Gold Medal State of Functioning

This morning I was thinking about Olympians and what it takes to win the gold.  The only olympics I watched this year was in preparation for an olympic themed school activity I put together this week. Using some concepts from Bruce Perry's Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics, I wanted to make each "olympic event" a somatosensory activity targeting sensory integration, self-regulation, relational, and cognitive domains. Knowing the students wouldn't remember anything but getting candy,  I held up my hand to represent  some very basic areas of the brain:  brainstem (wrist) diencephalon & midbrain (heel) limbic (palm) and neocortex (knuckles).  Then I opened my hand and challenged them to "HANDle it"; to handle each stessor that would come their way and use as much of their brain as possible.  Could they handle that challenge of exercising their senses?  Could they handle trying to direct their physical movements?  Could they handle being in a group of people and kind of get along?  Could they handle working to solve problems and create? 

The answer was "no".  In one fail swoop, I lost 3 of my would be campers to the relational, problem solving challenge presented in my olympic torch activity.  I  briefly shifted my focus to the ground to prepare one of the obstacles and looked up to find 3 boys at each other's throats, or in this case, eyes.  Great.  Just great.  Were they capable of getting along?  Did they have the necessary skills?  You betcha.  But because of the excitement and stimulation or fireworks or something else-it was just too much-They couldn't handle it.  I was reminded of the truth, "All functioning is state dependent." 

Olympic fails remind me of this as well.  How many times does the projected winner win?  Great skill combined with an optimal performance state of mind equals a gold medal.  I'm continually amazed at world class athletes who perform under pressure and are able to do their very best when the stakes are the highest.  Olympic fails are heartbreaking.  However, when athletes choke under pressure, I can sure relate.  

My most recent "choking" incident was during our ward's annual family tennis tournament. I play tennis.  I'm pretty good.  I practiced my basic skills in preparation for the tournament.  I'm not an athlete, but I'm athletic.  BUT you would absolutely never know it according to my piss, poor performance.  My mental game was off the charts in the wrong direction.  I freaked out, not only because I was in a game situation, but I couldn't block out a bleacher full of ward members glancing my way every once in awhile.  I realized, I had never played before spectators before.  I couldn't handle the stress and I played like a beginner.  My emotional state was a mess.  I cared too much about the judgments of others or even my own assessment of physical skills.  I wasn't anywhere close to "being in the zone" or giving a gold medal performance of skill. My functioning was state dependent

So where do I go from here?  How do I get that gold medal state of functioning?  I've taken to getting up early and riding over to the high school tennis courts to practice my serves and hitting tennis balls against a wall.  I'm making it a symbolic practice of putting on a little bit of stress, in a rhythmic, patterned, repetitive manner in order to improve my own brain functioning.  The stress of getting a fuzzy yellow ball over the net in a game situation is insignificant; optimal performance under stress is everything.  I want to be like Yusra Mardini, from the Olympic Refugee Team, who swam for 3 hours pulling a rubber boat to save 30 lives including her own.  I watched the little video clip and started bawling; how inspiring!  How much more important than winning a Olympic swimming race! That's optimal state dependent functioning deserving of a billion gold medals.