By: April Clay
Question: How can I stop myself from thinking too much? Especially when I am at a show, I can’t help but want to try hard so I do think a lot. I want to analyze what I’m doing, but I just end up getting tense and confused.
Answer: Thinking and dissecting are valuable assets when you are learning. Remember when you first learned your diagonals? Your instructor had to break down the steps for you, including glancing at your horse’s shoulder.
This learning and dissecting stage can be a little awkward. Likely, you will be self conscious and at times uncomfortable as you force yourself to be vigilant of what exactly you are doing. There are a lot of instructions to yourself you have to keep track of, a lot of chatter going on in that head of yours.
It’s not hard to see how thinking and analyzing fits well into training. This is the optimal time for this kind of thinking to be prominent. You need to scrutinize the steps, and dissect where you might have gone wrong with the process until you develop proficiency. Incidentally, it is believed it’s the left side of your brain that helps you out with all this examination. It is sometimes referred to as the “analyzer.”
But a lot of thinking is actually not so great for your performance. While it’s the left-brain that assists us in analysis, it’s the right side that puts everything together. This is why the right side is sometimes called the “integrator.”
Have you ever noticed how your very best rides had that “flow” quality? That’s because, in effect, you had stopped analyzing every step and allowed things to happen. Performance has an awful lot to do with trust. You have to trust yourself and trust in your training. The right side of your brain helps you to do this by allowing your instincts and muscle memory to do what they know how to do.
However, all too often we end up interfering with this process by “thinking too much.” By breaking down a process we now know as a whole, well, the whole tends to fall apart. This breakdown is often and aptly referred to as “paralysis by analysis.” And from what you are describing, this is just the issue you are running into.
You know you are in the grip of the over-thinking trap when you find yourself unable to do something you know very well. Suddenly you feel awkward, even clumsy. You find yourself going through a lot of verbal instruction in your head and it may be hard to connect it with what is actually happening underneath you. Another signal you may be a victim of this trap is stress. Over analyzing has a way of bringing on nerves, and nerves have a way of bringing about over-thinking.
To get out of this trap, you need to try different strategies that don’t involve a lot of dialogue in your mind. One way is to use a visual image. What kind of a ride are you trying to achieve?
Maybe it’s a “soft” ride. In this case, you could think about marshmallows, feather pillows, or fluffy clouds. If you are trying to change how you hold your body position, take the time to figure out how that feels and looks, then rehearse this image until it becomes familiar. Practice with this image before you ride and then just allow yourself to assume that position.
You can also try directing your focus to physical sensations. Put your focus on the feel of your horse, or the motion of your body. The more you place your mind on what your senses have to tell you, the less it will be on all that chatter in your head.
Your mind will want to trick you and tell you that it has vital information to keep you safe. Don’t buy into this. You need to be in the here and now with your horse, and there is no quicker route there than through your senses.
Lastly, remember to be patient with yourself when trying out these new strategies.
Chances are your mind will want to pull you back into analytical mode, but if you persist, you will become more adept at shutting off your internal chatter when you need to.
Chartered psychologist April Clay is a former A Circuit rider and a member of the Canadian Mental Training Registry. She performs seminars and consultations in equine sports psychology including: Individuals or groups, On the ground or mounted, Email consultations. The perfect topic for your next association meeting! To find out more, call (403) 714-2529, email: april@bodymindmotion.com or visit www.bodymindmotion.com.
