“Peaceful Practices: Bottling Your Feels”

“If you learn to capture a feeling, it will always be louder than words.”

Emma Lord

The purpose of this activity is to identify a positive feel, a mindset, or a moment of flow, that you can draw upon and apply to future tasks. Writing them down helps you to create a collection of resources that you can take with you to tackle anything with confidence. 

As a former golf coach, one thing I would encourage a player to do is bottle a certain feel or aspect of their setup, swing, or strategy that yielded positive results. This can be done after a single shot, a hole, or the round itself. You can also use this technique to identify what did not produce a quality shot or score and look to incorporate something new into your game for better results. Reflecting on what went well out on the course, and what could be improved upon, is a powerful way of producing more consistent results, and a more enjoyable experience overall.

Golf is a microcosm of life itself, and an example of how having a solid, growth-oriented mindset, can reap positive rewards on and off the course. If you are standing over the ball, thinking you are going to hit a bad shot, you are very likely going to be hacking your ball out of the woods on your next swing. If you are thinking too much about your technique, and less about visualizing the shot and trusting your swing, you will be tense and rigid, both of which sap distance and the quality of your strike. If you learn from prior experience, that the course you are playing has fast greens, and you adjust your putting pace, lines and how you hit your approach shots, you will undoubtably put yourself in a better position to play some quality golf.

The more we play a certain course, the more we learn the nuances of certain holes, what angles or lines to take into consideration, what strategies seem to produce consistent results, and how to manage and mitigate the damage of the inevitable bad shots, that even the best players in the world make. Life is about learning through experience, navigating failure and success, and identifying tools and a mindset that helps us to remain committed to improving our quality of life, no matter what we face. The following activity will help you to identify positive feelings or experiences in your day, and how to incorporate them into your daily life moving forwards.

Your mindset is everything and ultimately shapes your reality and circumstance. Life is hard, but also beautiful, and utilizing positive experiences, even from the most challenging of circumstances, is quite useful. Please stay tuned for more Peaceful Practices and don’t forget to check out my from “WOLF to ALPHA” process for reaching your true potential! 

Written by Manwithaplan aka Jeffrey Kalinoski