Tapping In: How bilateral stimulation helps you focus & flow đź‘€
The athletic mind is expected to be many things: flexible and adaptive, yet simultaneously sharp and fast. For a competitive athlete, the "mind" isn’t just a thinking hub—it is a physiological command center. To perform at your peak and enter a “flow state,” you need more than positive thinking; you need a nervous system that assesses threats appropriately, manages emotional responses, and maintains optimal physiological functioning.
While self-talk and other mental performance skills are vital tools, they work best when the nervous system is optimized and responsive. Bilateral Stimulation (BLS)—the core mechanism of EMDR—is a sophisticated tool for optimizing brain function that helps you reach that elusive state of flow.
What is Bilateral Stimulation?
Bilateral stimulation involves rhythmic, left-right sensory input, such as side-to-side eye movements, alternating taps on the shoulders or legs, or tactile pulses in the hands. This rhythmic crossing of the body’s midline stimulates our brains to work the way they were designed: hemispherically, with information traveling freely from one side to the other.
Activating Optimal Safety
Research on the use of BLS has shown that both visual and tactile stimulation lead to a significant increase in frontal EEG power and decreased psychophysiological activation. In other words, it creates a measurable change in brain activity that promotes physiological relaxation and focus.
More importantly than just having a “calming” effect, the real impact of BLS is in regulating and optimizing your nervous system. When you are caught in a "freeze" response (overthinking a technical cue) or a "fight-or-flight" response (excessive anxiety before a meet), the other mental skills you rely on become harder to access. BLS helps shift the brain from a state of high-alert survival into a state of "optimal arousal"—where you are alert and explosive, but not panicked.
Accessing the "Flow State"
The "Flow State," or being in the zone, occurs when the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain that doubts, critiques, and over-analyzes—quiets down, allowing your training to take over. By engaging both hemispheres of the brain, bilateral stimulation helps you accelerate through distress and shift into a state of total mind and body harmony.
The Competitive Advantage
Integrating BLS into your mental skills development and training regimen isn’t just for managing anxiety; it is an essential practice for neurological maintenance. By regularly using these techniques, you train your brain to recover from stress more quickly and return to a baseline of focused readiness. In a sport of split-second margins, the athlete who can regulate their nervous system the fastest is the athlete who performs at their best.
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