Now, I’d like to say that this is me practising what I preach and using cues to help me perform.  Sadly, it’s not.  Living so close to some of London’s beautiful parklands, this is what I find myself having to say to fellow humans with whom we runners have to share our footpaths.  My message of “eyes up” is delivered to people of all shapes and sizes – walkers, runners, people pushing prams, walking dogs, hanging out with family, friends and loved ones.

The obsession with phones seems to permeate into every corner of society.  Just like smoking, mobile phone obsession is an addiction that is difficult to kick.  The journey to digital wellness starts with an admission that you have a problem and that you are willing to work on it.

I read this quote on the tube in London during my commute in early 2019 (!):

Social media has colonized what was once a sacred space occupied by emptiness; the space reserved for thought and creativity. – Mahershaia Ali

On the contrary, there is almost an equal and opposite interest in clearing our minds… The self-help industry is going nuts with gurus who have all the secrets to this process!  The popularity of ‘mindfulness’ is because we’re obsessed with filling our minds at all times.  We are losing the ability to be still.  Any time we’re not being entertained we’re labelling it ‘boredom’.

Psychologists working with elite athletes know that the ability to relax and to concentrate is imperative and part of the multitude of ingredients for successful performance (which in many sports requires thought & creativity).  Frequent questions are posed to us – “Why can’t athlete X seem to pay attention?” or “Why does athlete Y seem so unsettled?”  Frustratingly, athletes can be passive participants in this process of learning to relax/focus/quieten their mind… “What app can help me to relax/focus/quieten my mind?”

Don’t get me wrong some of the apps are amazing – I’ve mentioned several in previous articles.  However, we also need to be able to transfer the use of these to the performance arena, which is always phone-less.  If you believe in the simulation and the creation of habits, then finding time without your phone is also a fundamental step in this process.

We need to understand that the ability to relax, to be bored, to concentrate are skills.  If we keep avoiding them by filling every single moment with doing something (many times with our ever so handy phone) then we lose the gaps, the pauses, the moments of nothingness that helps our mind rest.

Here are some simple day-to-day activities to consider in relation to phone use to embrace the task you’re doing at the time:

• Buy an alarm clock.  Place your phone on charge in the living room overnight. Commit to a pre-sleep routine that sets you up for one of the most effective recovery modes we know.
• Wake up in the morning and do your own morning routine (e.g., exercise, breakfast, shower – in whatever order) without looking at your phone.
• Walk through a park without looking at your phone.  Take this chance to notice the green space you are passing through and breathe in the fresh air.
• Drive somewhere from door to door without looking at your phone (vs checking it at each traffic light!).  Put on some tunes and pay attention to the road in front of you!
• Stand at the pedestrian crossing of traffic lights without looking at your phone.  Embrace doing nothing while waiting.
• Watch a movie at home with your phone in another room.  One.  Thing.  At.  A.  Time.
• Spend an entire night out with friends/family with your phone either at home or out of sight (vs on the table the right way up!).

None of these suggestions will be new nor do they seem particularly ‘high performing’ however what they do highlight is that it’s often our day-to-day habits that add up to high performing behaviours that withstand and triumph in pressurised elite sporting environments.

There is clearly a bit of tongue in cheek in my writing as while I thoroughly enjoy teaching strategies to relax/focus/quieten minds, I am an advocate of some wise advice about being what we repeatedly do as well as embracing being in the outdoors taking in the surrounds and being present with the people and/or animals with whom we’re sharing the experience.

Andrea Furst PhD | Sport & Exercise Psychologist CPsychol HCPC Registered
Get in contact with Andrea – andrea@mentalnotespsych.com.  Andrea is based in London and provides both face-to-face and virtual sport psychology services to athletes worldwide.

The post “Eyes Up!” appeared first on Mental Notes.

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week. In 2020 it takes place from 18-24 May. The theme is kindness. So, I am going to be kind to myself with my ‘last minute-ness’ (it’s 20:15 BST on 24 May as I post this).

I remember reading a post by an elite female athlete in 2019 about International Women’s Day which argued that – despite celebrating these days, we look forward to a time when there’s no need for a day, or in this case a week, it’s part of our everyday lives. That’s kind of how I feel about this week.

February 2020 marked twenty years since I was in the final stages to become qualified as a psychologist.

