Over the past few weeks, hundreds of thousands of individuals world wide have witnessed the extraordinary achievements of elite athletes performing under tremendous pressure on the Olympics. High points included Cindy Ngamba winning a medal in boxing for the refugee Olympic team, and Noah Lyles becoming the world's fastest man within the 100m sprint, taking gold in a thriller.
However, as with every competition, there are winners and losers – and plenty of athletes feel shortchanged, especially through the intense media scrutiny that comes with competing in elite sports. comes for
The difference between winning and losing will be milliseconds – as we saw in the lads's 100m sprint. Women's quadruple rowing skills. But whoever wins, all athletes who've made it to the Olympic Games could have put in comparable effort, dedication, focus and training in preparation for his or her event.
But if the results of losing aren't handled effectively, athletes usually tend to be. Risk of psychological distress.
mine Research Explores using mindfulness, rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) and self-compassion to assist athletes deal with stress and protect their mental well-being. Recently, he has focused on using a Multi-approach intervention To help athletes cope with the pressure of competitions in a more healthy way – a bit like students facing the pressure of necessary exams.
The aim was to alter the angle of the participants and cope with a setback reminiscent of losing a match or getting a nasty exam result. This was achieved through a series of exercises that explored situations from a self-compassion perspective. This helped them understand the universal fear of failure when faced with pressure to succeed, and fostered a supportive and honest environment for everybody to specific themselves.
Our work shows that self-compassion can play a vital role in helping performance and mental well-being, and applies to everyone, including Olympic athletes who're potentially facing career-defining moments.
From self-criticism to self-pity
The natural response to disappointing results is self-criticism, which involves harsh, unforgiving and judgmental blaming. Sometimes we are able to find this inner critic helpful – encouraging us to enhance and work harder. Research shows that each Men And woman Athletes are inclined to use self-criticism during setbacks, which they imagine can assist them reach their full potential.
However, some athletes have recognized the dark side of self-criticism, which results in self-doubt, which is a compulsion to attain. Impossible level of perfection Which will be bad Self confidence. More importantly, excessive self-criticism has been found. Play the role In psychological distress, reducing the flexibility of athletes to thrive mentally – in other words, inhibiting cognitive growth and development.
Despite acknowledging the negative effects of self-criticism, a lot of us still see value on this response. We're more comfortable being self-critical than self-compassionate, which is a much healthier — and more useful — mindset.
Self-compassion is an act of self-kindness and non-judgment, encompassing the three elements of mindfulness, self-compassion, and customary humanity.
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Mindfulness is being in the current moment and having an objective view of what is going on right away. Self-compassion is giving yourself what you should hear or do within the moment, to support and understand yourself. Common humanity is recognizing that we're all fallible human beings, and that all of us make mistakes and fail on occasion.
There are sometimes misconceptions that self-compassion results in complacency, selfishness, or selfishness. In contrast, self-compassion enables an individual to acknowledge and acknowledge what has happened – providing an honest perspective and space to take into consideration how best to maneuver forward.
Self-criticism makes one think an excessive amount of and the infinite “what if?” I can take scenarios, distract from moving forward and isolate themselves from others. But self-compassion can assist people connect with others in a moment of difficulty – reminiscent of failure – and recognize that they usually are not alone of their experience.
We can see examples of self-compassion in great Olympians like Simone Biles through the Tokyo Olympics, when she listened to herself and made the brave decision to take a break from competition. It was undoubtedly a difficult decision, but one which was crucial to his mental well-being. This is extreme self-pity in motion.
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British swimmer Adam Petty has struggled for years together with his mental health and relationship with swimming. But he has. Changed his mindset From anger and resentment at losing (which is indicative of self-criticism), to mindfulness and gratitude – even when he lost sleep. Men's 100m Breaststroke.
We all have faced similar moments where we desired to succeed but didn't. No one is proof against these experiences, not even elite athletes.
Self-compassion can have an enormous positive impact on aspects reminiscent of Psychic power And performance If players take emotional responsibility for themselves. If they'll practice this during training and competition, it becomes a useful habit that enables them to enhance without sacrificing their mental well-being.
