Are you training? Part II; What happens to our mind when we don’t

Our minds are extremely powerful. They have the ability to imagine and think and plan. They also give us the ability to prepare. Prepare in the sense of training your mind through stress inoculation and through visualization.

If you’ve played any sport, or instrument or done any activity to the point that you compete or perform,  using motor skills, often you may receive instruction from the coach or conductor. After you’ve done all the preparing that can be done physically visualize yourself doing the activity, just the way you want. If it’s sports, then visualizing yourself doing that activity with the vim and vigor and precision necessary to excel at your given task. See yourself shooting that perfect jump shot, putting for that birdie or eagle or throwing that perfect spiral of a pass.

In all these things if you visualize them, your subconscious mind doesn’t know that you’re not doing it. It doesn’t know that your body isn’t physically doing it. It believes that your are doing it and consequently learning in the process.

In the field of concealed carry, you must train your subconscious mind as well. You must teach it how to handle stress and prevail at the end of it. The only way to do this is teach it. To practice in the physical realm so that you will have something, correctly instructed, to visualize later.

If you don’t train with some sense of regularity. If you just get that permit and not pick up a gun again until it’s time to renew  3 to 5 years later when you need to go put a few shots downrange, your subconscious will let you know. It will often let you know in the form of dreams.

The dream might be that you are involved in a deadly force encounter and have the need or reason to use deadly force. You point your firearm and prepare to shoot it and something happens. The trigger pull is extremely long and seemingly never fires or you do fire and the bullet dribbles out of the end of the barrel.

These types of dreams are your subconscious mind dealing with whether or not your could actually do what needs to be done when the time comes. Often in our conscious thoughts we are able to reject negative or unpopular thoughts but our unconscious mind doesn’t. It will find a way to express itself and that often comes in dreams. What does this dream mean. In short, it is telling your that you need to train. That you need some trigger time.

On the next post, I’ll go over different ways you can train your subconscious  in more detail and prepare your mind even further.

Until Next Time…,

Be Alert, Be Aware and BE SAFE!!

Blog Post by: Jeffrey Washington-Lead Firearms Instructor