Optimal performance is intrinsic to each of us. Neurofeedback clears everything else out of way.
The ability to remain calm, alert and intentional without generating too much anxiety and body stress is the differential between good and great performers – be it sequencing a problem during a climbing comp, teeing off, performing onstage, or taking a test.
Anxiety is necessary – it is essential to learning and to survival. However, anxiety is also a ‘goldilocks’ phenomenon – too much anxiety and the system is overwhelmed; too little and the system is underwhelmed and unenergized. Either can result in being stuck. But, when it’s just right … your system moves into what is known as “the flow” or “the zone.” This is the mind-body state where you and it are one – your whole being is involved and your skills are used to the utmost.
Anxiety is necessary – it is essential to learning and to survival. However, anxiety is also a ‘goldilocks’ phenomenon – too much anxiety and the system is overwhelmed; too little and the system is underwhelmed and unenergized. Either can result in being stuck. But, when it’s just right … your system moves into what is known as “the flow” or “the zone.” This is the mind-body state where you and it are one – your whole being is involved and your skills are used to the utmost.
Being over-focused or hypervigilant is resource-expensive. It increases muscle tension, heart rate, respiration, and (eventually) anxiety. When physiology is over activated (fight-flight) or shut down (freeze), your perceptions, emotions, and behaviors are directly affected. This can sometimes be a necessary and appropriate response. When it is not, it can block being at your best. The challenge for the performer is to be flexible enough to move in and out of differing states of attending when necessary rather than over relying upon any one attention span.
“Every change in the physiological state is accompanied by an appropriate change in the mental-emotional state, conscious or unconscious, and conversely, every change in the mental-emotional state, conscious or unconscious, is accompanied by an appropriate change in the physiological state.” Elmer Green, Ph.d.