Play Your Best Game » You Better Believe It!
You Better Believe It!
By Chris Dorris
As our understanding of the world around us evolves, and as we humans develop an increasingly clear vision of its apparent mysteries, we are placing more and more emphasis upon the power of our own belief. With respect to wellness and healing, western science and medicine are de-emphasizing the more traditional medical approaches in order to more thoroughly consider the natural healing power of the human spirit.
You may have heard or Dr. Stewart Wolf’s 1950 experiment conducted with a group or pregnant women, all of whom were experiencing persistent nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. Each of these women was given a drug that they were told would cure them of their problem. What they were actually given was syrup of ipecac – a vomiting inducing chemical. Incredibly, each member experienced complete relief of her symptoms. Stomach contractions (measured by a medical device ingested by the women at the outset of the experiment) all returned to normal. These women actually reversed the effects of a powerful drug because of the belief that they were being given an anti-nausea medicine. Belief alone was responsible for the cure.
In an experiment involving the pre-procedural warnings of spinal tap diagnostic procedures, it turned out that half of the patients who were warned that they might experience headaches as a result of the procedure, in fact, did. Among the patients who were not warned, only one in thirteen reported experiencing a headache.
These research studies offer us undeniable reminders that we have tools that we are not using well. Mental tools. Tools that, if used properly, will ameliorate enormous amounts of pain and suffering and will simultaneously make it drastically easier to do everything from heal physically and ward off illness, to play dramatically better golf. I challenge you to consider two things very seriously. One, how can you utilize this information to enhance your life (and, naturally, that must involve how to improve your golf game!)? Two, what beliefs are operating in your mind that limit you from being and doing and playing the ways you want to and the ways that you know you can?
I know of nothing that can more powerfully affect your ability to realize dreams, enhance health, prevent illness, improve performance – lower golf scores – than controlling your beliefs. When you believe something without doubt, you become free to perform without doubt, you become free to perform without fear or caution. When you are in that state of “full belief,” you are uninhibited by notions of what could go wrong. You are instead purely focused upon what is right and what you intend to make happen. You are in flow.
Reprogram yourself to choose only the most empowering beliefs: “I will hit 14 fairways today,” “I will hit 18 greens,” “I will shoot the lowest round of my life,” “I will make all of my putts.” Who gives a damn if it doesn’t happen? All you need to know is that your expectations are going to dictate what actually ends up happening. So why not expect the best? And accept whatever the result is while remembering that the closer you can come to truly BELIEVING what you’re telling yourself, the greater the likelihood it will become real.
Identify those beliefs that keep you from excelling well, well beyond your typical round: “I’ve never broken 80, so it probably won’t happen today,” “I usually have at least one balloon hole that ruins my score,” “I’ve never beaten this guy before,” “I haven’t practiced much lately, so I probably won’t play that well.” Catch yourself speaking and thinking this nonsense, and replace it with something much more powerful, something you WANT to have happen. Be to yourself what the physician was to the pregnant women in the first experiment. Fool yourself into believing the best-case scenarios. Then, as these best-case scenarios start to become par for the course – so to speak – you can push yourself to go further and create even greater expectations of yourself.
We have very little understanding of the power that we possess and the abilities that we have to control our bodies. But we’re learning fast. Golf is a perfect experiment through which you can explore this “belief stuff.” For those of you who are skeptical, remember you stand to lose very little, if anything, by experimenting with your beliefs on the golf course. And what you stand to gain is likely unfathomable at this point.
As researchers and pioneers in human abilities continue to provide us with data that suggest we are much greater at everything than we think we are, I recommend we do our part by testing this stuff out in our own risk-free way. Take it to the golf course, get rid of any limiting thinking, replace with the most powerful belief imaginable, accept whatever happens, and look for results. As golfers, we too are researchers. Every single time we take a club away, we’re experimenting with out own ability to create perfection. By tidying up our beliefs out there, we might find some damn satisfying results. Have fun!
Chris Dorris
Dorris Performance Psychology
80 East Rio Salado Parkway, Suite 310
Tempe, AZ 85281
(480) 449-4728
www.christopherdorris.com
