High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 356: 2 Ways to Train Your Mind

Episode Date: July 21, 2020

It’s easy to let your survival, fear-based part of your brain take over your daily actions and emotions. We can train our mind in two ways: 1) preventative mental skills and 2) daily present and presence skills. Training our mind in both ways helps your be your best every day and thrive. In this episode, Dr. Kamphoff talks about how to train both types of mental skills during times of uncertainty and change.   This week’s Power Phrase:  “I train my mind each day. I remember I can act independent of how I feel.”   “Being scared is part of being alive. Accept it. Walk through it.” Robin S. Sharma  

Hi friends, my name is Dr. Sindra Kampoff, a national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. Every week I'm on the local radio sharing my top tips on exactly how to develop the mindset of the world's best, so you can accomplish all your dreams. Get ready for a jammed, packed episode focused on practical tips to help you get after your goals and step out of your comfort zone. Let's go. CINDRA KAMPOFF today.

And how are you doing, CINDRA? I'm doing great. How are you doing, Lisa? I'm doing well. I wanted to find out how your family is doing because as we spoke before we went on the air, you have kind of some news to share with us. And it really relates to the topic that we're going to be talking about today. It does. You know, my family and I had a few tough weeks.

One of our family members tested positive for COVID, and so we spent the last couple of weeks in quarantine, him in isolation. And because we did this, he didn't spread it to anyone. But it was really, it felt really uncertain and lonely, and I think more of an emotional time for us. And I have a new and lightened perspective on the impact of COVID that it can have on families and on people. And so we're talking about two ways to train your mind. Do you have a quote to start with us? I do. It is by Robin S. Sharman.

Robin said, being scared is part of being alive. Accept it and walk through it. Oh, thank you. So, Cyndra, obviously, with things hitting close to home for you, it's kind of self-explanatory. But really, what inspired today's topic of training your mind? Well, I think with all the change and uncertainty in our lives right now, it's really easy to listen to this kind of survival, fear-based part of my brain and our brain and the one that keeps

us safe but it doesn't help us thrive and this is helpful you know to keep us safe and make us you know we make good decisions because of the survival fear-based part but we can't live there and that's what I really learned. I learned that I had to use my preventative mental skills and those are the skills you know that sort of think about your mental skills. And those are the skills, you know, that sort of think about your mental skills that you build your toolbox with the things that you can do every day to prevent you from living in this survival fear base. And so I had to make sure I'm running every day, you know, taking care of my brain that way. But then I also had to use these kind of present moment mental skills. And it was difficult not to go to the worst case scenario. And I really had to regulate my own mood. And this is probably been so difficult for you, but so helpful for us to

understand it. Tell us a little bit more about how you used your present and presence skills. Yeah, those are the skills I think you have to really use in the moment to get yourself unstuck. And so one thing that I really tried to do is I tried to reframe my perspective a lot. You know, so I kept on asking myself, you know, two questions. What can I learn and how can I grow at this time? And I learned that it's really easy to get in this kind of survival fear based part of your brain. It's easy to ruminate during this time and I can see why there's a rise in mental health issues. But it also made me realize just the importance of keeping good care of your mind and using these preventative skills that you use every day to build your toolbox with.

So, Cyndra, what advice would you give to someone in a similar situation, kind of residing in that survival fear-based part of the brain? Yeah, I think what's important is to label how you feel. This is better. It helps you to better understand how you're feeling. And then I think what's really important is just to use your emotions, how you're feeling as information and as data. It just really shows you what you care about the most and what's important to you. And obviously, you know, for me, it was my family was most important to me and still is the most important to me. And remember that if you didn't really care about it, you wouldn't feel strong emotions.

I think what's important is to remember to label it and that you can act independent of how you feel. So just because you're feeling fearful and anxious doesn't mean that you have to act in that way. So what do we do once we label the emotions? I think just see it from a curious lens and a compassionate lens with yourself. And so I had to distance myself from my emotions and just say like, I'm noticing that I'm really sad right now. And just ask yourself, what's the emotion telling you? And take some deep breaths.

And I think what I said before about like, you can act independent of how you feel is empowering just because I felt fearful didn't mean I didn't have to act in that way. So how would you summarize today for us? I'd say it's really easy to let that survival fear-based part of your brain take over your daily actions and your emotions. And it's really important to train your mind in two ways, these preventative mental skills, the things that you can do every day to build your toolbox to take care of your mind, like exercise and these daily kind of present and present skills

so that you can really survive. And you can do this by, for example, reframing, change how you see the situation, and then labeling how you feel and that you can act independent of how you feel. All right. What's our power phrase this week? I train my mind each day. I remember I can act independent of how you feel. All right. What's our power phrase this week? I train my mind each day. I remember I can act independent of how I feel. Well, we wish you and your family continued recovery and health.

And thank you so much. How do people get in contact with you if they want more information? Sure. You can head over to Dr. Sindra. So D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A. And you can find out more information there. Dr. Sindra Kampoff,R-C-I-N-D-R-A and you can find out more information there. Dr. Sindra Kampoff, thank you so much. We'll talk to you soon. Bye Lisa, bye Logan.

Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe and you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes and to join my exclusive community for high performers where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A dot com. See you next week.