October 9, 2014
Podcast from: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/sleep-podcasts/how-to-get-to-sleep-at-night-before-a-big-race/
[00:00] Introduction
[05:21] Why We Can't Get To Sleep Before A Big Thing
[06:48] The Conscious-Unconscious Mind
[10:05] Why Affirmation Doesn't Exactly Work
[17:06] Using NLP To Calm Down The Night Before
[31:30] greenfieldfitnesssystems.com
[32:08] Continuation
[38:26] Understanding And Getting Past Fear
[48:15] Creating A Subconscious Anchor
[1:10:03] End of Podcast
Ben: Hey, it's Ben Greenfield here. Now occasionally, in lieu of our normal weekly crazy Q & A podcast, I'll release a special interview that I find to be especially thought provoking, entertaining, educational, and extremely compelling and unique. So today is one of those specific interviews. I hope you enjoy it. And there will be, of course, because this is one of those special interviews, no Q & A, or News Flashes, or Special Announcements. However if you want to support this podcast, you can definitely do so by going over to the one website where I store everything that I've ever recommended for you to get to your goals as quickly, and safely, and effectively as possible, and that website is greenfieldfitnesssystems.com. So check out greenfieldfitnesssystems.com. It helps to support this show. And now on to today's interview.
Hey, folks. It's Ben Greenfield. And I got to tell you, for two years since nearly breaking the four-hour mark in a half-Ironman that I raced in Japan, I've had this thing called an anchor. And I'm not talking about the heavy piece of metal that you drop off the back of a boat, I'm talking about what's called a mental anchor. And it goes like this: when I'm in the middle of a race, usually like the running part of a race, I squeeze my thumb up against the inside of my hand, and this triggers my mind to almost like shout this phrase, and my phrase is, “You're never going to catch me.” And then I just seem to take off like a shot, and it somehow shuts down the pain, it lets me focus. And just for a little bit, like it lasts like 10, 20 seconds, it causes me to tap into this quick burst of hidden energy. And I actually developed this anchor during something called a neuro-linguistic programming session, which is also known as NLP. And I recorded that entire session just a few days before that race in Japan and I released the podcast a few days later. And you can listen to it over in the show notes that I'll put for this podcast. The name of that podcast was “How To Rewire Your Brain And Body With Neurolinguistic Programming”. Now I will put the show notes to this podcast that you're listening to right now at bengreenfieldfitness.com/nlp. That's bengreenfieldfitness.com/nlp if you want to go access the resources that I talk about as we go.
So anyways, this simple NLP programming technique didn't tackle another important issue, and we actually didn't even talked about this issue during that podcast, and that's the trouble that a lot of athletes have trouble getting to sleep at night before a big race. And of course a lot of CEOs or people working in business have a lot of trouble getting to sleep at night before they go give a big presentation, many students before they will give a talk to class. So there's a lot of different situations where this stuff happens, but basically what it comes down to is no matter how well-wired you are to perform really well or how well-prepared you are, you are actually pretty miserable if you feel like you've just pulled an all-nighter, whether you're racing a marathon or an Ironman, or giving a speech. So today, I've got good news for you. I've invited back on the podcast the guy who taught me that anchor that I was talking about earlier, that mental anchor where I pull my thumb against the inside of my hand and the guy who neuro-linguistically programmed me during that podcast session, and his name is Andy Murphy. And in this episode, we're going to be talking about that problem that I just brought up: how to get to sleep at night before you have a big race or a big event. How to kind of pull that calm trigger. So Andy, thanks for coming back, man.
Andy: Of course, mate! It's always a pleasure. Always fun to talk to you, buddy.
Ben: And I love your accent, by the way. It always brings a smile to my face. So this is a really interesting topic and I'd love to hear your perspective on this, on how we can kind of control our state and master what's going on inside us. And a big, big part of this podcast I'm kind of leaving up to you where you want to jump off 'cause I know you do a lot of this stuff with people, but where do you like to start as far as kind of presenting the information of why we can't get to sleep before a big thing?
Andy: Yeah. I like the intro by the way, mate. That makes me feel good inside!
Ben: Good. I'm serious. I use that anchor when I'm out in a big event. And like I pull the trigger, and seriously, like it doesn't last a long time, but like 10, 20 seconds is all I need to close a gap, or make something happen, or take my mind off the pain. It works, man.
Andy: Absolutely it does. I've got like about four or five I set up and blast all day. But it really is like, that's all you need. It's just that initial surge of fire and that correct mindset, that correct neurology which releases the right chemicals at the right moment, and bang! Whether you're a professional athlete, or you're an entrepreneur, whatever is, I mean, yeah. That's the power of anchoring, buddy. It really is. I mean where to start with this.
Ben: Yeah. ‘Cause today, now we don't want to speed ourselves up. Now we want to slow ourselves down.
Andy: Yeah. So let's get comfortable, everybody. And it really is, I suppose the best way to start this process is, again if you listened to that other the podcast, cool. If you haven't, cool. ‘Cause I'll reiterate just some of the basics, 'cause that really, Ben, is the place to start because everything's about awareness. And that becomes the challenge, and I'll talk about the unconscious, conscious mind, your little filter system, we'll go over that really, really quick. ‘Cause I think for your listeners out there, it's nice to have a little foundation. I know you know all this stuff. So the best way to describe it is we have a conscious and unconscious mind. The conscious mind is a bit that you're listening to right now. And if I said to you, “How does your right big toe feel?” How does your right big toe feel? I bet you everyone went, “Uhhhh.” Right! But guess what? Automatically, your toe was doing its thing. It was playing along and feeling how it's feeling, but you weren't consciously aware of it.
Ben: In my case, looking very ugly, hairy, purple toenail. But, yeah. Just sitting there, doing its thing.
Andy: It sounds very, attractive toe, mate. It sounds very… And so that's the first bit to understand what the conscious mind actually does, right? But the baby of all this, the beautiful, the trick behind everything is the unconscious mind. The way to describe that is it's the software that plays in the background of your computer, for example. What does that do? Well it runs automatically and it makes your computer perform a certain way. It gets outdated and it gets messy. It's the same with our brain. So what happens is exactly the same. So since birth, what happens is every time we have an experience, whether it's good or bad, we have this piece of software installed, or a program, or a muscle, or a piece of neurology. Same thing. So what happens is we get like a, we make decisions constantly about life. And all of this software gets installed, these muscles get built, and guess what? That becomes how you view the world. That's like when you go back to Arnold Schwarzenegger's autobiography. I'm sure you've read that, Ben.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: Yeah. And his dad was programming him to do exercise as reward. So before he had breakfast, he'd have to do some pushups, and then he'd get fed.
