There has been so much talk of mindset during this rider confidence series so far. I wanted to share with you the reason that all of the mindset tips, tricks, hacks, and advice, are all so important.
Mindset is more than just a trendy phrase.
Your brain is effectively the most powerful supercomputer, it is made up of over 100 billion neurons. It processes the information that it receives and sends messages back to the body.
Reprogramming of your mindset works because your subconscious is moldable. It believes what your conscious mind tells it is reality. True or not.
The beliefs that we hold are nothing more than a series of physiological rules made up of the stories we tell ourselves, our environments, those around us, what we see, hear, and experience.
What has impacted your beliefs around your riding? It can be useful to grab a pen and paper and start writing down all your thoughts and breaking these down, reflect on them.
We as humans need logical sense which is why we create these beliefs.
However we can also change these, by rewriting the stories we tell ourselves.
When we have negative beliefs, feelings, stories around our equestrian experience our subconscious brain tries to protect us from this potential danger. It seeks out validation that these beliefs are true. Finding ways to embed these further, if your subconscious can stop you from riding, then there is no danger.
Think about if you have a bad start to the day, one bad thing happens, and you have heard so many times that bad things come in threes, so you start to tell yourself this is just one of three things. You start to look for the other two. Before you know it you find them. Not because bad things come in threes but because your subconscious was looking for them to validate and make true what it believes.
This is why visualisation and meditations are great as they support you to create a new narrative.
It takes 21 days of consistency to create a new habit.
When the time is right for you to create a new belief system, start by rewriting the story you tell yourself, looking for evidence of this as the truth. What can you start to tell yourself, see, hear, experience, remembering the positives and focussing there, record a visualisation to play to yourself of your new story.
Then keep going for 21 days consistently.
Best of all this isn’t just something that works for adults, it works for children as well.
In fact it is often easier for children as they haven’t had all of the external influences that adults have. They have a better imagination. They are able to be more in the moment.
Where could you be in 21 days?
To find out where the You Got This Equestrian Series started click here.
Hayley x
Horse rider confidence and equestrian confidence needs to be spoken about more, I am excited to bring you, You Got This Equestrian where we discuss real topics and give real tips that work for real riders.
Join me every week for more inspirational stories, hints and tips to support your equestrian confidence journey.
Confident rider, confident horse.