Just Breathe

"Sometimes ... if we try too hard, we sabotage our own success. The game/match is important - you want to win - however remaining in the process can be difficult if you feel that you are off. We can concentrate on our pre-shot routine until we look like someone on the dance floor looking at their feet and counting steps. That doesn't always work - especially if you're pissed off, aggravated, or frustrated already. Like most things in pool and in life, sometimes the most difficult situations have the easiest solutions. The best thing to do is to take a second to concentrate on your breathing. Bring the air in and out of your body and focus on nothing else. Usually when things aren't going the way we want them to, we are drawing in a lot of the environmental negatives. By drawing a breath - you can inhale the positive - and exhale the negative stuff right out of your system. Shallow breathing=Less oxygen & poor focus ... deep concentrated breathing = more oxygen, better thing - calmer nerves - stronger focus. The air is free - and always available for you to use to your advantage.

While you are shooting - it is a good idea to cue in your focus on the color of the cloth and the rails. Allow that color to absorb your thoughts and intensify your focus and concentration. Concentrate on each breath - and with each breath that color intensifies with your focus. One feeds the other. Cue your ears to listen to a sound that is positive - like the clicking of the balls contacting each other - the sound of the chalk brushing your tip - the sound of the tip contacting the cue ball - or the sound of the balls rolling into the pockets. Allow that sound to intensify the color of the cloth which intensifies with your breathing - which will intensify your focus. When you do this exercise, you are cueing in all of your senses. Your thoughts - just like the air, are being directed inward. You have complete and total control and authority to change what is going on inside your head. You can control that - but you cannot control anything that exists or that is going on around you. You can only adapt to your environment - or you can collapse within your environment. You always have the choice to direct, restrict, and narrow your focus and your energy to within your own mind.

At first, it might be difficult to achieve absolute clarity, but the more you practice this - the easier it becomes. Best of luck to you - hoping that you have a better time next time you are at the table!" ~ Blackjack's Random Thoughts, 11-07-2013.