Ever since the choice was made to do my fourth year in psychology rather than exercise physiology, I’ve banged the proverbial drum in an attempt to make psychology matter. Whilst each psychologist will have different therapeutic approaches, styles and personalities – the basic premise that we all share is that we believe that our brain and its amazing attributes and characteristics are worth looking after for the desired goal of a healthy human at a bare minimum, right through to a focused high achiever. Hence, why I’ve referenced the term ‘healthy high achievers’ in my work with humans who want to squeeze the living bejesus out of their chosen pursuits.

My twenty-year journey of making psychology matter has involved working hard to show that a psychologist has a necessary and valued place in any elite sport set up.

Weeks like these are positive in so many ways, none more important than the simple fact that society is becoming more aware and interested in the health of our human brain. What’s even more exciting is that there are massive overlaps in what makes us physically healthy and what makes us mentally healthy.

Breathing. Eating. Exercising. Socialising. Talking. Listening. Goal setting. Writing. Reflecting. Learning. Improving. Resting. Relaxing. Sleeping.  To name a few…

Don’t get me wrong, we need discipline-specific research and expertise. We also need to work together, as last time I looked we don’t have an air gap between our head and the rest of our body. Hence why I’ve tried to stay away from buzz words or too much psychobabble, as it can do my head in so I can only imagine what it does to those outside of our profession.

Go out, experiment with what works for you and commit to it. The parallels between physical health and mental health are appropriate as there are similar challenges – some people will nail it, and others will be in a continual state of experimentation with good intent and others will never settle on the things that work for them.

My first ‘clients’ were in 2000 and my reflections 20 years on are that what makes psychology matter is that people want to be understood. Humans benefit from being understood. Whatever your belief, like/dislike, opinion is of psychology and the psychologists you’ve worked with; it’s highly likely they were trying to help you understand yourself, to understand others and to understand how to live/work/play and ultimately thrive together. More often than not, we (psychologists) succeed. Sometimes we fail. But, like most people, we are always trying to do our best.

Let’s promote mental health like physical health and then maybe we can look towards a day where we all take responsibility for our health – physical and mental; a holistic approach. I often find myself saying that the past doesn’t have to define the future; it will influence it, always, but it doesn’t need to ‘direct play’ in our present lives. Our present and future are our stories to write, and I sure hope that the continuation of value (with gusto!) in our mental health is part of our future stories of being healthy humans.

Andrea Furst PhD | Sport & Exercise Psychologist CPsychol HCPC Registered
Get in contact with Andrea – andrea@mentalnotespsych.com.  Andrea is based in London and provides both face-to-face and virtual sport psychology services to athletes worldwide.

The post Mental Health Awareness Week 2020 appeared first on Mental Notes.

I was drawn to the book as a resource for people I work with and yet so many of the pages resonated with me personally. I spend my days helping people discover what works for them; it’s only fitting that given I am also a human being trying to be better that the ‘shrink’ shares a little of what works for her.

Let’s first take a look at the origin of the word ‘therapy’. Mid 19th century: from modern Latin therapia, from Greek therapeia ‘healing’, from therapeuein ‘minister to, treat medically’.

In the 21^st century, I think the word ‘therapy’ could be interchanged with terms and phrases like ‘giving back to yourself’, ‘self-care’, ‘psychological recovery’, ‘disengaging’, ‘headspace’, or ‘time for you’.

Whatever the century, finding things that work for you to maintain optimal mental health is part of the game we’re in as psychologists.

I first started as a psychologist in private practice working within sports medicine clinics. People, mostly those who were business advisors, suggested I change my title to mental skills coach or mental skills trainer or performance coach or simply coach. This was because working with a psychologist was not appealing. Dan Carter, one of legends of New Zealand’s All Blacks said as much:

“When I started my career, if you said you were going to see a psychologist, everyone would ask if you were all right. Now they say that if you don’t.”

I have, and those that have been part of Mental Notes and the entire industry for the last 15-20 years, know it’s been a slog but one that’s worthwhile as we are now seeing and hearing that mental health matters for performance on and off the field of play. We don’t just want mental performance or mental health we want both.

People also wanted me to focus on ‘peak performance’ not issues or ‘problems’ like depression or anxiety, but that’s not human – elite athletes experience both – as they are human.

It pleases me no end to take part in mental health workshops in an elite sporting environment – everyone has their ups and downs and if we can get a better understanding of what contributes to individual optimal mental health we’ll all be in a stronger position to live life fully.

Here’s what the World Health Organisation (WHO) has to say about strengthening our response to mental health:

Mental health is an integral and essential component of health. The WHO constitution states: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” An important implication of this definition is that mental health is more than just the absence of mental disorders or disabilities.

Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.

Mental health is fundamental to our collective and individual ability as humans to think, emote, interact with each other, earn a living and enjoy life. On this basis, the promotion, protection and restoration of mental health can be regarded as a vital concern of individuals, communities and societies throughout the world.

The second paragraph of above is the particularly relevant. We are in a much better place, not just to excite and inspire future generations, but to experience life and all it has to offer.

Whilst this article started as a book review it headed more towards a self-reflection piece. Yes, my role is to teach strategies to people however I also enjoy trying strategies myself. And so after a few pages of Running is my therapy I concluded that I not only run as it’s one of the only physically active things I can do consistently while I travel for work (with some level of consistency). It is also my therapy. Exercise is definitely a factor in my mental health.

I joke that long runs are the time when I go through what I want to say, what I should say and then conclude with what I will say. It’s also my time to be creative, to escape, to free associate and to problem solve. It really is my time to give back to myself via keeping fit, providing some thinking time, and focusing on me vs me (i.e., how I improve myself).

There are so many benefits of running. The most obvious is improvements in cardiovascular fitness, but it is well documented that it’s helpful for some people’s mental health. Increasingly, I find myself encouraging elite athletes to find time in their weeks for cardiovascular activities for their mind (as long as the Strength & Conditioning Coach agrees with the load).

There is enough evidence to demonstrate that exercise is integral to mental health. If running is your thing great. If not, find other physical activities that force you to move. Not just for your body’s benefit, but your mind’s health too.

In aiming to ‘make psychology matter’ I recommend the book as a resource as well as highlight the fact that even those who are helping others need to look after their mental health.

Enough said, I’m off for a run…

Andrea Furst PhD | Sport & Exercise Psychologist CPsychol HCPC Registered
Get in contact with Andrea – andrea@mentalnotespsych.com.  Andrea is based in London and provides both face-to-face and virtual sport psychology services to athletes worldwide.

The post Running Is My Therapy appeared first on Mental Notes.

I started my career with ambitions of filling my days working with elite athletes on an international stage. Now I do. This is not a “well done Andrea” moment – quite the contrary. It means more than ever I am learning about my craft with every interaction I have with these extraordinary human beings as they pursue athletic greatness in whatever discipline they have chosen.

I am fascinated with people and what they do to perform at their best. I want to help them perform as consistently as they can to be their best while helping them understand how to look after their mental health.

I test and try things with them as I see each individual as unique. I don’t have a ‘ten steps to …’; I have always struggled to apply one way of doing things to most people despite the financial benefits of quick fix rules to live by, which sometimes seems to appeal to the masses. I assess the performance challenges and then aim to address them with a combination of therapeutic techniques and strategies.

It’s fair to say that I am a bit of a bowerbird … constantly collecting new methods and strategies based on continual learning in the field.

When asked questions at conferences, it pains me to simply answer, “it’s individual” or “it depends on …”  It would be much simpler to have the ten (or seven or three!) steps as if it’s something that can apply to all (because it sells). The reality is that it won’t work for everyone. Contrary to all of the business development advice I receive with respect to scaling products for larger fee-paying audiences, for me, I focus on what’s going to work for the individual and team in front of me. My solutions are bespoke. I treat each performer and the work we do together like an ongoing n=1 experiment.

We are always learning more about the human mind. Our conclusions about what’s possible constantly evolve, which means my way of working must always evolve. It is however confirming the fundamentals of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) – we can change our thoughts which in turn alters our behaviour.

I won’t bang on about who I’ve worked with and the successes we’ve had working together. Yes, there will be times when I post something about a team or an individual as I’m ‘proud’ to be a part of the journey; it’s a raw and exposing one (compared to most occupations). I am more than likely to post things about teams or individuals that inspire me and my work and that I can learn from, or more importantly that I aspire to be like.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise then that I also have just as many stories of when I’ve/we’ve got it wrong, the opposition was much better, it wasn’t our day, etc. On days when we get beaten, we reflect, and we learn.

Then the ‘next day’ we try again, keeping what’s worked and learning from what hasn’t, potentially experimenting with a new strategy. That’s part of the way I work; I want to be better as I work together with you to be better.

How does this relate to the new look for Mental Notes?  It represents where my forever evolving head is at right now after just shy 20 years working with elite athletes, coaches, sports scientists, sports medicine professionals and management.