Ben: So it wasn't a punishment. It was like the rat and the cocaine, right? And the food pellet.
Andy: Yeah, yeah! He just kept, the rats keep pressing it and blew themselves up. But that's the place to start is understanding that there's two parts of your brain. And what happens is if we can navigate both of them, that creates rapid change, rapid results, and literally all reality changes. And when I say that people, people are like, “Whatever!” And this is the dirty little secret behind instant success is because if you understand that neurology is a muscle and you've been lifting a certain muscle, that's a certain set of beliefs, attitudes, and all of this for such a long time, when somebody comes along see you and says, “Okay, think this way, act this way, change your habits,” guess what? You can't. And that's why affirmations and things don't create any change. That generally why classical old school psychology takes a long time to make these changes. Because the challenge becomes is that if you understand neurology is a muscle, then we have to pump and lift the right muscle. And so this is the little secret, and I'll get back to that 'cause you've got to keep me on track sometimes…
Ben: Can I interrupt you? I know you're hard to keep on track.
Andy: Please!
Ben: You said that affirmations don't work, but how are we not exercising our muscle when we're doing an affirmation? I don't understand.
Andy: Yeah. Of course. And that's a great question. And you have to put me on track sometimes. ‘Cause I go off at times. There's a lot going through this brain sometimes. Affirmations don't work. It's not that they don't work. I should take that back totally. It's they make you think, feel, and act differently in the moment, but they don't create any long-lasting change. The challenge is is that between your conscious and unconscious mind, you have a wall. It's actually called the critical faculty. But not that you need to remember that. But what happens is these words basically are bouncing off this wall. So to access the unconscious mind what we have to do is change your brainwave frequency. And this is why neuroscience is fantastic, and it's catching up with everything, and it's making huge advancements in performance. But what we have to do to access the unconscious mind, we are basically dropping it from beta, which means that you're active in your buzzing around all day…
Ben: Right. That's the super-duper fast brain waves?
Andy: Yeah, exactly! That's the 13 to 39 Hertz. And then what happens is we try to relax. That's the alpha. But we're still wide awake, we're still conscious of everything, and that, maybe we get to this a little later, I've got a little exercise for people to do in the morning so they can recognize that they're in alpha, and that sets the day up. And then basically what we're trying to do is get you to theta. And once we try to access you into theta, we're really deep into the unconscious mind. And what that means is then we can play around with all of the software. And that's the cool thing. That's the bit that makes permanent change. That's the bit that, like what you did with your anchor, that's what I do, I retrain that. So does that make sense?
Ben: Yeah. It makes sense. It totally makes sense. And when we're getting our brains into this theta wave, 'cause I know we have lots of critical thinkers who listen into the podcast, when we're talking about using some of the stuff you're going to talk about, like NLP, have they actually done EEG analysis and look to people's brain waves and seen that NLP can actually cause you to enter into a theta brainwave?
Andy: Yeah. I mean there's been a lot of studies. How NLP came around was from, it came from classical psychology, but the challenge became, the co-founder was a gentleman called Richard Bandler. And how he got recognition for neuro-linguistics was he was looking at all the psychologists and he started to look at smokers and just all of these people, this is the classical psychology mindset. If everyone out there is into psychology, I'm not saying it's wrong, all I'm saying is open up to see there's other ways of looking at the world. And so what they would do for smoking, for example, classical psychology would get a room full of smokers together and then you would analyze them, do data and tests on them, and find out how they could stop smoking. Well Bandler came along and when, “That doesn't make sense. I want to get a room full of people who have stopped smoking and look at the strategy of how they stopped.” So that's the same mindset around everything with NLP. It's about how you do something, how you think, how you feel, how you act, what the trigger points are, what movie and structure is actually playing in your head. Is it a movie? Is it color? Is it black and white? Is it still? All of these things make memories. So we can start playing around with this stuff.
So when we get to theta and things like that, that means we've got access to all of the software. And the little trick, really, the little tricks I understand then how to fight different neurology is understanding what's playing automatically. So we have a filter system in our brain, and it works like this: we are taking over 2 million bits of information through our five senses every single second. So that's a crazy stat in itself. And what happens is is that overloads our conscious mind. Of course, right? It's just like the, look at you GMail account. It's the same thing. You get flooded, especially you, Ben, you get flooded with e-mails every day.
Ben: Yeah. Well even like right now, right as we are talking. So I've got my computer pulled up, I can see I can hear my wife slightly talking in the background somewhere off in the house, I see a guy out planting grass in the front yard, beyond that there's trees, beyond there's a mountain that's nice to look at, and then there's some cars driving on the highway. There are a ton of things. If I decide I'm not going to focus on listening to your voice, yeah, I could probably count just like 100 things right off the top of my head.
Andy: Right. And those are all playing in the background. And that's why you're not consciously aware of them and so you go, “Oh, I'm looking at this.” So your e-mail, as I say, you get flooded with e-mails, and what your filter system, whether you're aware of it or not, you've got a filter system in your e-mail account and it deletes what it thinks you don't want, it puts the rest in your spam folder, and what it sets for you to see, that's in your inbox. Well, the same thing with your brain. You get flooded with this information, it goes through your filter system, and it gets chunked down from those 2 million bits just into 134 bits. But this is the little secret, the dirty little secret as I like to call it. Inside this filter system, that's where your beliefs are stored, your beliefs, your attitudes, your language, your values, a few of the different things. But they're the main ones. And I say to people and say, sorry, “What does that mean?” Well, look at it this way. It's like how many times have you, yeah, let's use this example.
How many times have you gone to buy a new car? And you might not have seen that car many times before, but as soon as you know it's aware, as soon as you know it's real and it's there, guess what happens? That car appears everywhere. Does that mean the car didn't exist before? No. It means your filter system wasn't set to see it. So that's the same with success. That's the same with, we're talking about obviously Ironman. That's the same. With the difference between someone winning 1st and 6th. It doesn't mean they're both not brilliant. It just means that filter system, your belief inside yourself, your attitude about that race, your attitude about the past, or your beliefs about your times, all of these things start to make up literally what's in your inbox and your reality. And the crazy thing is all of this neurology, these muscles that you've been lifting since you were born are all attached to this filter system. And all of this filter system floods your brain with chemicals, and that's literally the best place to start is understanding that. I mean that was pretty much of a run, but hopefully that made sense.
Ben: Yeah. It makes sense. It makes total sense. So how do we go from there into how we can use NLP to reprogram us or begin us down the road of like calm-sleeping-the-night-before-the-big-event type of thing?
Andy: I'm really happy that we're talking about this 'cause I know you said before this is something that you get asked about all the time.
