Is there a Relationship Between Peak Performance and Brain Wave Patterns?
Peak performance is often regarded as a single moment when you are functioning at your absolute best - whether running a marathon, making a presentation to your marketing group, or preparing for a chess tournament.
For me peak performance begins in a quiet moment when one suspends the routines of daily activities. It is a time in which one taps into alpha brain wave patterns. The magic is that in a state of relaxation, awareness expands and fresh creative energy begins to flow. When alpha brain wave patterns are intentionally evoked one is able to tap into creative visualization characteristic of the right hemisphere of the brain - an essential component for peak performance.
The first step in triggering alpha brain wave patterns is to evoke imagination. For a basket ball player it would be important to get an image of that basket plopping through the hoop. If you don’t actually see an image, just pretend that you do.
Secondly add the familiar sound the basket makes, that longed for “whoosh” sound. You may want to allow yourself to image the quieting of the crowd, holding their collective breath in anticipation. Allow yourself to feel the ball in your hands, the moment of release and the nano second your hands hang in the air like a contrail teathered to a comet; guiding the desired course of action.
The secret is that the more you bring in the senses -hearing, smell, touch, sight, the more complete your image will become.
Another component in using your imagination to evoke brain wave patterns is to make sure that you are in the picture. You are not watching someone else. You are the observer and the observed. You are matching your inner and outer sense of reality. So now get an image of what it feels like when YOU are standing on the free throw line. Then pretend you move with slow motion.
As you begin to perform your activity in slow motion you begin to shift brain wave patterns into beta brain wave patterns. Beta brain wave patterns are most often associated with the left hemisphere of the brain which where planning, analysis and preparation occur.
When one is using beta brain wave patterns the neurons fire abundantly in rapid succession helping one to achieve peak performance. Beta brain wave patterns are typically associated with a high sense of attention. Beta brain wave patterns are also associated with neuromuscular activities characteristic of eye-hand coordination and visual acuity.
So for me, peak performance requires that one sort of “toggle” back and forth between alpha and beta brain wave patterns. In doing this one evokes the function of both the right and the left hemispheres of the brain.
To discover two more secrets regarding Peak Performance, please read the article titled: How Can You Enhance Peak Performance?
Consider too, that there are technologies that can be used to enhance holistic functioning of the brain - specific CDs designed to balance brain wave patterns leading to peak performance.
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