Despite it being this long (!), I’m stuck using pen and paper. I am often the joke of my fellow sports scientists and sports medicine professionals as I carry my copious notebooks, both leather-bound A5 and cardboard-bound A6, in addition to my A4 white notepads, around the world.

I scribble and jot and draw (that’s probably being too kind). It’s my way to make sense of the stories people are telling me…

Through this process I help people reflect and in doing so they and I change the way we do things to lift our collective games.

I’ve noticed I am not reading or writing as much since my days are filled with working with those at the top of their game, but I am observing and listening and talking more. I’d like to readdress the balance. One blog each month – stories of what’s worked and what hasn’t, with plans of some of the athletes I have worked with in the past or I currently work with sharing their take on what aspects of our work make the most impact to them. Your job is to help me keep to it!

Andrea Furst PhD | Sport & Exercise Psychologist CPsychol HCPC Registered
Get in contact with Andrea – andrea@mentalnotespsych.com.  Andrea is based in London and provides both face-to-face and virtual sport psychology services to athletes worldwide.

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The post It’s Individual… appeared first on Mental Notes.

Whilst there is definitely not a ‘one size fits all approach’ it’s worth debating the use and relevance of psychological measures for sport performance.  There are a variety of measures that you can use.  If you’re a coach or high performance director in a sporting organisation, here are five categories that you may consider asking your sport psychologist to use with your athletes.

Personality measures such as Myers Briggs Type Indicator, Insights, or Lumina Spark are the personality measures that most often get used in teams.  These provide an indication of people’s general personality tendencies, which can be helpful to accelerate the learning about people working together for optimum team dynamics and results.

Positive psychology measures such as Realise2, Virtues in Action Survey of Character Strengths, Fordyce Emotions Questionnaire, BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory, and Grit Survey are measures typically used for individual awareness and skill training.  These provide a snap shot of psychological skills and characteristics that focus on the promotion of strengths and the development of psychological skills to maximise personal growth and performance.

Mental health and well-being measures such as Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS), Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), Satisfaction With Life Scale, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale are measures used to assess mental health and well-being indicators.  These can be used as screening tools at the beginning of the season and potentially throughout the year if relevant for some athletes.

Performance skills measures that either measure levels of skills such as Sport Confidence Inventory and Athlete Coping Skills Inventory or usage of psychological skills in sport such as Test of Performance Strategies are measures used to get an understanding of current level and/or usage for psychological skills training to match the mental demands of their specific sport’s requirements.  These are a great way to introduce psychological skills training into sports performance.

All of the above-mentioned measures are self-report questionnaires with the aim of quantifying aspects of an athlete’s psychological traits and states, so of course they involve people assessing and rating their perception of themselves.  However, questionnaires are not the only way to evaluate psychological skills…

Observable behaviours can also play a valuable role in developing a common language and monitoring of psychological skills in individuals and teams.  One of the most difficult things in creating consistent standards of elite performance, particularly when it comes to psychology, is measuring… However in the case of behaviours that we want to see around here, it simply means we need to articulate the types of behaviours through a qualification process (as opposed to typical quantification processes).  Qualification measurement is different to quoting numbers, but it is relatively simple to define the behaviours you want to see.  For example, if we want to define whether people are bouncing back from mistakes on the football pitch, we can describe the types of actions we would see if people are doing this successfully.

Another effective skill training method we’ve used has been the integration of psychophysiological measures such as heart rate variability.  There are many options available – we’ve used HeartMath which has been relatively successful for some individual athletes who want to understand their current level of emotional management using their breath.  HeartMath enables athletes to track their progress over time with associated figures to support the behaviour change.

Questionnaires rely on perception whereas observable behaviours and psychophysiological measures are closer to ‘black and white’.

Measurement and monitoring is useful and provides guidance to progress, however it’s vital that the goal of the measurement is determined upfront.  All of these six categories of measures have their place in individual and team sport performance and can be used with great validity by professionals who understand how to administer, interpret, and utilise as a tool to assist athletes to perform to their potential.

If you’d like to talk more about the value of psychological measurement to assist your sport performance get in contact with one of the team.

Andrea Furst PhD | Sport & Exercise Psychologist CPsychol HCPC Registered
Get in contact with Andrea – andrea@mentalnotesconsulting.com.   Andrea is based in London and provides both face-to-face and virtual sport psychology services to high performing teams worldwide.

The post To Measure or Not to Measure: Using psychological assessment in sport appeared first on Mental Notes.