Author: Jerry

Last week we learned more about using center to discover personal truths. This week I would like to continue to hone this ability by sharing a technique that I use myself.

Let’s begin by Centering and establishing an open and flowing breath. Feel the flow as your breath moves through your body. Notice the sense of ease that accompanies each breath. Enjoy the feeling of being connected to yourself and your surroundings.

Remember, to be in a state of flow is to be in a state of truth. Anything that cuts or diminishes your flow should be looked at with a skeptical eye, because living to your highest potential is impossible when your flow is limited.

A technique that I find extremely useful when monitoring reactions to other people, places or things is what I call the energy bubble. The energy bubble is a ball of energy that you create and hold within your body. You can hold it anywhere, but I find holding it within the core allows for better monitoring while interacting with the world.

As you sit centered, imagine a bubble of energy within your core. It can be as large as you like, but keep it to a size that you can easily manage. Just sit and breathe through that bubble. Feel it respond to your breath. Notice as you inhale that it gets slightly bigger. Feel the quality of the energy flow as it moves through your bubble.

Now, just sit and notice the energy. Don’t do anything, just notice. Slowly move your focus from the bubble itself to the room around you. Try to remain aware of your bubble, but not focused on it. Take in your surroundings while being aware of your energy bubble. Notice any changes to your energy bubble as you take in your surroundings.

For me, I find that anything that causes my energy to expand and open to be positive and beneficial, while anything that causes my energy to waiver or contract, to be potentially harmful or dangerous. Don’t be surprised if your energy doesn’t react to anything immediately around you, especially if you’re reading this at home or somewhere you feel comfortable and safe.

As with any tool, it requires practice to master and use effectively. So this week practice creating your energy bubble in many different situations. Notice as it reacts to different situations around you. I wouldn’t necessary act on the reactions yet, just notice them. We want to be able to fully understand what our reactions are telling us before we react to them.

Last week, I had you monitor your flow as you interacted with others. This week I hope to explain some of the things you probably saw and felt as you monitored your flow.

Have you ever taken or seen a polygraph test administered? Felt the numerous straps and devices attached to your body in order to monitor and detect the slightest physiological response to the questions being asked. It’s really quite intimidating knowing that you cannot control your physiological responses under these or any other circumstances. As intimidating as all those straps and devices are, the machine isn’t even the lie detector, it’s just a monitor and recorder. Your body is the lie detector! In fact, unless you’re a sociopath, the human body is incapable of lying. From blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration changes, to pupil dilation and restriction of flow, the body will always react to the stress of lying or subverting the truth.

Because the body is incapable of lying, it truly is the perfect lie detector. Think about it: all of the physiological changes that occur in the body when being dishonest or disingenuous will block or otherwise break the feeling of flow.

Now, I’m not interested in using my ability to center and feel flow to catch someone lying. I’m interested in using these abilities to feel truth. My truth!

When we are centered and in a state of flow, we are in a state of harmony and truth. Anything that breaks our sense of flow has to be in some way or another bad for us.

Now think back to last week. Think of the times that you felt your flow get interrupted and weren’t quite sure why. It was that something being said or done wasn’t quite agreeing with you. It was interrupting your sense of flow and harmony.

Now, it does NOT mean that someone was lying to you or trying to intentionally deceive you. It just means that whatever it was wasn’t aligned with your sense of flow. Here’s an example: I was recently approached by a woman who sells supplements. She was telling me about her company’s latest product. By watching her energy, I could tell that she really believed in the product and thought that it would help me. As I listened to her spiel, I held a bottle of the product and monitored my center. As she talked, I felt my center contract and begin to withdraw. I took that as a sign that her product really wasn’t for me, so I politely thanked her for showing me her product but declined the opportunity to try it. It wasn’t that she was wrong or trying to deceive me, it was just not the right product for me.

Using my ability to stay centered in the moment and to feel flow allows me to explore what is true and right for me. For some of you, this idea that I can feel right from wrong by simply centering will be a stretch. Next week, I will share a basic technique or two so that you might explore these concepts further.

This week, I would like for you to once again monitor how your sense of flow reacts to others around you as you watch and listen from center. Try to use your ability to feel flow to learn more about yourself and your truth.

