Increase Resilience and Optimize Performance Through TrainingSelf-Regulation

Brian Bishop — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 02:18:07 +0000

What is self-regulation?

There are two forms of self-regulation; behavioral and emotional. Behavioral self regulation entails acting in accordance with your goals and values. For instance, you may find it difficult to get up early in the mornings to jog but do so because you want to improve your fitness and health as those are values of yours. Emotional self-regulation is the ability to respond to the ongoing demands of an experience with the range of emotions in a manner that is sufficiently flexible to delay spontaneous reactions as needed and appropriately manage disruptive emotions and impulses. Simply put, self-regulation is the control of oneself, by oneself. This also entails controlling the impact that thoughts may have on you as they come flooding in during intense situations.

In much of our work, we seek to promote self-control and self-regulation. The research shows us that self-control/regulation allows for the performance flexibility to adjust and respond accordingly in the most stressful of situations, not necessarily in the sense of taking time to meditate while performing critical tasks but in quick, immediate, sometimes subtle responses such as one breath only for proper composure. When focused on the outcomes that we CAN’T control, we often miss focusing on self-regulating our physiological state (which we CAN control by tapping into our para/sympathetic nervous system). Effective self-regulation can significantly contribute to the desired outcome we seek. Much in the same way that self-regulation has positive impacts on other aspects such as medically to help reduce blood pressure or to help improve some developmental handicaps, mastering self-regulation can also vastly improve our performance by allowing for appropriate response when it matters. In our previous post on How mental readiness and psychological resilience optimize performance, we mentioned what we call the elements that promote self-regulation. These are the elements both individually and collectively that help create and maintain a ready and resilient state for optimal functioning when it matters. These elements include awareness, control, and flexibility from the individual perspective.

The Benefits

Trained self control of your mental, physical, and emotional state has various benefits. Below we list some of the benefits and explain the positive impact they can have on your life and overall performance.

Improved self-monitoring

Self-monitoring is one of the main keys to effective self-regulation. Self-monitoring helps to increase one’s awareness of their own behaviors that may negatively impact their response to stressors. As the bidirectional relationship forms and the individual experiences the positive results in self-regulation from implementing self-monitoring they are more willing to maintain effective strategies, by breaking old unproductive habits, and therefore produce consistent results.

Implementation of “skills” instead of “pills”

Self-regulation requires the implementation of skills instead of pills. For example, current nonpharmacological interventions for insomnia include cognitive therapy, relaxation training, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and sleep hygiene education which are all considered self-regulation strategies. Of these interventions, cognitive behavioral therapy, sleep hygiene education, and some biofeedback implementations have proven to be most promising as far as yielding effectiveness thus far in Veteran populations. This speaks to the effectiveness of mastering self-regulation skills and the impact it can have on improving sleep disorders. Sleep is extremely important as we covered in our previous blog post.

Modifying environment accordingly

This is more of a cognitive modification to the environment which then allows you to physically appropriately modify your environment and optimize performance. As you experience, stressful situations that cause some fusing (identification – see Mindfulness Practice for Self-Regulation and Resilience Resource Room) with negative thoughts, feelings, and emotions, bringing awareness to those reactions provides us an opportunity to create some distance between the stimuli and our response. Self-regulation is the path to that appropriate response.

Chaos outside, order inside - you become an impact instead of effect

Self-regulation allows you to maintain a calm and composed state within the most stressful of situations. This promotes the performance flexibility we spoke to in our performance flexibility blog post. This allows you to respond accordingly rather than react due to arousal taking over when the situation becomes stressful. Thus, you can make a more productive impact instead of exacerbating the situation further. Additionally, self regulation allows for proper recovery as well, creating more order inside as one prepares for subsequent performance.

All leading to Improved performance

With attaining an appropriate level of self-control/self-regulation, you are ready for “whatever comes”. The skill of self-control/regulation allows you to achieve a ready state for optimal performance and sustain resilience overtime so you maintain your performance level regardless of potential setbacks. In other words, you stay up when it matters..

