Deluded optimism

[seafoid]

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/joe-brolly-mindfulness-gurus-put-my-bullstometer-in-overdrive-34301432.html

It is the same thing on linked in. People thinking 2016 will be fabulous just because it hasn't  happened yet. It will be more shite in the Eurozone regardless of how many people sing I believe I can fly. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIQn8pab8Vc

[bennydorano]

Would agree a lot of it is BS but (in a sports environment) confidence itself itsn't tangible, so anything that works in increasing it - works (☺)

[sid waddell]

Decluttering the room, decluttering the mind

Life coach, Feng Shui advisor to the All-Ireland-winning Dublin football team and face of the BBC TV show "Changing Rooms", Dr. Diarmuid Couch, and renowned sports psychologist and Thinkfulness expert Enda McNulty speak to me about CUSHION, the revolutionary new seven step feng shui programme for the brain which they have developed

A love of Gaelic football unites Dr. Diarmuid Couch and Enda McNulty. Both the Dublin football feng shui guru and the former Armagh corner back, Thinkfulness expert and sports psychologist have tasted All-Ireland success in their respective roles. Now they have teamed up to throw a CUSHION at us.

In the the two months since the CUSHION concept was launched, it has taken Ireland by storm. Celebrity advocates include Cork camogie captain Ashling Thompson, fitness guru Pat Divilly and former Blizzards frontman and mental health advocate "Bressie".

The initial idea came from McNulty as a complementary philosophy to his existing "Flying High" concept.

"I spoke to Jim Gavin a couple of years ago when we were watching the same Sigerson Cup match in UCD. At half-time I asked Jim about his job as an Air Corps pilot. It was at that point that the concept of "Flying High" entered my head, a concept I've since utilised to much success with clients.

"But, however much we'd like to, we can't fly high all the time. I needed a complementary philosophy for those more down to earth moments, for the everyday."

"When we fly high, we need to land safely. If we fall, we need something to cushion our fall. Failure is merely an opportunity to start again more intelligently. Thus the concept of CUSHION was born. Jim never stopped talking about Diarmuid and what a difference the introduction of feng shui principles had made to the Dublin team. Diarmuid was the obvious man to bounce my ideas off. He's an innovator. We've been exchanging ideas now for over a year and the programme came out of that."

Couch is currently basking in the afterglow of helping Dublin to another All-Ireland, His now famous pre-match speech was credited by several players for the victory.

"The best dreams happen when you're awake. I stood on the team bus and spoke from the heart. I told the lads "It's going to be wet out there today, very wet. What you must do is believe that the water that will pour from the sky today is with you. Water gives life. But in the wrong circumstances, water can also take away life. We must use it to our advantage and Kerry's disadvantage. As soon as we reach the dressing room, I want every member of this team to go straight to the showers, stand under one of them in the clothes you are wearing now, turn it on to full power, and wait until you are thoroughly soaked."

"I told them, "That shower you will stand under, think of it as a "shower of power", transmitting positive, life giving, life affirming positive energy to you.""

"They thought I was mad. I got some strange looks, alright, even from Jim Gavin", says Couch, grinning. "But each and every player did it. In fact, when all the players had returned to the main dressing room area and dried themselves off, several players said to me what a beneficial experience it had been for them in terms of clearing their heads for the task at hand. It was at that moment that I knew we were going to win the All-Ireland."

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

The CUSHION philosophy

CUSHION is based on seven key principles. These are
1. Competing
2. Understanding
3. Soldiering
4. Helping
5. Innovating
6. Optimising
7. Nourishing

"I see CUSHION as not just something that can benefit elite sportspeople, it's something that everybody can live by and benefit from", says Couch.

Principle 1: Competing:
Couch is clear that "We all compete, be it in the sporting arena or in the arena of everyday life. We compete for jobs, we compete in love, we compete in who can have the most expensive car, the nicest house or the most money. Competition is what drives us as humans. This is natural and as it should be. Principle 1 of CUSHION recognises this fact."

Principle 2: Understanding:
McNulty: "Understanding is key, as we recognise in Principle 2. Understanding ourselves, understanding our limits, understanding that the only limits are those we set ourselves, understanding that by understanding ourselves better there need be no limits to what we can all achieve."

Principle 3: Soldiering:
"Through all of this process we need to work, graft and fight. We call this "Soldiering"", says McNulty.

"Nothing worth having comes easy. By "soldiering", you commit to fight for the cause, whatever that cause may be. By committing to fight for whatever it is you want, you have already won. In the knowledge that you are already a winner, victory is inevitable."

Principle 4: Helping:
"We are a social species", says Couch. "We all need help. No man is an island. He must reach out. He must engage. Pooling our collective talents harmoniously to make a greater whole is what both football and life are about. We all have weaknesses. The night before Dublin's All-Ireland semi-final replay against Mayo, I got the whole team to gather around and listen to that great old classic by The Hollies, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother". Although Alan and Bernard Brogan initially thought I was playing a joke on them, I assured them I wasn't, that this was for the whole team (although unfortunately Diarmuid Connolly, who was at that time at a DRA hearing, didn't hear it.). By the end of the song, they understood. They knew. They knew they were all brothers and that they were there to help each other on the pitch. And that's what they did."

Principle 5: Innovating
Always moving forward is very important for any person, says McNulty. "Innovation never sleeps. We're constantly moving forward. Steve Jobs knew the value of innovation, so did Alexander Graham Bell, so did Johan Sebastian Bach, so did the man who invented the concept of having a rubber on top of a pencil.

What worked today may not work tomorrow. I tell my clients to think of themselves as a shark. If you don't keep moving forward, you'll die. When you're finished changing, you're finished. Innovation never sleeps."

Principle 6: Optimising
"Optimising is may favourite word", says Couch. "It doesn't mean anything, and that's the beauty of it. It can mean whatever you want it to mean. You're the boss. You're in control. With control comes power, with power comes self-confidence. With self-confidence comes the flowering of the human ability to its fullest."

Principle 7: Nourishing
"Nouishing doesn't just refer to food, although obviously that's part of it too", says McNulty. "Nourishing your mind and your soul with positivity is even more important, though. They complement each other. Nourishing promotes growth. Growth in mind, spirit, body. I like to nourish my clients with positive motivational thoughts and memes at every oppurtunity, and as a public service I have made these powerful tools of the mind available to the general public on my Twitter page, @Enda_McNulty.

Dr. Diarmuid Couch and Enda McNulty will join Bressie for a nationwide tour of Thinkfulness workshops in February 2016, where they will speak about the CUSHION concept in practice.

Bookings available at www.cushionIRL.ie