‘The Eyes have it’
So you are facing a difficult shot or you are coming to the end of your round and you have a particularly good score.
How do you feel?
If you are normal then your palms will be sweaty, your heart will feel like it is going to burst through your chest, your hands will be shaking, your arms feeling as heavy as lead and your mind will be full of so many thoughts at the same time, mainly negative.
So what do you do about it?
In previous articles I have explained how visualisation and simple deep breathing can and will help in such situations.
This I will be covering again in forthcoming articles.
However the first thing to understand is why you feel this way.
Experts such as Craig Farnsworth believe that it is simply that your internal ENERGY SYSTEM is running out of control resulting in doubt, anxiety and loss of motor control.
There is another mind clearing technique that you can use to control these feelings called the ‘laser eye shift’, which was pioneered in the 1970’s in the USA by Doctors Lee and Harrison.
Whenever you experience the feelings of anxiety detailed above you should simply choose two objects a few feet apart, one in your left field of vision and the other in the right field of vision.
While keeping your head still, shift your eyes between the two objects that you have chosen as fast as you can for five to ten seconds.
Technically this is known as a ‘saccadic’ – rapid eye shift.
On the golf course select vision targets that are easy to identify such as the ball markers on the tee or perhaps the ball and the hole on the putting green.
How does this process work?
Physiologically when conducting this act the mind has difficulty in conducting other tasks because your visual sensory system will lock you into the present and prevents you from processing thoughts in the past or the future.
You can actually try this at home to see the technique in action.
While sitting comfortably and in a relaxed position think about or visualise in your mind some event that caused you anxiety recently.
You should be able to feel those gut wrenching feelings deep inside of you.
Now follow the laser eye shift technique as described above and then try again to regain and repeat those anxious feelings.
You should find that they disappear altogether or exist at a much lower level of intensity.