Sports Psychology for Endurance Athletes: The Happiness Room

It's very common for athletes to get overwhelmed with stress before a big event. For some people the stress is so great it interferes with their ability to perform. The Happiness Room is a psychological skill that can help you relax and start your event with confidence.

What is it?

The Happiness Room is a psychological skill that you can use to help you feel more relaxed and confident. You can also use it to do some mental skills practice if you wish.

How does it work?

It works by giving you a room in your mind that you can go into when things get too stressful and overwhelming, to help you calm down, relax and gain some confidence.

It works best if you practise it regularly in the build up to your event and then right before your event before your warm up. It can be a good way to manage the stress at the start when there are lots of other athletes (equally stressed) milling about.

Skill Steps.

Here are the steps to learn this skill.

1) Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed and can relax. As you develop the skill you will be able to use it in busier places but when learning it's best to have somewhere quiet and safe.

2) Imagine that you are in your own happiness room. This is a room that is designed with all your needs in mind; it's a perfect room for you to relax in. Spend some time thinking about and creating:

• The colours, relaxing and calming colours for you.
• The furniture which is designed to be perfectly comfortable for you.
• The smell of the room.
• The temperature - a temperature to keep you perfectly comfortable.
• The sounds you can here as you relax in you room.
• The luxuries and add ons - anything you like to add to your comfort and relaxation.

Imagine yourself relaxing in this perfect room of happiness breathing in the smells, enjoying the comfort of the furniture and feeling a wave of gentle relaxation over your whole body.

3) As you relax in this perfect space you notice that on one of the walls there is a film being projected. It is a film of you in your upcoming event. You see yourself as you progress through the route, strong, fast free. You are performing really well, perhaps better than you ever have before. You see how you are smiling and enjoying the feeling of strength in your legs, how you are mastering the tricky aspects of the course with ease. You notice how happy you look having this amazing experience, enjoying the strength and fitness of your body.

4) Think of a movement with your body and/or a word you can say that helps you invoke the happiness room so you can enter it whenever you want to. It doesn't matter what you use so long as it works for you, it can be as simple as a deep breath in, a touch of an earlobe or just telling yourself that you are going to your happiness room.

5) Practise using the movement (anchor) you have chosen and going into your happiness room. You will need to do this quite a few times to get really good at it.

6) Go into your happiness room whenever you start to feel stressed about your upcoming event; it can work well if you do the night before if you are struggling to sleep and on the day before the start to prevent you from absorbing the stress of all the other stressed athletes around you.

This technique is often best learnt during a guided session with a qualified professional. If you would like to find out more about how we can help you with psychological techniques you can book a free 20 minute consultation with no commitment to see how we can help you.