Ben: Oh my gosh! Like it is as much of an issue in athletes as knowing the right way to train and the right way to eat, the fact that folks simply have a hard time sleeping the night before the big event.
Andy: It's crazy, right? And we've all been through ourselves. And I've been an athlete since I've been a kid too and it's like the pressure of the next day, it can come overwhelming. So the first thing to really start to become aware of or conscious of, that's why I explained it that way, is that states, and this is something I specialize in and I love is about understanding states. So if we use, let's use you, Ben. So let's use you. So you actually…
Ben: Why not?
Andy: Since this is your podcast, mate. So seeing is, like you on the day of a really big event, you're thinking, feeling, and acting a very unique way. Your heart rate's a certain way, your breathing rate, your micromuscles on your face are firing a certain way, your focus is on a very specific thing, your adrenals glands are firing at a certain rate. If you imagine that as a bubble, that's a state. That's your peak performance state for competing for an Ironman, right? So that certainly isn't the same state, well hope not anyway, as when you go and talk to your wife, or you go and play with your kids, or you go and do business. These are all different versions of you.
Ben: Nah, I really am that way all the time. My eyes popping out of the head, drool coming up the corner of my mouth. Yeah. Totally. Lose all bowel function.
Andy: I've the both of it.
Ben: No, you're right. You're right. It is a different mentality.
Andy: Of course! What does that mean? It's different neurology firing. It's different a filter system that's been set. But if you understand that, then what does that mean? Well it means that most people aren't aware of this. Most people don't know that they can step in and out of states. Most people don't know they can take this conscious control. People aren't aware. So like I said, consciously before with your big toe, this is the first step, to understand that it doesn't matter what you're doing during the day, when you get home at night and as you're about to go to bed, these are all different versions of you. These are all different states. So as you're going to sleep, guess what? That's a different state. Makes sense?
Ben: Mhmm. Yeah. Totally.
Andy: So what we have to bring in there is understanding anchoring. Because the challenge becomes is, when you spoke about anchoring before, and I'll explain briefly anchoring, is that it goes back to Pavlov's dog experiments, but at the end of the day let's put into something tangible for you. Ever heard a piece of music that takes you right back there? Right? We've all had that experience. So that's also, we have negative and positive anchoring. And negative anchoring could be you coming home from a very stressful day, training or work, and you come in and you see your family, you see your house, and your family, and your wife. Well what happens is if you're not separating states, what happens is is you'll bring in that stressful painful emotion over inside your family. So what happens enough times if you don't start being aware to separate those states, that neurology, that emotion starts getting entangled and messy inside these other parts of your life. So this also flows through when you're trying to sleep.
So what the first bit you must be able to do is recognize what pattern is playing, what hat am I playing right now, what role are my playing right now. And then it starting to learn to separate these things. So once you're coming home from work, let's just use that example. So you're coming home from work, it's right there, we have to start making a conscious decision. How do we do that? Well we're trying to interrupt the synapse connections, we're trying to interrupt the pattern of behavior. So once we start doing that, then we can start separating the neurology which makes it very clean, so it stops us from being stressed at home, it stops us from being stressed at work or vice versa. So the first step is there is awareness, as I say. So just as you're about to leave work or you get in your car, that's when we need to press the reboot, the reset. And for most people, that's what they don't do. And they'll go home and they'll get in the house, and that movie'll still be playing in the head, that emotion'll still be playing in the head. And that's what causes problems, 'cause they don't know how to switch on and switch off.
Ben: I think it's so hard now, in our day and age, because you can take your work home. Like I can respond to e-mails until 10 PM and then turn off my computer, and put it beside my bed, and go to sleep. Or be looking at my smart phone for hours after work is “done”. So, yeah. It's a big issue.
Andy: It's a huge issue. And so then we talk about anchoring again. And as I was saying before, you bring that emotion home and you keep doing that, well that gets anchored. So because it gets anchored then, it becomes very difficult to start separating these things. But that's also the same, we have internal anchoring, like what we're talking about with you on your phone, Ben. But then we also have external anchoring. So understand that your house is anchored to make you think, feel, and act a certain way. That's the same with the bedroom. That's the same with everything around you, in your home, in your training, and everything. It's going to light up a certain set of neurology which is going to make you, again, it's going to make you look and feel about the world a certain way. So like you're talking about, that stimulation is crazy 'cause we can sit there constantly connected to the grid. And again, that can get anchored in ourselves. But what happens is if we're playing around with constant stimulation, it's constantly firing neurology, it's constantly firing these thought patterns. So how are you supposed to go into delta and theta if you're thinking about what's happening, I don't know, on TV or what's happening tomorrow?
So what happens is, I always teach this. I always teach if you've got the day before a big events or in general, I always teach switch everything off like about an hour before. And to me, the bedroom, and the lounge, or wherever you are, in the dining room, or wherever you are trying to relax separately, those two things need to be kept separate. Because remember, external anchoring. So the bedroom, it's for fun and sleep. Right? And wherever your else are in the house, that's when you reflect, and reset, and let go of the day, you're closing the book. So what we're trying to do again, you're trying to change states. So you come home from work, you'll be in family mode, then you'll be in relax mode, then you'll be in sleep mode. All of those are separate states. And you'll start to see as you go down this funnel, if you want to call it that, these steps that your brain'll start to learn, and react, and train itself to start going gently to sleep. It's like, “Okay! It's this time at night, I've got no stimulation on now, I'm going to go into the bedroom in a minute, now it's time to start calming myself down.” Does that make sense?
Ben: Yeah. It does. And we've talk about sleep hygiene a little bit before on the podcast and that concept of having the bedroom be the place where it's sleep, it's sex, it's relaxation. And we even have a lot of podcast listeners, and I'm bringing this up because I've talked to a few people and a had to remind them about this, who know not to bring the screen into the bedroom anymore. Not to create iPad insomnia, not have the kindle, and the smartphone, and the laptop in bed, and that type of thing, you know who you are if you're listening in. But there are a lot of people now getting into just like reading real paper books in bed, and that's even something that I've had to talk to some folks about is I'll ask, “Well, what are you reading,” and it's like some business self-improvement book. Or like the biography, and don't get me wrong, biographies are great, but it's the biography of someone who that person wants to use their career to grow up to be just like. So it's like the Steve Job's biography, or like one of these new books coming out from companies like Fast Company or Forbes, like the new, what's one I was reading last night, Smartcuts, I was reading last night downstairs. And I knew if I brought that book up into the bedroom, even though it's just a paper book, it would make me think about work and little things that I could do to help me out with work. Same thing with magazines like Fast Company and Entrepreneur. Yeah, they're paper books, but what I've found, like at night, I like to read a little bit of fiction, something that has absolutely nothing to do with work, I'm writing a book right now on free diving and how to hold your breath underwater. But, yeah. It's such a great point. Not only is the bedroom just a place for sleeping and relaxation. or maybe reading a book or something like that, but you even need to be careful of the kind of books that you bring into the bedroom.