Remember, begin by centering and establishing an open and flowing breath. Feel the flow as your breath moves through your body. Notice the sense of ease that accompanies each breath. Enjoy the feeling of being connected to yourself and your surroundings. To be in a state of flow is to be in a state of truth.

Last week I left you with this assignment: Take the time to consciously watch others. Look for the flow or truth in what they are doing or saying. Put aside your thoughts or opinions for the time being, just focus on their state of flow around their actions.

Essentially, I asked you to watch others from your center, while focusing on how they reacted to what they said and did. This week, we’re going to focus on our energetic reactions to others.

To begin: Center. Breathe. Feel the flow as your breath moves through your body. Notice the sense of ease that accompanies each breath. Enjoy the feeling of being connected to yourself and your surroundings. To be in a state of flow is to be in a state of truth.

Now, as you move through your day, monitor how your sense of flow reacts to others around you, as you watch and listen from center.

Center. Breathe. Let it be easy.

Center. Breathe. Let it be easier.

Re-center. Breathe. Notice the Quality of Ease that comes with every breath.

To live a centered life is to bring consciousness and ease to everything you do.

This is the state of being from which Ben and I have attempted to teach ourselves golf. To this point, I consider our experiment to be wildly successful. The improvement that I have seen in both of us is nothing short of amazing. Now at this point, I truly believe that anything can be learned in this manner.

When centered, using a heightened sense of flow, it’s possible to feel the truth of a movement, which lets us learn through observation as well as practice. This is possible because within our nervous system we have something called a mirror neuron. This neuron not only fires when we are doing an action, it also fires when observing someone doing that action. When I watch golf on television, it’s literally like I’m taking a golf lesson with whichever player I happen to be following that day. So as I sat on my couch on Sunday afternoon, centered, watching Billy Hurley III chip in on the 15th hole to secure his first PGA win, my body was literally learning to hit that shot. I bet that I rewound and watched that shot a dozen times. From his address to his leap of joy when he knew it was going to drop, I centered, watched, and learned.

Ben and I observed this ‘mirroring effect’ first hand a couple of weeks ago. We were at Flatirons on the chipping green when a man and a woman walked up on the other side. He wasn’t a pro there, but he was obviously giving her a lesson on chipping. They were in the rough, hitting over the cart path. The ball had to carry about 10 yards before hitting the green, then had to check up within another 10 yards before it rolled off the backside. As he talked and demonstrated the technique, we watched him hit ball after ball, successfully holding the green more than 90% of the time. It was quite an impressive demonstration. As we watched, his student was slowly able to replicate his motions and steadily improved throughout the lesson.

During this demonstration, Ben and I watched as intently as possible without disturbing the flow of the lesson. We talked about his body motions and how he manipulated his club to create enough back spin to hold the green. We both were actively centering and taking in as much information as we could. As soon as they finished the lesson and departed, Ben and I went to try to replicate what we just saw. I can’t say that we performed with the same success rate, but we both hit some really nice shots. More importantly though, we could feel the reasons for our successes and failures. Being able to feel why a shot is successful or not means that we were building neural as well as muscle memory with each shot. Over time, we will be able to hone the skills necessary to be as accurate as our unknown teacher.

Now, anyone can actually learn by paying attention and mirroring a more proficient player. But to do it while centering, brings it to a whole new level. When centered, you’re bringing all of your collective resources to bear on the task at hand.

This week, take the time to consciously watch others. Look for the flow or truth in what they are doing or saying. Put aside your thoughts or opinions for the time being, just focus on their state of flow around their actions.

Center. Breathe. Let it be easy.

Center. Breathe. Let it be easier.

Re-center. Breathe. Notice the Quality of Ease that comes with every breath.

Center. Breathe. Let it be easy.

Center. Breathe. Let it be easier.

Re-center. Breathe. Notice the Quality of Ease that comes with every breath.

To live a centered life is to bring consciousness and ease to everything you do.

Living a centered life is the ultimate goal.

Living a centered life isn’t hard. In fact, it’s as easy as following the mantra above. Living a centered life is about showing up and paying attention. It’s much more about perseverance than anything else. It’s a skill that can be mastered by anyone willing to spend the time to stop, breathe, and pay attention.

