By: Ley Calisang
Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo, affectionately called “Dr. E.” by her patients, has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and a Master’s degree in physical therapy. She is the first to develop the groundbreaking method, now known as Neuro-Regenerative Training™. This method is based on applying neuroscientific concepts to increase overall performance.
Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo founded Elevate Sports Psychology to assist athletes in enhancing their performance by implementing strategies supported by research. Athletes learn and use new methods to boost their peak performance in training and competition by increasing their confidence, focus, and ability to recover from setbacks.
Dr. E. has been a regular on the TODAY Show, Dr. Oz, The Steve Harvey Show, and CNN. She has shared her knowledge in articles for magazines like the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Success Magazine. As a keynote speaker, she has collaborated with major corporations, including Coca-Cola, 3M, and MGM.
Her message strikes a powerful chord with people worldwide searching for more profound levels of accomplishment that have a higher relevance. Because she has assisted many high-performing athletes, celebrities, and CEOs in determining how to get out of their way so that they can accomplish their full potential, Dr. E is widely regarded as “America’s most trusted celebrity psychologist.” She has helped these individuals figure out how to attain their full potential.
Dr. E sits with Fox Interviewer to talk about sports psychology and how it could help athletes optimize their performance. Read more on the Q&A below:
US Insider: What is the relationship between psychology and sports?
Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo: Everything. Your performance is directly influenced by the thoughts that go through your head. You need to change the way you think if you find yourself thinking things like “don’t mess up” or “I messed up the previous time, what if I do it again?” over and over again. When you tell yourself things like “everyone’s watching me,” it’s easy to get nervous, stressed out, and have negative self-talk, all of which can affect your performance.
Success depends on more than just your skills. The goal is to perform at your highest level, which requires attention to mental processes. Now, it’s not about making superficial affirmations like “I got this” or “I believe in myself” while your inner critic is thinking, “what if I mess up?” Reprogramming your brain such that positive, empowering thoughts come to you naturally is the goal of this method. Therefore, your automatic thoughts, a form of negative self-talk that rapidly arises in response to stimuli, are more likely to assist you than to hinder you. Your performance can be enhanced by working on improving your thinking.
US Insider: Can sports psychology benefit any athlete?
Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo: It makes no difference if you are a beginner, intermediate, or seasoned athlete. It makes no difference in what kind of competition you are engaging in. Your mindset affects how well you do; therefore, you can constantly improve your edge by working on your mental strength. Negative thoughts might bring on anxiety, especially if you’re already worried about something else and competing with other people for something. On the other hand, it may serve as a driving force for some individuals. However, it is essential to understand that to perform successfully, you need to reach a level of stress that is just right for you.
It is possible that your performance is not as good as it may be because you are not subjected to the necessary amount of stress. Therefore, your capacity to perform, your competitive edge, and your ability to use your skills can all be negatively impacted when you are under excessive stress. If you want to improve as an athlete and are willing to put in the work to do so, sports psychology can assist you no matter your player level.
US Insider: How can athletes get the most out of their stress? How can they optimize their stress level such that only “good” stress takes over, allowing them to function at their highest level?
Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo: In psychology, we distinguish stress and distress differently, which are all the negative emotions that you don’t want, from eustress, which is the positive stress that you do want. A state of eustress is characterized by excitement, passion, enthusiasm, and the ability to make circumstances even more favorable. On a physiological level, stress and distress are quite comparable to one another. The rapid beating of our heart, the tightening of our muscles, and the production of sweat are all manifestations of our sympathetic nervous system. Therefore, to get you out of the distress that might be detrimental to your performance and hinder you from achieving the results you want, we optimize your stress to maximize your stress.
The key is to reframe the things you say to yourself in different ways. For example, when a person feels worried, they tend to persuade themselves that the feeling of anxiety is a sign that they have failed to do their duties adequately. Not only do individuals feel better, but they also improve their performance when they reinterpret that sensation of anxiety as an indication of excitement.
US Insider: How can athletes bounce back from defeat or a setback?
Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo: A critical factor in determining whether or not an athlete will be successful is how they respond to adversity. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the best athlete on the planet; everyone makes mistakes sometimes. Rewiring your brain through applying neuroscience principles is the best strategy to overcome obstacles and setbacks. You may avoid falling into a negative downward spiral, which not only negatively influences your mind but also impacts your performance by understanding the principles of neuroscience and rewiring your brain. This means that the difficulty is isolated to a single point in time and won’t affect succeeding stages of the game.
The good news is that learning to change the way your brain works is a skill that can be acquired. Brain rewiring is possible with the right training and practice, and its benefits can last a lifetime. Improving your mental processes is like buying stock in yourself and your future success.
US Insider: How can you rewire your brain to reach your full potential? And how exactly will that assist you in improving your game?
Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo: Specific neurons must fire in a specific sequence to perform any movement. If your mind is based on negative thoughts, such as how other people perceive you or whether they will judge you if you don’t perform well, then the song that is singing in your brain continuously will interfere with your performance. You can think and act because your nerves fire in a specific pattern. You can’t have too many neurons firing in too many different directions, so if your mind is so focused on “don’t mess up,” it will hinder you from focusing on the patterns you’ve already developed in terms of playing your best. This is because you can’t have too many nerves firing in too many different ways. There’s only so much your brain can process at once. So the objective is to improve your way of thinking and the words you use to encourage yourself. The objective is to alter your internal dialogue naturally.
US Insider: If you could give any piece of advice to athletes who are trying to get better, what would it be?
Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo: Athletes can improve their performance by focusing on their mindset. Everything you do is influenced by the things you say to yourself in your head. Ironically, if you allow yourself to become so preoccupied with the thought of failing or making a mistake, those things are more likely to occur. Getting into the Zone, raising healthy confidence, managing the pressure of competition, and optimizing your attitude for optimal performance are all skills that anyone with the appropriate training can learn. These are just some of the many abilities that can be acquired. Despite this, most athletes exclusively concentrate on developing their physical fitness. So my clients get these abilities to perform to the best of their ability, both now and in the future.
For more on Dr. E, visit her website at https://www.elevatesportspsychology.com and https://www.elizabethlombardo.com.
Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo’s “Get Out of the Red Zone” book is available on Amazon.