Andy: Absolutely. ‘Cause you've got it. The thing is you don't want massive brain activity. And whatever you keep doing, your brain's, it wants to loop. This is the other thing everyone's got to understand: all your brain wants to do is loop. The neurology wants to complete the pattern. That's all it is. So what we're trying to do is make us consciously aware so we can interrupt that pattern, scratch the record, eject the movie. That's all we're trying to do. And then what we can do is give ourselves options. And all the unconscious mind'll do then, if you keep repeating whatever it is you want, it's going to go, “Oh, okay. That's what you want? Okay, now I know.” Keep doing that and it just changes. So that's the same with sleep. But the other side of this, once you've mastered that, of switching yourself off and calming down, and there's many different ways to calm yourself down, through meditation, there's loads of apps out there, binaural waves, and listening to something, I don't know, Ben's done. But then what? Well you still, generally there's a conversation still going on in your head, right? That's probably what drives most people crazy. Is that what you've found?
Ben: Mhmm. Yeah. And when it's before a race or it's before, let's just use the race as an example. And this is something I used to preach, right? Like you visualize, and you visualize you crossing the finish line with your hands held up high in the air. And maybe even you're using something like the anchoring strategies that you and I talked about in the last podcast, Andy. It's like you're leaving your competitors in the dust and boom, you blast your anchor and you're taking off like a shot, and you're imagining all the different parts of the race in your head and creating that scenario for yourself. Well I think that that backfires sometimes when you're trying to get to sleep and that movie is playing in your head. And I think the problem is that it's hard to turn that movie off. And you can hear the music that you know is going to be playing the next morning in race, you can hear the anthem, like the national anthem playing and you're all ready to go, and all of a sudden your body is experiencing that. And you can feel that adrenaline rush as you're freaking laying there, trying to sleep, knowing that you're supposed to perform best when you've slept eight hours and you're watching the clock tick by and getting more desperate every hour. Athletes, I know they're experiencing this. I experienced it before Ironman, before marathon, stuff like that. So, yeah. Absolutely.
Andy: So when should you be doing that? Well you should be doing that in the morning. First thing, right?
Ben: Right.
Andy: ‘Cause then you're lighting the right neurology. And what you're doing then in the morning, I'll come back to what I was about to say with the next step, but let's just address that morning. Just briefly. Because when I was talking about before, the alpha, well what that is is that alpha wave is something I always teach people. There's many ways you can get into this alpha state, by the way. You can use the binaural waves, just put them in. Or you just start to become aware of what it feels like to be in that alpha wave. And that alpha wave is just when you're in that, when you first woke up, you're a little bit groggy and [grunts]. Well guess what? You're in that daydream state still, but you're awake. And that's where, like what you were just talking about, the visualization side, that's where you do it. Because we've got direct access to the neurology, we've got direct access to the unconscious mind there. So that's when we start to light that up.
And what that does is something someone could do every single day is just to have a good day is start imagining what it's like to go back into the house at the end of the day and something, not specific, but something amazing has happened. What that does is, probably sounds a bit cheesy but really effective because, what it does is that it starts to build the pattern of a win. It starts to build a pattern of getting back into the house that night and something amazing has happened. So what does that mean? Remember the filter system? It starts to adjust your filter system to believe that something potentially can happen that day, which changes your attitude, which changes again the excitement that you're feeling. So what happens is is your filter system starts searching for something amazing to happen. Does that mean something amazing's going to happen each day? No. But it means that it's way more likely to. And secondly, you're stepping into the world with a totally different attitude. You're smiling, you're excited, you're pumped up about that day. But anyway, that's a tangent.
Jessa: Hey, quick break here. This is Jessa Greenfield, Ben's boss, I mean wife. I'm not sure if you know this, but Ben, being the complete nerd that he is, keeps track of everything he's ever recommended and found to work really well and puts it all over at greenfieldfitnesssystems.com. From books, to lab tests, to supplements, he has it all there. So whether you want to build muscle, burn fat, fix your gut, sleep better, balance hormones, learn about smart drugs, whatever, it's all there. Check it out at greenfieldfitnesssystems.com. Okay. Now back to the podcast.
Andy: So let's get back to sleep. The thing is you got to understand about the mind is that we are, as humans, question answering machines. And the power of your internal dialogue, your inner critic, your self-talk, what ever the heck you want to call it, but the power of this thing, it's immense. I mean I'm sure I've mentioned this before on the podcast, but we actually say 50,000 words to ourself every single day in our own heads on average. What the next stage to that is I've got this from the…
Ben: 50,000 words. That's a book.
Andy: Oh, yeah!
Ben: Some people don't know what 50,000 words are, but I'm an author. That's a book. That's a pretty good sized book.
Andy: Right, right! And the crazy thing is, Ben, is that general population, 70% of that is negative. Just think about that though. Think about what that really means from what I've just explained. It means each time you're saying a word, it's firing a muscle in your brain which is connected to your attitude and your belief about yourself or whatever you're doing, which is flooding your whole body with chemicals. So it's like having somebody next to you talking in your ear, going, “You suck. You're not going to be able to do this,” or whatever. It's huge. So if we're question answering machines, then what we have to, especially as athletes and entrepreneurs, we have to start learning how to be aware consciously of what we're saying to ourselves and start to take control. Because if I was to ask any question like, “What did you have for dinner last Thursday?” People are going to go…
Ben: It wasn't Taco Tuesday, so I have no clue.
Andy: Okay. I'm glad I picked Thursday, man. But what did your brain do? You tried to answer it. I'm sure you couldn't remember, unless, well maybe you could, but most of the time you couldn't. But your brain searched for the answer. That's called a transderivational search, just in case you need to know that. But it's…
Ben: What'd you call it? A triderivational search?
Andy: A transderivational search.
Ben: A transderivational search.
Andy: Yeah. It's when your brain or your unconscious mind starts to search for the program. And that's actually how you can embed commands and stuff to yourself or somebody else. So if you're coaching somebody, and when you ask a question and they'd start to flick their eyes upward and search for the answer, that's where you can actually embed hypnotic commands. So that goes straight into the unconscious mind there. Just so you know. So question answering machines. So we've really got to get good answering these questions. So the way I look at it is like when you're changing states, and you're about to go into the bedroom, and you're winding down, but your mind's still quite busy, the questions I always ask is, “Is there any more that I can do right now that's going to make the big difference? Is there any more I can do right now?” Obviously, no. There's nothing you can do right now. Then you start to become your best coach is, “What would happen if I stay awake for the next three hours thinking about tomorrow? I'm going to be exhausted. I'm going to be all of this.”
