| Now, I know what you're thinking - that this is | | | | the yips, I'm sure you can now understand better |
| impossible, that this is too good to be true. But I | | | | why all that logical talking to yourself ("You can do |
| can assure you that this can be achieved, with a | | | | this","it's just a putt", "there's no need to feel |
| little bit of APPROPRIATE help. You don't need | | | | anxious", etc) simply doesn't work - your brain is |
| to spend $200 on a new putter! | | | | effectively locked into its primitive response as |
| | | | | soon as the pattern matching takes place. The |
| First, let’s look at what exactly is happening | | | | two parts of your brain cannot communicate at |
| when you have the yips. You are standing over | | | | this time and therefore you cannot modify your |
| the ball, putter (or wedge) in hand, you take your | | | | response to the situation. |
| practice stroke, your logical mind tells yourself | | | | |
| that you can do this, that you can hit the ball as | | | | Whether or not you can remember your first |
| you want to…but despite all this logical self talk | | | | yipping experience, or even if you can work out |
| your putt is yet again an embarrassingly jerky | | | | how or why it began is not actually relevant to |
| stab at the ball. You then feel annoyed/upset | | | | the cure. What is relevant is that you |
| frustrated and your brain records this latest | | | | understand that in order to change your pattern |
| experience of the yips, adding this to your | | | | match you have to access the emotional/primitive |
| pattern of past yipping experiences, confirming | | | | part of your brain. Using logic will very, very |
| and reinforcing the pattern, thereby creating even | | | | rarely affect a cure because your logical mind is |
| more certainty of it happening next time. | | | | locked out before it can interact in the |
| | | | | experience. |
| This is how your mind works; it stores patterns. | | | | |
| When you sit in the driving seat of your car you | | | | The million dollar question is how do you gain |
| will immediately activate your "driving pattern | | | | access to and modify this primitive/emotional |
| match" and so instinctively know how to drive. | | | | reaction? The answer is...HYPNOSIS. In |
| When you go to the airport you will automatically | | | | hypnosis your brain waves alter from the beta of |
| search for a pattern match with airports/flying | | | | normal waking consciousness to the alpha-theta |
| and respond in accordance with your learned | | | | waves of relaxation and REM sleep. The purpose |
| behavior. Your brain will immediately recreate | | | | of REM sleep (dreaming) is to resolve conflicts |
| this same emotional response...and you feel and | | | | and find solutions to problems, and research has |
| act accordingly; without logically thinking about | | | | shown that we cannot survive without this |
| it...you just act instinctively. | | | | mechanism. Whether you are aware of |
| | | | | dreaming or not, you do dream, and hypnosis is |
| Now this is very useful in a case where you need | | | | this same completely natural and restorative state |
| to feel fear, but not when you don't. Not only | | | | in which you can choose to resolve mental |
| that, whenever you feel "primitive emotions" - | | | | conflicts and retrain your mind to modify |
| those of fear or anger - your brain immediately | | | | instinctive patterns of behavior. |
| gets locked into instinctive behavior patterns and | | | | |
| you CANNOT access the higher, logical thinking | | | | So, don't go off to spend your dollars on new |
| parts of your brain. | | | | equipment, go straight to the root of your |
| | | | | problem and retrain your brain to putt smoothly |
| Applying this knowledge to your experience of | | | | and consistently. |