Your body achieves what your mind believes.
Learn how your mind and emotions affect your performance, and how life stressors creep into sport. We discuss things like love of sport, habits, perceptions, grit, identity, hard work, and motivation. We practice mindfulness and visualization. Navigate distress, confidence and anxiety through mental training and you will take your performance to the next level, in and out of your sport. Entirely personalized for you. Either in groups or individually, learn how to manage obstacles, feel freer in your sport, and excel to the next level. Free consultation.
50 minutes I $125 or 3 sessions I $350
group rates available
The meditations I have done with Sarah help not only my mindset before my races but during them as well. The mindful conversations we had helped me build not only confidence but a supreme amount of self-reassurance through hard times. It has helped me in my sport and out by helping me be confident in myself and my teammates abilities. - CP
Setting goals and learning how to visualize results is cool. The meditations help me focus and I can bring what I learn to my sport. It helps me feel more prepared so I’m less anxious. -MS
Sarah helped me see things that were holding me back and gave me space to be ok with plateaus. She helped me learn how to move through them and tools to set realistic goals to get to the next level. -NA
About me and our work together:
As a former high school and college athlete, as well as a current rower and tennis player, I understand the value sports can play in life and the value of understanding the mind-body connection. Through sport we build healthy habits, lifelong friendships, learn time management, grapple with challenges and set and achieve goals. Sports echo life as we experience loss, success, conflict, resolution and teamwork. The best motivation for doing your sport is loving your sport - and the key ingredients are knowing you can do it, working hard and having fun, and being surrounded by people who support and encourage you.
SAMPLE PROGRAM
Building Block 1: Mindfulness intro
We will get to know each other and you will learn the basics of mindfulness. Understand how being present can help you increase your focus and get into flow. What is performance anxiety? What motivates you? Who are you as an athlete? Create a mantra.
Building Block 3: Learn about breathwork and visualization for peak performance
How does breathing help? Why is visualization so important to performance. We will learn what kind of visualization works best for you. I’ll teach you about breathing and the importance of breath work. We will practice a personalized visualization to help you feel more in flow during practice and events.
Building Block 2: Distress tolerance and expectations
What is stress? How does anxiety show up for you? Learn how to manage feelings of discomfort and anxiety. Figure out your key strengths that will help you handle adversity and improve performance. Talk about internal and external motivators and detractors.
Building Block 4: Your Inner Critic, learning your value and understanding confidence
What does your inner critic sound like? We will work on recognizing criticism in a non-judgmental way. Work toward progress over perfection and defining improvements.
Learn how to become more confident in your abilities and let go of things you cannot control. Use your mantra that will be your cue for you to be in the right headspace for performance.
Building Block 5: Habits, discomfort, challenges
What are your habits and how do they affect your performance?
Why is it important to feel discomfort and more importantly, what roles do fear and failure play in SUCCESS?
What are your fears- both rational and irrational- and do you understand your emotions? Is it possible to be anxious and produce positive imagery? Practice meditation and visualization.
Building Block 6: Tie it all together
Let’s review all that you’ve learned and ways you’ve put this into practice. What is fixed v growth mindset? What stories do we tell ourselves? Why is it important to focus and be present? Why is it important to be flexible and embrace mistakes? How do you define and set goals?
Practice meditation.
Simple Pre-Workout Meditation
Meditation doesn’t have to be heavy or long. It comes in many different styles. Below is a really simple pre-workout meditation. It’s a way to get you into the right frame of mind before practice and ensure your mind and body are connected. It’s important to be able to be present - not only to get the most out of your practice, but to enjoy yourself, too, even when things hurt, are hard or we are in a tough space. After all, our sport is our happy place — or at least it should be.
PRE-WORKOUT MEDITATION:
This is a time to focus your mind and tune-in to your body. It is an opportunity to let go of your day so that you can truly put your all into your training. If you have anything to get off your chest, you do it before you get on the pitch, the deck, the dock, etc. Try to leave your mental garbage at the gate, so that when you do get to practice, you’re starting to get into the flow. First, we calm and focus the mind so that we can concentrate on training.
The best way to do this is to simply close your eyes, or choose a spot to softly focus on, and pay attention to your breathing. Simply take 5-10 mindful breaths while letting go of any residual thoughts and feelings from the day. You can do this while you’re changing, putting your stuff away, or getting ready to stretch.
Next, we tune-in to our bodies. Check in with how you feel.This is a mental state in which we are more conscious of the body and of physical sensations. The best way to do this is with a quick body scan. Note how you feel, head to toe.
Do some simple mindful movements that warm-up the body while also increasing mind-body awareness. You can practice any type of stretching or warm-up you like. The trick is to do it in a mindful way, by moving slowly and focusing your consciousness on the way your body is moving. I like neck rolls, shoulder shrugs, twists, hip openers, and some gentle squats.
Take a big deep breath through your nose, hands up over your head, and let it out through your mouth. Feel the ground under your feet and get to work!