So then you start going through this process and start changing those states. So who is it I need to be right now to be able to be in peak performance for tomorrow? Well, I need to be calm, relaxed, quiet. Right. So what is it I need to think about to be calm, relaxed, and quiet? Well I need to think about accepting I've done all that I can for this race. I'm prepared there's no more I can do. You're becoming non-attached to like obsessed with an outcome. It's about going in there and doing your best. Meaning you should become obsessed with your own internal performance. Meaning you should be obsessed with each step, checking your watch for the times, your breathing rates, all of these things. And if you stay on that track, then you're going to get the result that you want. So the other thing you've got to understand is that the language that you use becomes very important. And again, this is common knowledge now, but again it doesn't mean it's common practice. You know, Ben, that's like don't think of a ninja. Don't think of a ninja. Don't think of a ninja with a sword.
Ben: It's way better than the purple elephant one.
Andy: Yeah. Way better, mate. Ninjas are cool.
Ben: Yeah. Way better than the purple elephant. Go ahead.
Andy: But understand this conversation 'cause what your filter system does, it deletes the first part of the statement because it only focuses on the main chunk of that statement. So if you're saying to yourself, like in your head as you're about to go to sleep or winding down, “I don't want to mess this up. God, I really don't want to mess this up. I don't want to mess this up.” Guess what you program in your brain, because it only hears, yeah, “Mess this up. Mess this up.” And even if it hears the word “don't”, it doesn't matter. Because if I was to say, “Yeah, don't think of a ninja. No matter what, absolutely don't think of a ninja.” So when you start to understand the power of 50,000 words we're saying to ourselves, understand that each one of these is a muscle that's connected to your filter system. Each one of these is connected to a feeling, and most people don't take awareness over even this internal dialogue. So you have to become your best coach and coach yourself through these states. Who do I need to be now to get the best results? Does that make sense, Ben?
Ben: Mhmm. Yup, yup. It makes sense.
Andy: Cool. Beautiful. So then I would say the next part is, so what have we learned so far? We've learned about the conscious and unconscious mind, we've learned about the filter system, we've learned about designing and then changing states, we've learned about this inner critic, this internal dialogue. So the next part is really about understanding fear and how to get past that. And I mean, a question for you actually, Ben. Each day, do you, like each time you're about to perform, like go into an event, do you have a lot of fear? I mean, how do you deal with that?
Ben: Well that's the thing is a lot of times it's not fear. It's not even negative thinking. It's not even that can't-do type of message playing through the brain at night. Instead, it's just freaking excitement, confidence. Like being ready, like really wanting to perform, wishing morning would arrive and start and want to be there and you could just go play and do your thing. Like for me, that's the issue. And I know we've got a lot of winners that listen into this podcast, right? A lot of high achievers who maybe don't struggle with fear quite as much as just like the freaking excitement and how do you shut all that off. So yeah, to honestly answer your question, no. A lot of the times, I'm not afraid. I'm freaking excited. Like I love to get out there and get my hands dirty and fight. But the problem is it's hard to do on an hour of sleep, right?
Andy: It's hard to do an hour of sleep, for sure. And your brain and your mind's not going to function right. And you've obviously all got different levels of performance who will listen into this. So absolutely, not everyone's going to have that fear and it's excitement, but understand that for someone like yourself, Ben, the reason why you're at the level that you are is because you've built those unconscious patterns. And it is two ways to build those patterns. We build it through action, externally, and we build it through internal. Those things together create congruence. So that's why you're in alignment and that's why you're amazing at what you do when you compete. So it's really for you, those first two steps, it's about state control. If you don't have that fear, and then it's about calming your mind down. So calming your mind down is leading up to that event, it's separating those environments. So it's taking wherever it is in your house that you're winding yourself down and just accepting where you are. And again, it's using that internal dialogue to just calm your brain down. But again, do you want me to go through the fear? Or it's entirely up to you because…
Ben: Yeah, let's touch on it. Because I know there are some people that certainly are. There are people out there doing their first marathon, or their first Ironman, or their first Spartan, and there is some fear. There is some unknown. So, yeah.
Andy: Yeah! I mean again, I mean fear, it comes from the same place, it comes from the amygdala part the brain. That's the fight or flight. And what's happening with you, Ben, is you're stepping into that fight. So you're into this. But for a lot of the people, they can go the other way. Because the thing is, it works like this is we, Einstein said it best, we get boxed in by the boundary conditions of our thinking. We get boxed in by this neural net. So what happens is is our default setting of the unconscious mind wants to keep us safe. That's all it wants to do is wants to keep us safe. The reason why to me, Ben, you're not feeling fear is because you know what's on the outside of this boundary. So because you designed and installed in your brain, it's fight or flight, is the response, we'll you're fighting, you're into this 'cause you know what's going to happen. For someone who's new to Ironman or competing like this, they're not going to have that designed and installed outside this boundary. So they're going to have that fear response.
So that's where fear kicks in. Because again it's awareness and recognizing patterns. ‘Cause we might consciously, you say to yourself, “Let's do this! Let's do this!” And you'll push forwards and you'll bounce off the edge of this wall. And what happens is is that's where a lot of people self-sabotage themselves. This is also when you going through the race. And you can start, you might not have competed or you might be in a really good position, but you'll self-sabotage yourself because you'll start getting the internal dialogue all kicking, all the feelings, and you go, “I can't do this.” But it's the same with fear. So what happens is as you push up against this boundary, recognize that is just a pattern. It's just a piece of neurology that's firing. So what we have to do is, like Ben was talking about before, visualize what's next. And what that will do is that will expand the boundary, it would teach your unconscious mind how you're going to perform. Now what that does is that starts to eliminate the fear. Does that make sense?
Ben: Mhmm. Yup.
Andy: Again. So those are the main components of being able to change state, getting control of that inner dialogue with those correct questions, understanding and being aware of the fear and what's kicking in is just you need to expand the boundary by designing what's outside of it. And then those three things combined make sure that you're in the right place to go to bed. And then it's about, okay, well even if you're trying to sleep and you're mind's still going, what do we do then? Well again, it's asking yourself three simple questions. This is what I always explain, the very simple questions. But again, it's accepting that you're going to do it. Accepting that you're competing. Accepting that you have to go to sleep. Accepting that you're going to race and you're going to perform at your best. And accepting whatever the result is going to be. The first one is acceptance. So that will again, “There's no more you can do.” So then that starts to calm the mind down. One is that acceptance.
