Sports Psychology time! Do you fight back on internal thoughts or roll with them? What is the difference? It might sound miniscule but how it feels internally can make a big difference and can even affect your performance.

Think back to a time you were challenged in a debate personally by another person? What worked best? To counteract, attack and fight back on that debate or to roll with their resistance, listen and let them know they were heard while applying logic and positivity back?

Think conflict resolution….often when our mind has an intense thought, “This really hurts I want to stop” our first thought is to fight back, “This doesn’t hurt, don’t stop” but what if it really does hurt? How is immediately fighting back really listening to ourselves and accepting what is happening to our bodies at that moment? Does fighting back make the thought stop or does it increase the intensity of the fight and the energy it takes to fight back. Does it almost become an internal battle in your head that wastes energy and causes negativity (the very thing we don’t want in these situations)?

If you find yourself in this endless loop, feeling negative during a workout and not really making improvements physically on where you want to be. I want you to try something new next time. Roll with the thought, don’t battle it!

“This really hurts I want to stop” -- “Yep this hurts, but it won’t kill me. I only have 5 mins left and just last workout I did something just as hard for 10 min so I can totally do this. I have done this before and as soon as I’m done I will feel better”

Everyone’s internal dialogue is different and how they handle it is different and that is OK. What is not OK is trying to do the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. If your mental dialogue during workouts, competitions and/or races is not working, is taking up lots of mental energy and becoming negative….. try something new. I promise you rolling with a thought is much easier than fighting against it.