get to a place where their mind, body, emotions and consciousness work as a synergistic whole. These athletes become the MVP because they became greater than themselves.
A Prevent Strategy Is a Losing Strategy
A prevent defense, a prevent offense, a prevent anything-fence usually means somebody is focusing on something they don’t want to happen. A prevent strategy means a person is trying to prevent something from happening (focusing on what they don’t want) rather than making something happen (focusing upon what they do want).
When focusing upon what they don’t want – when negative emotions are present – they are weakening the synergistic harmony between mind, body, emotions, and consciousness. To maintain synergy, a person must focus on what they want.
Don’t prevent what you don’t want. Make happen what you do want!
What is your “prevent offense/defense” in your sport where you are weakening your physical and mental abilities and laying the foundation for defeat? What emotional shadow do you leave lurking around because “it’s not a big deal?” It is a big deal. What shadow are you not paying attention to? What lingering thought are you ignoring that eventually may lead to your downfall?
- Maybe your downfall will come from nagging thoughts of an old injury.
- Maybe competition brings forth garbage and conflicts and instead of being fun and exciting, competition is misery and pain.
- Maybe a recent argument with a girlfriend or a divorce will trip you up.
- Maybe you and your fans are still celebrating beating the undefeated, number one team in the nation in the semi-finals while your next opponent – in the finals – is busy preparing to beat you.
- Maybe your fist game of the season is with a “cupcake” and while you are just “going through the motions, your “cupcake” is tapping into their power, strength, cunning, and success of their evolutionary-selves by working hard and by putting all their focus and energy into beating you!
- What unresolved shadow is waiting to take you off your game?
- What shadow is lingering in the dark?
Resolve those hidden shadows by using them. See these issues as the charcoal that brings forth diamonds. They tell a person what they don’t want. Now each athlete must do the work to find and then focus on what they do want; and make diamonds. When a person is succeeding, they will feel the positive feeling emotions that strengthens the synergistic harmony between – and within – mind, body, emotions, and consciousness. But, it takes the heat of a great battle to really get the thrill and excitement of that good feeling energy flowing through your veins and into your desire for a victory.
Check out another type of strengthening exercises in Section 8.2 of the Symbiotic Psychology book.
Becoming a Master: Understanding Yourself as an Opponent
The real game, match, meet, challenge is with yourself. You are your real opponent. Are you dwelling upon what you want, or what you don’t want? Are you strengthening and unleashing your “I” Team or not? Your emotions will let you know. Your emotions are telling you if you are creating a synergy between – and within – your mind and your body…or not.
Now is the time to include emotional awareness and transformation training with your physical and mental training. Here, winning means you are finding your heritage, your evolutionary-self of strength, power, stamina, reflex, cunning, wisdom and the success that comes with pivoting off of negative feeling emotional awareness and onto positive feeling emotional awareness.
Each and every time you succeed in using an emotionally negative feeling thought to find and to move into an emotionally positive feeling thought, is a very important victory. Celebrate every emotional transformation. Transforming negative emotions into positive emotions is your most important victory.
By getting off the emotional pain-train, you will reconnect with your evolutionary-self and the synergy that lies within. The synergy between mind, body, emotions and consciousness will unleash a new and greater strength, power, stamina, reflex, cunning, and wisdom.
This is your evolutionary heritage. This is your evolutionary-self. This is your “I” Team. This is you.
Good Luck,
Andrew Jackson
https://emotional-evolution.com/
Post Script:
I invite you to read Section 8.2: “Cognitive-Emotional Rehabilitation and Strengthening Exercises” and especially Section 8.2.7: “Sports” where you can find a variety of methods for empowering your emotional game. I also wrote Section 7.7: “The Wisdom of a Champion: Let Joy Reign” and Appendix (A): “Nets on Fire: Making the Air Electric” to give you a better feel for what your emotional game should be.