Elite athletes are aware of the extent to which mental focus dictates performance. And that knowledge can be utilized by the not-so-elite to reduce stress and accomplish goals.
Canadian Olympic figure skater Joannie Rochette’s third-place finish just two days following the unexpected death of her mother exemplifies the mind’s ability to remain task-focused when properly trained despite adverse circumstances. The key lies in training one’s mind to remain calm in stressful situations in order to bypass the body’s default reaction to retort with the primal survival fight or flight response.
Activities involving mind/body integration, such as yoga and martial arts, have long-proven to be effective in harnessing control over stress responses. In fact, a 2008 study by Dr. Herbert Benson of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind/Body Medicine suggests that such training actually causes the body to elicit a “relaxation response” which lowers oxygen intake, increases nitrogen oxide output and permanently alters an individual’s genetic makeup.
The scientifically-accepted fight or flight response, which causes the body to elicit physiological changes in order to address current stress stimuli, is considered by some industry experts to be responsible for altering the permanent genetic make-up of an individual. The fight or flight response is useful to humans when facing a threat to survival (such as a dinosaur or bear) but in modern times is mis-used by the body – often operating permanently in the face of constant sources of stress. This continuous engagement of a response purposed for occasional utilization is proving to alter genes’ “transcriptional profile” which, in time, can lead to disease not originally programmed into an individual’s genetic code.
The relaxation response is said to be the counterpart to the flight or fight stress response. And while constant stress factors cause this response to be an individual’s primary operating state, practicing the relaxation response by way of yoga, meditation or deep breathing will train one’s mind to operate primarily in this relaxation state.
Eventually, according to research such as Dr. Benson’s, genes can be altered to reflect this new primary. And since operating in a hyper state is responsible for altering genetics in such a manner that leads to disease, it can be concluded that altering genes by way of the relaxation response would be responsible for negating disease originally written in one’s genetic code.
Mental training also lends to accomplishing tasks at hand more precisely and efficiently since it counters the automatic and hyper fight or flight mode which limits an individual’s reasoning and focus potential. Thus, once mental training is more universally understood, the public would not question how Rochette was able to focus on her performance following her mother’s death. Rather, the public would view her mental clarity as a choice – a choice everyone is capable of making on a daily basis.
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