When Thomas Edison
had a problem to solve, he would often attempt to "fall asleep" at his
desk with ball bearings clutched in each hand. Just as he was about to
"drop off," the ball bearings would fall to the floor activating him,
and he would often return from the drowsy state with an image of the
problem solution. Theta occurs in abundance in that delicious state
just on the verge of sleep that most of us a familiar with. It is often
difficult to recapture the images that occur in association with theta
as we move to normal waking consciousness, yet it can be useful to
develop this skill.
Einstein credited his greatest scientific insights not to left-brain logic -- but rather to his right-brain highly creative daydreaming.
Ansel Adams
credited his greatest art photographs not to his right-brain artistic
"eye" -- but rather to his left-brain detailed analytical note taking.
And for you sports enthusiasts…
For the past few months, at least four players on the Italian national soccer team
have been undertaking brainwave training to prepare themselves mentally
for clutch moments in the World Cup. If they have a particular problem
- like missing a penalty kick or hitting the crossbar -Bruno De
Michelis, (the head of sport science of AC Milan) trains them to relax
mentally. He does this by first getting them into the meditative state,
then showing them a video of their flawed performance for a couple of
seconds. Naturally, their muscles will immediately tense and their
blood pressure will go up as they watch the missed goal, but De
Michelis will get them to relax again.
The psychologist will repeat this until the player can watch the flawed
performance from start to finish while maintaining the meditative
state.
The idea is that when they go out on the pitch and have to make the
penalty kick, they'll be so focused, so prepared mentally, that they
won't miss. They'll be able to bring down their heart rate when they
don't have to run to conserve energy, and they'll do that without even
thinking.
(In case you hadn’t heard… Italy just won the World Cup…)
“My creative mind is my
greatest weapon. It is a kind of inner-vision that enables me to see
things that others might not, like a certain way to play a shot. The
psychology of golf can be complicated as it does entail mental
toughness, self confidence, conquering inner demons, instant recall of
past successes and being able to purge failures. It is the game within
the game. I developed my mental game early and I cannot overemphasize
the importance of developing yours now.”
Tiger Woods (http://www.trainyourgolfbrain.com)
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Brainwave Facts