How to improve your self-regulation skills

Intentional practice

Imagine self-regulation as equivalent to winning an important game. Much like in basketball, in order to increase the chances of hitting the game winning shot players consistently practice hundreds of shots from multiple positions on the court. Much like in hockey, in order to increase the chances of getting the puck in the net for the game winning goal, players consistently practice hundreds of slap shots. Much like in tennis in order to increase the chances of winning the game, set, and match, players practice hundreds of forehands. Don’t stop after one week of practice. Explore, adjust, develop overtime.

Biofeedback training

Secondly, we seek to improve self-regulation through the implementation of biofeedback training. Biofeedback training is considered to be a bridge to self-regulation. It shows the individual what the body is doing when applying adaptive techniques to regulate thoughts, feelings, and reactions as well as what the body is doing when those same aspects are not regulated. This facilitates developing the self-awareness we mentioned earlier in this blog. Awareness allows for better self-control within highly stressful situations, which look differently for everyone, and ultimately promotes performance flexibility allowing the performer to flow within the highs and lows that naturally occur during performance in any domain.

Mindfulness practice

Lastly, the implementation of biofeedback training more effectively promotes mindfulness. Mindfulness can be achieved without biofeedback as well. More on mindfulness in our website here. We often connect the application of mindfulness to resilience. We promote its use within the recovery process to non-judgmentally check-in internally post high-stress performance. It involves “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally” (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). This approach allows the individual to focus in on internal feedback more immediately to distinguish between what they can control and cannot control and apply change accordingly (ideally to what can be controlled). This guides the trial-and-error process underlying self-regulation. Through shifting focus to the controllable aspects of optimizing one’s performance, this helps to prevent some of the detrimental perceptions that may follow undesirable outcomes and allow the individual to better tune in and process desirable outcomes in order to replicate those performances in the future.

Self-regulation is critical for so many various aspects of our lives. We encourage you to check out our other posts as well as some of the self-regulation strategies we provide on our website. Think how you improve or maintain your self-regulation and what works for you. And always remember – PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE!

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Self-Regulation appeared first on AEE Mental Performance.

Performance Flexibility And Its Impact On Resilience

Brian Bishop — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 03:43:08 +0000

Have you ever been so distracted by your thoughts, feelings, and reactions surrounding performance that you made poor decisions and barely made it through? Performance flexibility is a concept we promote and a term I use to describe the ability of a performer/athlete to effectively navigate the highs and lows of performance that naturally occur and remain proficient and resilient throughout. At the heart of performance excellence is the ability for the performer/athlete to be flexible within competition or in the face of adversity. I believe that mastery of applicable performance enhancing components that we teach promote performance flexibility. In competition or performance, the situation can change rapidly. Performance flexibility allows the athlete to adjust, regroup, refocus, and respond to the present situation. This is an idea adopted from the late Ken Ravizza, world leading peak performance consultant and former sport psychology professor at Cal State Fullerton.

why is performance flexibility important?

Performance encompasses a series of setbacks and set forwards that can easily derail the path to success and excellence. The more mentally flexible an individual is within performance, the more adaptable they can be to variations and the greater their ability to maintain an optimal zone of natural excellence.

Resilience is the foundation of performance excellence as it most readily speaks to a performer’s mental flexibility. I believe flexibility that is rooted in resilience comes from having an appropriate balance of components such as, values-based goals, present moment awareness and acceptance, optimal motivation, and effective indivdualized mental routines that promote performance flexibility. For example, mental routines compel the athlete or performer to utilize multiple mental skills, that we teach, to help achieve an optimal zone of natural excellence prior to, during, and post competition. As the individual or group masters the ability to shift from a training mindset to a competition/performance mindset, they are able to execute appropriate tasks exhibiting the resilience necessary to flow within the highs and lows of an unstable environment. Quality practice of the concepts and skills we offer will help bring permanence to these aspects as a part of the individual’s life in and out of performance. This in turn creates a more mentally tough individual who is adequately trained, proficient, and ready to respond in the moment.

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