The benefits to living a centered life are limitless. The detriments, well, that is complicated. I would like to say that there are none, but that would be a lie. There is a cost associated with paying attention. On the surface it seems trivial, but when we start to understand the truth of it, the cost can be much more than you’re willing to pay. You see, the real cost is the loss of illusion and distraction.

On the surface, our world is full of things to entertain, enrage, and otherwise distract us. We log in and tune out to the world around us. Often, we think we’re engaging the world through Facebook and other forms of social media, when what we’re really doing is tuning out to our conscious self. As you are updating your Facebook status, your consciousness withers for lack of breath and awareness.

So when we center and breathe, we begin to align ourselves with the feeling of flow and harmony. As we continue to practice the centering breath, we become less tolerant of things that break or otherwise limit our sense of flow. When this happens, the things we use to distract ourselves becomes less appealing and fulfilling. That’s fine when we’re talking about things like computer or tablet time. But all too often, hobbies, relationships, and even our jobs prove to be limiting to personal growth and awareness. When this happens, the cost of becoming conscious can seem excessive.

Over the years I have helped literally hundreds of people through this process, and it’s been my experience that the greater the cost associated with becoming conscious, the greater the rewards and potential for personal growth.

As I said earlier, the benefits of living a centered life are truly unlimited. As we unlock our potential, life opens like a blooming flower on a sunny spring morning.

Next week, I will bring this topic back to the idea of sports and sport performance. Until then:

Center. Breathe. Let it be easy.

Center. Breathe. Let it be easier.

Re-center. Breathe. Notice the Quality of Ease that comes with every breath.

Center. Breathe. Let it be easy.

Center. Breathe. Let it be easier.

Re-center. Breathe. Notice the Quality of Ease that comes with every breath.

To live a centered life is to bring consciousness and ease to everything you do.

Living a centered life should be our ultimate goal.

TTW was founded on the idea of maximizing our potential through conscious training. Over the last few weeks I have been chronicling my interactions with a client of many years who has been struggling with her golf game. After finally convincing her, a couple of weeks ago, of the need to practice, she has diligently practiced 2-3 times per week for 20-30 minutes. I have given her some practice ideas and she has created some of her own. I am happy to report that she has been shooting in the mid 90’s since she began practicing and is feeling much better about her game.

During our last training session, she commented that she needed to work on her endurance, because after 14 holes or so she finds it harder to stay focused and centered. Keep in mind that although I have worked with her for many years on centering and energy flow, she has been actively applying it to her golf game for only several weeks. Through the heat, the ups and downs of several rounds of golf, under lots of pressure (she was playing in a tournament), being able to maintain center and focus for 14 holes is truly amazing.

In his piece on Friday, Ben pointed out how centering could help many, if not all, of the best players at the French Open. He catalogued how each wears down, losses focus, and struggles in the heat of competition, and highlights how they could improve and be helped by the centering techniques that we share here at TTW. These players are at the top 1% of their sport and each and every one would benefit from this practice.

Now, keep in mind, from visualization techniques to working with sports psychologists, all of them already do some kind of mental training. Many of them do yoga and other forms of breathing and meditation exercises. They all have personal trainers and staffs dedicated to keeping them fit, strong, and prepared to compete at the highest levels of their professions. And yet, In the thick of the competition, when it’s all on the line, why does their training often fall short? Why can’t these elite professional athletes integrate their training seamlessly into competition? I would assume that it’s how they train and practice. That they are building a set of tools that they hope will keep them at the top of their game, instead of building a set of tools that keeps them centered and living a balanced life.

Remember, living a centered life should be our ultimate goal.

To live a centered life is to bring consciousness and ease to everything you do.

Center. Breathe. Let it be easy.

Center. Breathe. Let it be easier.

Re-center. Breathe. Notice the Quality of Ease that comes with every breath.

I have been creating, practicing and teaching the concepts and techniques of centering and flow for the last twenty years. In his piece last Friday, Ben captured the essence of the idea beautifully.

To be centered is a state of being. We practice centering to become. We practice as a meditation. We practice as we exercise. We practice as we live.

