{"title":"Using imagery for acceptance and wellbeing in sport","authors":"Robin S. Vealey, Christine E. Pacewicz","doi":"10.1515/jirspa-2024-0003","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n The purpose of this article is to offer background and strategies to utilize mental imagery to enhance acceptance as a significant foundation for mental health and wellbeing in athletes. Sport possesses many threats to participants’ mental health and ability to flourish, including unrealistic expectations, pressure from others, and training demands. Although acceptance has been shown to be an important precursor to wellbeing, the prescribed culture of mental toughness in sport teaches athletes to be nonaccepting of mistakes and negative outcomes which often threaten their mental health. Athletes need to be educated and trained to practice acceptance as a strong, mature, mentally healthy response in terms of their self-perceptions, perceptions of others, and responses to external events. Mental imagery has a strong association with emotion and has been successfully used as an intervention technique to enhance physical and mental health. However, acceptance has not been an outcome of interest in most imagery interventions related to mental health, and future research on interventions to enhance acceptance is warranted. Some strategies and examples of using mental imagery to build acceptance and wellbeing are suggested.","PeriodicalId":39479,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Imagery Research in Sport and Physical Activity","volume":"32 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Imagery Research in Sport and Physical Activity","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jirspa-2024-0003","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"Health Professions","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to offer background and strategies to utilize mental imagery to enhance acceptance as a significant foundation for mental health and wellbeing in athletes. Sport possesses many threats to participants’ mental health and ability to flourish, including unrealistic expectations, pressure from others, and training demands. Although acceptance has been shown to be an important precursor to wellbeing, the prescribed culture of mental toughness in sport teaches athletes to be nonaccepting of mistakes and negative outcomes which often threaten their mental health. Athletes need to be educated and trained to practice acceptance as a strong, mature, mentally healthy response in terms of their self-perceptions, perceptions of others, and responses to external events. Mental imagery has a strong association with emotion and has been successfully used as an intervention technique to enhance physical and mental health. However, acceptance has not been an outcome of interest in most imagery interventions related to mental health, and future research on interventions to enhance acceptance is warranted. Some strategies and examples of using mental imagery to build acceptance and wellbeing are suggested.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Imagery Research in Sport and Physical Activity is the first peer-reviewed journal devoted to research on the role of imagery in sport, physical activity, exercise, and rehabilitation settings. Imagery, also referred to as cognitive enactment or visualization, is one of the most popular performance enhancement and rehabilitation techniques in sports and physical activity. Journal editors Craig Hall (University of Western Ontario) and Sandra Short (University of North Dakota) are recognized leaders in the field, and the journal’s editorial board represents leading institutions in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. The single destination for all imagery-related research in sports and in physical activity, the Journal of Imagery Research in Sport and Physical Activity is an indispensable tool for scholars and practitioners of imagery, sports science, kinesiology, physical education, and psychology Criteria for publication will include: - Outstanding quality; likely to be widely read and highly cited; - Relevance to the area; - Contribution to the advancement of imagery research; - Interest to specialists in the field and accessible to researchers with interests outside the immediate topic of the paper; - Readability and presentation.