This episode is about the impact of emotions on athletic performance and how using the most powerful positive emotions can make you perform your best!  Kelly and Maria agree that an athlete's (or any kind of performer's)  emotions before an event, can impact their results in a big way.

Positive emotions such as love, gratitude, and compassion produce oxytocin and norepinephrine, which make us feel good and powerful, while negative emotions such as fear, guilt, and shame produce cortisol and make us feel down and negative. 

You'll also hear about the idea of using positive emotions to enhance performance, such as the idea of thinking of 10 positive emotions to evoke before a race to uplift you. And learn tips for getting rid of negative thoughts. 

Here are topics in the show:

1. Posture, facial expressions, and body language can predict who will win a race as Kelly observed at 2023 Women's NCAA Swimming Championships.
2. Positive emotions like love, gratitude, and compassion can produce oxytocin and norepinephrine and enhance performance.
3. Negative emotions like fear, guilt, and shame can produce cortisol and reduce performance.
4. Episode #200 references the interview with top-notch masters coach Mark Kutz who says you better love swimming and working out.
5. The idea is based on Biologist Bruce Lipton's work from his book The Biology of Belief and the global Human Affectome Project which studies emotions and performance.
6. Experts believes that what's in your mind impacts your performance.
7. Maria can tell how a workout will be based on how she feels before it.
8. Fear can be useful to amp you up, but being overly fearful can hurt performance.
9. Changing negative thoughts to positive ones can change your whole day. Try fake it until you make it.
10. Having a history of success can make competition fun, but a series of poor performances requires changing your thoughts to perform better.

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Email us at [email protected]. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.

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