Yes, centering can improve your golf game, your tennis game, even your poker game. But it only helps in proportion to the amount of and the type of practice. If you’re not honing your centering skills, the ability to create and stay within a state of flow will escape you when you need it the most.

I experienced a test to my centering skills a couple of weeks ago before my trip to Arizona. I was at the driving range working on my pre-shot ritual. A golf pro was a few spaces down giving a lesson. I watched for a couple of minutes, shook my head in disbelief and continued on with my practice. The disbelief was caused by the absolute look of frustration on the student’s face as he struggled to make the adjustments the instructor wanted. The more frustrated the student became, the louder and faster the instructor talked. Soon his booming voice had every person at the driving range distracted and frustrated because they couldn’t tune him out. After hitting a couple of horrible shots, I exchanged a look and another head shake with the guy hitting next to me. I contemplated leaving but decided it was a great time to practice my centering skills.

I stood behind my ball and dropped into center. Using the breath to establish a sense of flow, I went into my pre-shot ritual and calmly stepped up, addressed the ball and continued my practice. I was able to do this because I diligently practice using and developing my centering skills. I try to practice at both the best and worst of times. By practicing under duress, I am able to rely on my skills in the most stressful of circumstances. Now don’t get me wrong, I still have the ability to struggle and let situations get the best of me. But the more I practice being centered, the less it happens.

I was discussing this with my client right before my Arizona trip. We talked about why even though she’s quite skilled at centering and controlling her energy, it rarely helps her when golfing. Especially lately, she’s really been struggling with her putting and centering hasn’t been helping. I suggested that she needed to go to the range and practice her centering techniques and putting at the same time. We discussed a couple of different techniques to try. She agreed to try practicing 2-3 times a week for 30 minutes. She had managed a couple of practice sessions and sent me this text while I was in Arizona.

“Just to let you know – golfed much better yesterday- 94 (43 on the front) Still had some blow ups, but lots of pars too and one birdie. Putting much better” 

In her rounds prior to the practice sessions and that text she had been scoring well over 100. I heard that she was playing in a tournament this week with a friend. I will be curious to see if the practice sessions continue to help.

This week I’d like you to spend some time thinking about the essence of centering and creating flow. Think about where it could be most beneficial in your life.

Practice. Practice. Practice. I’m not sure how many times Ben and I have written about the importance of practice. It really doesn’t matter if you’re talking about golf, tennis, or life. If you want to improve, you have to commit to practicing.

Recently, I was discussing the improvements that I have made in my golf game since beginning the TTW project with a client/friend that I have golfed often with over the years. She smiled and said “That’s great, Jer, but you’re bound to get better by practicing so much.” I smiled as it dawned on her what she had just said to me. You see, we have talked about our golf games for years. She always talks about how a long time ago she took a series of lessons and committed to hitting a bucket of balls every day, saw tremendous improvement in her game, and routinely broke 90. Now, she plays 3-4 times per week, but never practices. In fact, she doesn’t even like to practice.

When discussing her game, the theme seems to be how she has lost distance, has a higher handicap, and generally isn’t as good as she used to be. The primary culprit to the diminishing skills, in her opinion, is getting older. I agree that aging can diminish a golf game, but I think the true culprit is the unwillingness to practice.

Having been a client of mine for years, she knows about the value of centering and using the breath to create flow. Occasionally, she even tries to center on the golf course, but she experiences mixed results. When we discuss the TTW principles, she’s always excited about the potential improvement that the program offers, but she approaches it as if centering is a magic wand that, once waved, will create immediate improvement in her game.

Unfortunately, as both Ben and I can confirm, that is never the case. Centering and using the breath to create flow is a tool, a means to an end. It’s not a panacea. It will help improve your game, your attitude, and eventually your life– if you practice.

This week, keep practicing centering. Practice at home, at the gym, on the driving range, and on the course. Practice being in the moment. Practice. Practice. Practice.

