How can the principles of positive thinking be applied to business? In his new book, top sports psychologist Ken Way explores the power of a 'mind over matter' attitude.
In the field of human endeavour, one of the most important developments to come out of the 20th Century is the recognition of the power of the mind. The impact the mind has over the body, performance, health and well-being is now well documented.
Perhaps one of the strongest arguments for the capacity of the mind to influence the body comes from the world of medicine. As 'Exhibit A' in demonstrating this power, let us examine the humble placebo, an inert substance that has no pharmaceutical properties. Placebos are usually just sugar pills or sterile water injections and yet when they are administered by a trusted doctor, physical improvement frequently follows. Sometimes those medical improvements are nothing short of miraculous as the following story - one of thousands - will show.
One of the most dramatic documented cases took place in 1950 in the US and concerns a patient called Mr Wright who suffered from very advanced lymph node cancer. His symptoms were widespread and grim and he had little time left. His doctor, Bruno Klopfer, was involved with research into a new drug called Krebiozen, which was being hailed in the media as a possible 'cure' for cancer. The drug was being tested by the American Medical Association and the Food and Drug Administration.
Mr Wright heard of these developments and persuaded his doctor to include him in the research. Klopfer injected his patient with the drug on a Friday even though he did not expect his patient to last the weekend. But when Klopfer returned to the hospital on Monday, Wright was up and walking around. Scans of Wright's body prompted Klopfer to remark that his tumours had "melted like snowballs on a hot stove."
Ten days after receiving his first injection Wright left the hospital and was considered to be cancer free. Mr Wright remained healthy for over two months, when reports in the national papers appeared saying that Krebiozen was not as effective as first hoped.
Wright, who had seen the reports, became depressed, suffered a relapse and was re-admitted to hospital. Klopfer had a dilemma; if Krebiozen wasn't effective, what had made the tumours disappear?
He decided that unusual action was needed so he told Mr Wright a white lie, saying the initial treatments had been superseded by a highly concentrated, double-strength treatment that would produce better results.
This time the injections were just sterile water and once again the tumours melted away. It was clear that Mr Wright's belief in his treatment was curing him of cancer. Again he remained symptom free for over two months until conclusive newspaper articles from the AMA and FDA appeared in the press, 'Nationwide tests show Krebiozen to be powerless in the treatment of cancer.' Sadly Mr Wright died within a few days. This astonishing example is not a one-off. There are thousands of cases that defy belief, certainly too many to dismiss as chance.
Multiple personality surprises
In addition to astounding results with placebos, science has demonstrated not only a link between mind and body but a startling and complex link that we do not as yet fully understand. For example, Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) is a condition where two or more personalities exist in the same body. Often one identity is oblivious to the others and the reason they are diagnosed at all is the patient seeks answers to blackouts.
These blackouts are the transition from one personality to the other and sufferers simply do not remember being the 'other' person. In 97% of cases MPD is the result of a deeply traumatic childhood experience that prompts the individual's unconscious mind to parcel up the pain and create additional personalities. There are many different levels of what is sometimes also diagnosed as Dissociative Identity Disorder, but what is truly breathtaking is that in extreme cases, physical disease, brain patterns and allergies can appear and disappear depending on which personality is 'live'.
Remember this is within one body. So something is happening in the minds of these individuals that is instantaneously altering the physical make up of the body in fundamental ways. Dr Bennett Braun of the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personalities in Chicago documented a case in which all his patient's sub-personalities were allergic to orange juice except one. The allergy would cause him to break out in a terrible rash, yet if he switched into the personality that was not allergic to orange juice, the rash would immediately fade and he could drink orange juice without problems.
Even more startling are the recorded cases of warts and physical marks appearing and disappearing between identities in the same body. Colour blindness, epilepsy and even diabetes have been medically confirmed in one sub-personality and completely baffled doctors when the same disease or condition can no longer be detected when the patient switches personality.
Science has no idea how this happens but the implications are huge and suggest a remarkable and latent ability to turn off disease. It would indicate that human beings have the capacity to control their bodies in ways which we do not yet understand.
It is the mind-body relationship that lies at the heart of sports psychology – developing pathways and techniques that help us tap into the power of the unconscious mind in order to direct the 'mind and body' toward a particular outcome.
The science of brain function is complicated and our understanding of it is changing dramatically. We recognise the vital role that our thoughts and emotions have on our body and how they influence our health, recovery, and performance. But we still do not understand how.