The second is again, is the next question, is becoming non-attached. Meaning that if you become so obsessed with that outcome, like you must get first place, you must get first place, the challenge with that is that can create such an anxiety because again it's outside of this boundary that sometimes we don't, it will stop us sleeping or it will create that stress and that pressure, and it's the wrong time for that. Because at the end of the day, if you've prepared fully, then what that means is that you're going to do your best and you can accept where you're at. Generally the anxiety and stuff I've found through athletes, and you might differ with this, Ben, is that we, if you're under prepared, then there's more stress when you're trying to perform. If you're prepared, then you can just go out there and do your best.
Ben: Yeah. And I think that for me, when it comes to feeling that level of preparedness and telling myself, “You're ready, you're ready,” a lot of times that tends to make me think about being ready, and then that makes me excited that I'm ready, and then that makes me think about competing. And so it's almost like paints me into that corner where it's like, “Yeah, okay. I'm prepared. I can settle down. Nothing to be anxious about. Oh, hey. There's nothing to be anxious about. Maybe you can win. Oh, hey. Let's play a little picture of you winning and crossing your arms at the finish line.” And it's like, “Turn it off! Turn it off!”
Andy: Yeah. So right there, the way to do that is to understand that when you step into that bedroom, that's for sleep and fun. And so it's preparing and training up to the event to make sure that that pattern the week before, wherever it is, you're using the bedroom to sleep and you're decompressing the day, and your training, and everything before you get in there. Because that sets up an external anchor for you. And so you step in there and you're going to feel calm and relaxed. Again, consciously that's the best way.
The other side is to retrain your unconscious mind because this is all conscious stuff. So the unconscious mind is where you start to, again it's just, I mean as many ways we can retrain this, about going into, we can install the day, but we're talking about night right now. So it's being able to install an anchor or something like that very simply that you're able to then just start firing and it relaxes you, it calms you, it stills you, it slows your heart rate down. Because the other thing that you got to understand about the conscious mind, it's also called the body mind. That's the bit of your mind that breathes you, it blinks you, it affects your heart rate, your lymph system, your adrenal glands, and all of the rest. So once we start retraining that, then guess what? Then we're able to fire that correct neurology, it adjusts in our body, and it starts to calm us down.
Ben: Yeah. Makes sense. So similar to the way that we are tapping into the subconscious when we're using something like that mental anchor we developed in last podcast, now we're developing a subconscious mental anchor to kind of take us the other way?
Andy: Yes! Absolutely! I've got like five different anchors and I use them differently for different reasons. And so it's the same with anyone. If it's someone stepping onto a TV set, that a case of they need a specific anchor for that. For them to decompress and chill out, they need a separate anchor for that. So I mean we can definitely look at that today, Ben. It's entirely up to your time and how you want us to work.
Ben: Well why don't we throw it in for folks? I mean I think that would be fascinating to see how a subconscious anchor like that is created.
Andy: Yeah. Absolutely. Why not, right? Why not? It's probably best not for people to be driving all the rest of it for this.
Ben: Riding your bike, walking near a body of water you could fall asleep and fall into. Any of the above. Operating a tractor.
Andy: Yeah, yeah! All of that! It's not going to work out for you too well.
Ben: Yeah. Get off your tractors.
Andy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So again, what I would do if I had more time, what I would do is design the whole state. So what we would do is we would take you from, okay, your calm anchor. Then we would look at the times in the past where you've managed to fall asleep deeply, the reasons why, what that'll look like, where were you, and all the rest. So can we do that all today? Well that takes a long time. But what we can do today, if that's okay, Ben, is we can, again, we'll install this switch off for calming down anchor. So what are the couple of emotions that people, or yourself, would love to feel at the end of that day or just before going to bed?
Ben: Usually when you are in a situation where you're at a big event, or you're right before a big event, or you're having a hard time getting to sleep at night it is, one would just be comfort. A lot of times you're in a foreign bed in a hotel, in a condo, in an AirBNB, whatever. Sometimes a tent. And you're outside your normal zone and there's all sorts of sounds, different fans, different things distracting you, different feel of the bedspread, things that you may not be used to that make you feel uncomfortable. So one would be comfort I think would be one thing people would want to feel to just like get comfortable. And then I think another would be kind of something we already touched on, relax. Turn off the movie of you racing. Turn off that movie of you competing. Turn off that movie, whatever, of you speaking at your event. Turn off that movie. Like those would be the two biggest things. It's like, “How do I get comfortable and then how do I relax?”
Andy: Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha! Okay. Well, we can definitely do that. Let me think about just two seconds if I can add to this for everybody on the call. Because comfort, that's brilliant. ‘Cause what we can do, we can install a specific anchor for that. So no matter where you are, you'll feel uncomfortable. But what I'd like to show somebody is, again it's two separate techniques, but is actually how to fire neurology and flatten it. Meaning like if you've got this thought spinning around your head, maybe this is what we do, Ben. It's something spinning around your head like that thought, how to basically, yeah, just it fire away. And it's something I think I did on the last podcast maybe to a degree. Not sure. There's many podcast that I do. So it's a way to literally fire into the distance. What that does from an unconscious point of view is it actually rewinds and flattens the neurology. So then you can snap it back the next day. But at the end of the day, what this will do for you, this movie that's spinning around in your head, it'll give you the ability to catch it and push it away. So there's two parts to this, but let's see how we do. So the first one is comfort and relaxed. So when would you like to feel these things? Is it before you get into the bedroom or is it…
Ben: No. Usually it's like when your head hits the pillow. Sometimes up to that point, like you've had a nice meal, you've had a glass of wine, it's like, okay, you got a race. Going to bed early. Getting ready for a good night's sleep. And then your head hits the pillow and it's like, bam! The movie starts playing in your head.
Andy: Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Okay.
Ben: Or you hear that weird fan, or you think, “Oh, crap. My pillow's too hard.”
Andy: Right. Alright. Okay. So what's the thing that we want there? You want to be able to feel like you're in your comfort zone, right?
Ben: Right.
Andy: Right. You want to remember the times that you know you were comfortable in your own home. You want your body to adjust and feel like that. So it doesn't really matter where you are, those are the feelings that we need to feel. Okay. So now we understand what we want. Let's play around with this. So the first thing that we should probably do, Ben, is just show your guys out there what a memory actually looks like. That will only takes two seconds, then we can install our little anchor. Sound good?
Ben: Perfect. Cool.