This week we’re going to look at developing a pre-shot ritual. I have been doing some reading about golf and learned that the pre-shot ritual is crucial in developing the mental side of the game. Think about it, golf is the only sport that is played with a ball, where the ball isn’t moving and no one is trying to prevent you from achieving your goal. I get to take my time, watch the ball, and plan where to hit it. So what do I do? I stand over it, knowing I’d like it to hit it towards the green, and then hack at it without truly creating a plan for what happens after.

My pre-shot ritual will begin with CENTERING! Why? When centered, the body is in a state of perfect posture and balance. Movements initiated from center are perfect in form and function until the centered position is lost. The longer the centered position is maintained the better the next shot will be.

Standing behind the ball centered, I think about where I want to hit my next shot from. I plan where I’m going to hit the ball, so that can I leave myself with a comfortable distance for the next shot. With this in mind, I pick my target and my aiming point. My aiming point is something 3-4 feet in front of me along the path of my ball in alignment with my target. When I’m comfortable with my aim point and target, I move to address the ball. Over the ball, I begin by re-centering myself.

As Ben mentioned in his piece on Friday, we have been playing with videoing parts of our practice. After watching myself go through parts of this process, I learned that after centering, I tend to lift my club straight up into the air waist-high 2 or 3 times prior to hitting the ball. After discussing this with Ben, who assumed it was just part of my pre-shot ritual, I decided to try to remove it and stay as still as possible when addressing the ball. So at a subsequent practice session I tried to remove that part of the ritual and remain as still as possible. This was a complete disaster. For some reason, I couldn’t hit a ball to save my life. I was clearly thinking about not doing it, which of course caused me to fight my body. My mind was saying don’t lift your club and all my body could hear was ‘lift the club’. After about 20 minutes of complete frustration, I decided that Ben was right, it was actually a part of the ritual and I would have to find a way to incorporate it into the process.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about using the breath to ground myself prior to hitting the ball. I decided to incorporate the club movement with that breath, inhaling when raising the club and exhaling and grounding myself as I lowered it. It is here at this point at address, standing over the ball, centered, that the pre-shot ritual stops. Now, it’s time to quit thinking and perform. Simply commit myself to the process and allow myself to execute the shot.

As you can see, I have spent a lot of time thinking about my pre-shot ritual. Using the video that Ben and I shot was critical to the process. It was critical, because my pre-shot ritual didn’t look like I thought it did. A disharmony between perception and reality can negatively affect the outcome. With practice, I should be able to make it feel and look exactly the same every time, thus, maximizing the results.

So the assignment this week is to think about your pre-shot ritual. What is it? Does it change when your change clubs? If possible, get a friend to video you using your cell phone. See if it looks like you thought it did. Were you centered? How repeatable is it? Now, practice your pre-shot ritual. I recommend doing exactly what Ben talked in his piece on Friday; go through your ritual all the way into the back swing. Pause at the top and check your center and balance. Then step away and begin again. Practicing in this manner helps grove the process and makes it repeatable on the course.

Last week I introduced ritual practice by having you practice standing center. I did this for two reasons. The first, is that if were to establish a ritual, starting by being centered seems the obvious starting position. The second, is for a ritual to work it has to be repeatable.

As Ben described in his piece on Friday, Jordan Spieth did or felt something different on that fifth shot on 12. Energetically, he shifted back into his normal posture and addressed the shot from a more confident position. That feeling obviously stayed with him after that last shot on 12. That shot set up his birdies on the next two holes. It actually enabled him to get back to his pre-shot ritual that had given him the 5 stroke lead.

This is why a pre-shot ritual should always start with centering. Centering is designed to bring you back to that feeling of being open and at ease with what you’re about to do. Mistakes are bound to happen. But by re-centering before the next shot we can keep the mistake from creating a pattern.

Now, I doubt our mistakes on the golf course will ever cost us a couple of million dollars like it did Jordan Spieth at the Masters. But, centering isn’t all about golf. Centering is about life. The ritual of centering is critical to living a balanced life. To keeping us open and in tune with what is happening within and around us.

This week’s practice is going to continue building on last week’s. Grab your favorite golf club, one you always hit well, address the ball and center. Now, notice your grip. Is your breath open and your energy able to flow? Take a couple of practice swings as you try to stay centered. I highly recommend hitting a bucket or two this week as you practice centering at address. Limit the practice to just the one club .