Without getting bogged down in technical detail, imagine you have two minds – the conscious and the unconscious.
The conscious mind includes the frontal cortex – the latest evolutionary addition to human development. This is the seat of our awareness and is responsible for reasoning, planning, intellectualising, learning, remembering, creating and deciding. It is home to free will and is the part of us that we most readily identify as 'I'.
The frontal cortex is a powerful addition to human development and is that which, perhaps more than anything, separates human beings from our animal cousins. The rest of the brain is unconscious or below our awareness. We do not for example have to think about blinking or pumping our blood round our body. And it's a considerable weight off our conscious shoulders that we need not concern ourselves with the five hundred plus functions performed by the liver on a daily basis or the moment by moment activities of our blood cells.
The challenge however, is that vast amounts of data are recorded by the unconscious mind as we grow up and make sense of the world. Our unconscious mind enables us to classify information very quickly. This information allows us to form cast iron rules about what is good, bad, normal, abnormal, helpful or not helpful. These rules will be used to help us survive into the future. As remarkable as it is, regrettably the mind's classification system is often quite clumsy.
This is important to understand because when it comes to which mind has the most clout there is one very clear winner - the unconscious mind. This assertion is, for example, often the root cause of yo-yo dieting, the common situation where someone loses weight only to put it all back on again later.
The individual may be consciously committed to losing weight but if the unconscious mind believes otherwise (for example that being overweight is somehow 'safe' or over-eating is a sign of prosperity) then the drive to keep the weight on will always win. The individual may experience weight loss through sheer grit and determination only to be thwarted in the long term by unconscious beliefs and associations.
If you have ever felt that you keep taking two steps forward only to take three steps back or that you seem to be hitting your head on a familiar brick wall then it may well be that your unconscious mind is storing some information that directly contradicts certain conscious desires.
This is why it is important to incorporate techniques that communicate with the conscious and unconscious mind in order to tap into your sporting potential. One field of research that has made great strides in allowing us to do that is Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).
Neuro-linguistic programming
NLP was developed by mathematician Dr. Richard Bandler and Professor of Linguistics, John Grinder who together studied the communication techniques of three master psychotherapists - Fritz Perls (Gestalt Therapy), Virginia Satir (Family Therapy) and Milton Erickson (Hypnotherapy). NLP now offers a powerful range of models, tools and techniques into how we think, behave and emote (have feelings) and how we can change these quickly, effectively and permanently.
Change can happen over time as a gradual shift of conscious attention or it can happen in an instant. What is so powerful about NLP is that it can facilitate deep change quickly, allowing you to tap into those hidden reserves the Soviets first recognised back in the 1940s. Many of the techniques discussed in this book are based on NLP principles. Grinder described NLP as, "... a modeling technology whose specific subject matter is the set of differences that make the difference between the performance of geniuses and that of average performers in the same field or activity."
One of the modern pioneers of applied psychology was Kurt Lewin and his work influenced future giants in the area such as Fritz Perls and Abraham Maslow. One of Lewin's models, Force Field Analysis, looks at the twin forces that affect the achievement of a goal; what drives us towards a desired outcome and what opposing forces hinder the achievement of that outcome.
These ideas may not seem that important in isolation but since you are reading this book you probably want change - either for yourself or for the individuals or team that you coach or manage. In order to achieve that, you have to appreciate how change works. There are things that are stopping you from achieving your objective, be they environmental or mental. However, all can be surmounted if you take the time to understand the process and apply the techniques in this book.
Naturally these are important considerations for any work in sports psychology, but changing performance in a positive way requires an understanding of the mechanisms of change. Simply deciding to improve performance via conscious volition is not enough as you may well have already discovered. The starting point is to avoid being lulled into the idea that change is linear.
Change mechanics
Improvement is not linear. Often we are encouraged by giant leaps forward only to be frustrated again as we settle on a plateau. It can be disconcerting at this stage because we often feel that little or no progress is being made. This 'three steps forward, two steps back' approach to change is well documented. Amongst the best recognised is Change for Good written by Prochaska, Norcross and Diclemente - three top flight scientists in the field of addiction. The book looks at the common denominators for successful change within major methodologies from Freud and Jung to Albert Ellis and Joseph Wolpe.
They irrefutably confirm that change is not linear. People spiral through phases which can sometimes feel like they are going backwards. As such they can be easily pulled off course by misinterpreting this as failure. What is required is an understanding of the stages of learning – a model whose origins are difficult to track down although sources as old as Confucius and Socrates are cited as possible originators.