Andy: Beautiful. So for everyone out there, I hope that you're not driving and listening to that. And that's the first step. So what I want you to do is to close your eyes. The reason why we do that is because we want to shut that visual sense off. That's the only reason. So what I want you to do then is to just take three big deep breaths. That's right. And the reason why we do that is we just start to change the brainwave frequency. That's right. And your unconscious mind already begins to tune into the sound of my voice, which is perfect. What I want to do is bring up and remember a time, a time where you were really, really relaxed, and calm, and comfortable, and in such a beautiful place that it felt like you had cotton all around you and you're so confortable. Maybe it was a time in the morning that you didn't have to get up that day and you realized that, and you just pulled those duvets all the way around you. That's right. I'm going to ask you a quick series of questions, and I just want you to pay attention and answer them out loud or in your own head. Is that image that you've got right there, is it color or black and white?
Ben: Mine's color.
Andy: Beautiful.
Ben: I'll be quite though so listeners can listen too.
Andy: No, that's okay. It's okay. Is it colored, black and white? Is it a movie? Or is it a still picture? Are you seeing it through your own eyes? Are you seeing yourself like on a movie screen? Is the image focused or de-focused? Is that focus steady or changing? Now try and find that feeling for me, 'cause it's got a location in the body. Is it in your head, your chest, your legs, or arm? Double that feeling of comfort and relaxed. Where's that feeling? Does it move from your chest, or your head, and spins back 'round? Where is it? Which direction does it spin in? What would happen now if you spin it more and more in that way that would make you more and more comfortable and relaxed? That's right. Beautiful. Well we might as well keep going now, Ben. Because now that everyone's nice and relaxed, what I want you to do is I'm going to guide you through a few more things as you're in this state, and you're thinking the things that you're thinking now, and you're calm and relaxed.
What I wanted to do is I'm going to say stack and anchor. And what I want you to do is make a fist, but put your thumb on the inside. And for people like Ben, you use the opposite hand 'cause you've only got one installed. And then when I say pump it, you just pump this thumb. Pump it, pump it, pump it. And obviously this isn't a pump up session, this is nice and calm and make you relaxed. That's right. So as you're in that bed, and you're thinking what you're thinking, and the sound of just whatever's familiar to you, is just enwrapping you and cascading all around you, and it all just makes sense, you're so familiar there. I just want you to imagine just turning that [0:56:06] ______ up just a little bit more. So if you can imagine a dial from 0 to 10, I just want you to turn that color up just a little bit more. So maybe an eight or a nine. I want you to do the same with the brightness. Imagine you've got a dial next to the brightness and I just want you to turn on that up all the way up. That's right. Beautiful. So as you thinking the things that you're thinking now, I just want you to feel what it feels like as the bed is just on your on arms, and it's just over your shoulders, and up by your chin. That's right. Beautiful.
So as you're thinking those things and you're feeling what it feels like to be so warm and comfortable, I'm going to say, “On the count of three, we're going to pull into your thumb anchor, then we'll move to the next thing.” So as you're in this state, just double those feelings and what is the words that you're saying inside your head that makes you remember now this feeling of being warm and comfortable. Whatever those thoughts or whatever those words are, I just want you to spell them out letter by the letter in your mind's eye. That's right. Spell them out again. One more time. Again. That's right. And make these images bigger, and bright, and draw them closer to your mind's eye. And as you're feeling what you're feeling, and you're looking around the room, are your eyes just beginning to shut, what I want you to do now is keep your eyes closed, flick your eyes down, bottom right. Bottom right. Bottom right. Bottom right. Bottom right. Beautiful. As we lock that feeling in there.
Now as you just maybe open your eyes slightly in this image and you look around at all the comfortable surroundings, I just want you to keep your eyes closed and flick your eyes up. Top left. Top left. Top left. So every single time you think about the things that you're are thinking now about being calm and relaxed before a day of event. This is the image and feelings that come into play right now. That's right. Beautiful. So on the count of three, I want you to put this into your new thumb anchor as we double those feelings of warmth and comfortableness. That's right. So put it into your anchor right now. One, two, three, four, five. One more time. One, two, three, four five. One more time. One, two, three, four, five. Beautiful. And I want you to imagine this as a bubble that appears all the way around you, 12 feet around you, and just fill this bubble with this feeling. Beautiful, beautiful. And the more and more you remember this now, and this is the sound of my voice, the more and more you're going to be able to feel calm and comfortable about being relaxed for the day tomorrow. That's right.
And I just want you to remember one more time a time where you knew that the big day was tomorrow. Whatever it was. It could have been this year, last year. It could've been very recently. But remember a time when you came home from work or the training, and you stepped into your house, and you look at the clock, and you just saw whatever time it was, and you knew it was bed time in 30 minutes because you knew you had to get up for the day very, very soon. So I want you to sit there. And right now as you're looking around whatever it is that you're seeing inside your mind, I want you to see what you see, and hear what you hear, really feel what it feels like to be in that moment right now. And you're looking around at the wallpaper, who's around you, where you are, and I just want you to sit down. And as you sit down right now, I want you to feel the chair against your back, I want you to feel the seat underneath your legs, and I just want you to look around the room and in turn the color up, the sound of the conscious, the brightness of it. Beautiful! That's right.
And you all got this excitement feeling just pumping around your body as you're thinking about getting to bed and you can't stop this feeling. So I want you to double this feeling and double it for me. But this time, you notice which way it's spinning. Is it in your head, your chest, your legs, or your arms? Is it spinning forwards or backwards? To the left or the right? And what I want you to do now as you're sitting there, I want you to notice your posture, your breathing rates, your physiology. And as you're sitting there right now, I want you to find which way this feeling is spinning that's making it more and more excited and I want you to imagine an arrow that's going around it. And it's bright red, bright red arrow that's spinning this direction that's making you more and more excited. And right now, right there, grab hold of it and begin to use your hands and turn this arrow around to face the opposite way, and just be able to spin this feeling the opposite way. And the more and more you begin to spin this feeling, the opposite way, the more and more you begin to calm this excitement down. That's right.
And every single time that you spin it, it goes from 10 to 1. And when we get back to one, you're all the way down, calm and relaxed. So 10, spinning it, 9, 8, that's right, 7, 6, slowing yourself down now, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. That's right. So now you take a big, deep breath. And now you just fire your thumb anchor for me. That's right. And as you fire your thumb anchor, your unconscious mind remembers all the things that it needs to remember about being in this moment. So around this comfortable environment, knowing that it can be warm, and safe, and relaxed, knowing it's in comfort, knowing right now that your beliefs begin to change. Because it doesn't really matter where you are externally, this is the image that you can always come back soon now as you begin to lock this deep into place. So every single time you remember this comfort and this calm state, you can bring this with you wherever you need to. So now as you think about being in a hotel, or you think about being wherever it is, you know now you can come back to this warm and comfortable place as your beliefs just adjust to the next day. Your beliefs to just be able to step into that bedroom and just drift deeply into this deep sleep, this theta, delta sleep. That's right. And this just adjusts your attitude about what's next. That's right.
And your value, the highest value becomes your sleep. Because you know right now if you sleep the way you know you're supposed to, with eight hours deep sleep, that tomorrow will be easy. So right now as you imagine this bubble that's forming all the way around you, your just blast your anchor for me one more time, letting this feeling just flood into this big bubble. And I just want you to begin to imagine yourself now just stepping and standing up, gently, step by step, in like a daydream state, wander over to you bed. And as you wander over to your bed and your eyes begin to shut. It seems easy now to be able to get inside that bed no matter where you are in the world and step into this state anytime that you need to. That's right. So anything less than remembering the things now that you're remembering about who you are and what you were able to do, anything less than this don't make sense anymore. There again, they never really did, did they? So as you get in that bed and you take all the energy back that you've been wasting thinking about tomorrow, you bring it back inside of you, you pull the duvet over you, you fire your anchor, and you enable yourself now to drift deeply, deeply into sleep wherever you are in the world. That's right.
And as you remembering all the things that you need to remember now, I'm going to count you back from five to one. And we get back in the room, you're fully awake, you're wide awake, and you know right now by listening to this audio again, you're going to be able to train the muscles in the future to be able to drop and drip easily into the state every single time you need to the day before an event. That's right. So five, locking that deep into place in the unconscious mind. Four, aligning your conscious and unconscious mind, changing your beliefs, changing your attitudes, your values, the language you use inside your own head. That's right. Three, imagine the dial from zero to 100. And this was your energy, a motivation, but I just want you to be able to turn it down from 90, to 80, to 60, to 40, turn it all the way down to when you need it. Two, starting to get excited. Starting to get excited about looking at the world through your new eyes. I'm going to count to one in a moment. Not yet, but in a moment. And when I do, you can open your eyes and know that you can go back over this and start to embed this new way of thinking, feeling, and acting, and sleeping before your big day. One. Well, hopefully you're awake, Ben.
Ben: I'm here. I'm here. That was pretty cool.
Andy: Well I did say it's going to be tricky on a podcast 'cause usually I pump people up, but we were taking people to sleep today.
Ben: Yeah. No, it was really interesting. I have like this visual of me like lying, when I was a kid, I used to go, I grew up on six acres and would go outside into the field back behind the house and just like lay there in these really soft, green, long grass weeds and stare at the blue skies, the clouds are going by, and that was my relaxation comfort visual that I was spinning into that anchor. It worked really, really well. And then it was interesting as I was imagining that feeling of comfort, like a big, big thing for me, like as silly as this sounds, 'cause it's a total cliche, the cold pillow. The cool pillow, the cool, soft pillow that you feel against your head. It's really, really neat. And like you said, I think I'm going to go back and listen to this again so I can kind of cement this again into my head. And I know like if you're listening in, you may have tuned into this podcast while you were driving, or biking, or running, or something like that. So you may want to, at some point, even just like if you need to, if you know all the information, you want to fast forward to the subconscious part while you're at home on the couch, or the sofa, or in your bed, whatever, do it. Well worth listening into. And I can guarantee that from a sports performance standpoint for you, or a mental performance standpoint, it will beat the pants off of Valium or Ambien. So there's that to.
Andy: I could have gone into so many other things. And again I went over what I was going to do, but again, I can go into so much detail but I just wanted to give everyone out there just a little taste and I wanted to help everyone as much as I can, you know?
Ben: Right. Yeah. I love it. Well this has been super-duper cool. I mean we've been on for over an hour and it seems like 10 minutes.
Andy: Oh, yeah. We have. Wow.
Ben: It's always so interesting talking to you. So what I'm going to do, for those of you listening in, if you want to listen to the previous anchor, and you also want to check the show notes out for this one, or go see Andy's website, or anything like that, I'll have everything up for you at bengreenfieldfitness.com/nlp. I feel like I'm talking with a sleepy voice now.
Andy: You are a little!
Ben: So bengreenfieldfitness.com/nlp. Now I got to go take a nap. And you can also go see what Andy does, 'cause he works with CEOs, he works with pro athletes. I mean he is, not to use the phrase too much in this podcast, a real ninja when it comes to helping folks out with things like this and really helping you tap into your subconscious if you didn't already realize that from hearing this podcast. So check out what Andy does too. He's a friend of mine and I love his work. So it's always a joy to have him on the podcast. So Andy, thanks so much. Thanks for coming on and sharing all this stuff with us!
Andy: Oh! Likewise, buddy! Likewise! It's appreciated coming on. And as I say, anything I can do for anyone, anything, probably a good idea to listen to the other podcast right? Because that's like a pump up one. And I'm feeling a little sleepy now too.
Ben: Alright. Cool. Go back and listen to that one too. Put the two together and you'll be just unstoppable. So, alright. Well, cool. Andy, Andy Murphy, I will link to his website, and you can go check that out and everything else over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/nlp. Thanks so much, Andy.
Andy: Beautiful! My pleasure, mate. My pleasure. Everybody out there, have a fantastic day!
Ben: Talk to you later, man.
For two years, since nearly breaking the 4 hour mark in a Half-Ironman in Japan, I've had an “anchor”.
Not that heavy piece of metal you drop off the back of a boat.
I'm talking about a mental anchor.
Basically, it goes like this: when I'm in the middle of a race, I squeeze my thumb up against the inside of my hand, and this triggers my mind to shout this phrase “never gonna catch me”. Then I seem to just take off like a shot. I'm totally not kidding. It shuts down the pain, let's me focus, and causes me to tap into a quick burst of hidden energy.
I developed this anchor during something called a neurolingustic programming session (also known as “NLP”) that I recorded for a podcast just a few days before that race in Japan, and I released the podcast a few days later. You can listen to it at “How To Rewire Your Brain and Body With Neurolinguistic Programming“.
But this simple programming technique still didn't tackle another important issue – the trouble that many athletes have getting to sleep at night before the big race. After all, no matter how well wired you are to perform fantastically, you'll be miserable if you feel like you've just pulled an all-nighter!
So today I have good news: I've invited back on the podcast the guy who taught me that anchor and neurolinguistically “programmed” me. His name is Andy Murphy, and in this episode, he's going to teach us exactly how to get to sleep at night before a big race or event.
During our podcast, you'll learn:
-How to tap into your subconscious in a practical and easy-to-understand way…
-How to instantly make your room more comfortable, even if it's a hotel room, tent or some other place you're not used to sleeping…
-How to stop the “excitement” movie from playing in your head, and replace it with relaxation…
-How to program your subconscious for deep sleep to feel calm and happy before your event…
-And much more!