On this week's episode of the Building Championship Mindsets podcast, Dr. Amber Selking talks about the importance of order and logic in the brain, highlighting how these principles can enhance mental performance. Dr. Selking explores James 5:16, which encourages believers to confess their struggles to one another as a means of healing. She discusses how staying trapped in one's own thoughts can lead to increased anxiety and stress, advocating for open communication as a way to organize thoughts and build resilience. Through practical insights, Dr. Selking illustrates how sharing our burdens can lead to greater clarity and freedom in both personal and professional contexts. 

About Building Championship Mindsets

Welcome to “Building Championship Mindsets. | the Podcast!” From the LockerRoom to the BoardRoom, our purpose is to help individuals, teams, and organizations understand and leverage the power of Mindset and Leadership to drive results and achieve sustainable performance excellence. 

As a leader in the field of sport and performance psychology, Dr. Amber Selking has been fiercely devoted to optimizing human performance in people and systems throughout her entire career.

Dr. Selking is the founder of Selking Performance Group, a leading performance consulting practice that helps individuals, companies, and sports teams achieve sustainable results. She has served as the Mental Performance Coach for professional & collegiate sport programs across the country including the Denver Broncos, LSU Football, ND Softball, and Notre Dame Football during the winningest five years in program history! She is the Chief Culture & Leadership Development Officer for Lippert, a global, publicly traded manufacturing company whose corporate vision is to change the model of work, demonstrating that business can and should Be a Force for Good in our World. She has also served as an adjunct professor in the Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame. Dr. Selking holds a Ph.D. in Educational and Counseling Psychology from the University of Missouri, a master’s degree in Sport and Performance Psychology from the University of Denver, and an undergraduate degree in Management Consulting from the University of Notre Dame. At ND, Amber played soccer for the Fighting Irish before an injury ended her career, after which she founded Notre Dame Christian Athletes (NDCA) in the ND Athletic Department. She currently resides in South Bend, Indiana, with her husband, Aaron, daughter Elleeanna Belle, and their Doberman Pinscher, Rockne.

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Additional Links:

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Check out our EBooks! "A Dream Come True: the Buzz on Greatness" “Winner's Circle" 

Check out Dr. Selking’s TEDxTalk entitled, “Think Like a Champion Today” to learn more about the power of your mind to drive excellence in all areas of your life!

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Building Championship Mindsets, the podcast.

This is your host, Dr.

Amber Selking, where we are in season 15 entitled Sports Psych and Scripture at the Selkie Performance Group.

Our hope and intent is all about helping individual sports teams and business organizations understand and leverage the power of mindset and leadership to unleash performance excellence on a consistent basis.

I know that sounds like a tagline, but that is my life's mission.

And so I get up every morning, get jacked about doing that.

I have the opportunity to serve as the mentor performance coach for LSU football, the chief culture and leadership development officer at Lippert, which is the global manufacturing company, and then to be a wife and a mom to erin Selking and Ms.

Eliana Bell.

And so to have the opportunity to bring this to life on a day to day basis at home, in football and in business truly is my life's dream and we're living it right now.

It's a wild ride with lots of stuff going on, but I also want to be able to share this incredible information of sports psychology to the world.

And that's why the podcast exists.

We bring mindset and leadership to life for individuals, teams and organizations through one on one performance coaching, through keynote speeches to organizations.

We've worked in almost every industry around the world world because every industry has people with brains, right?

And what I love about being able to deliver keynotes is it's not just motivating, it's actually applicable.

And I work with the leaders of that business to understand what's going on in their organization and how we can tailor the scientific content to them so that it matches their messaging and their business state, but also has their people leaving with tangible things they can apply to their lives to show up and bring their best on a day by day basis.

And so again, this, this podcast brings that information to the world.

We have book out called Winning the Mental Game and then lots of other resources on our website@wwingperformance.com but if any of that is interesting to you or you would like to partner with us as a financial partner on the podcast, reach out to me directly.

Doctorselfingelkingperformance.com I always want to say this stuff right up front because this content is really good.

But it's the ongoing support and work and integration, whether it's through applying the book or through just being on the podcast consistently, that will actually help you rewire your brain.

So I don't want people to miss the opportunity to really start to Take the next step in training their brain like they train their body or their craft, whatever it is that you put your hand to.

And so this season, right, we've been exploring how Bible principles align with sports psychology principles and just challenging our ways of thinking about things that seem opposite, maybe science and faith, but really are quite similar and supplement and support each other.

And I want to challenge Christians to know a little bit more science so that it can bolster your faith and embolden you and your beliefs and your walk.

And for those that might not think much about faith, know that, man, a lot of what we know in the Bible is in brain science.

And actually everything that is relevant, I think, in the world that's working right now can be found in the Bible.

And so when you explore and expand that way of thinking and understanding, I think it can help you find new layers of you are and how you show up to the world around you.

So this week I want to talk about order and logic in the brain and what Scripture has to say about it in James 5:16.

So what we know is the brain likes order and it likes logic, right?

And so, you know, people's brains are wired differently.

Some people are more logical than others, right?

You've always heard that, right brain, left brain, some people are more emotional, some people are more logical.

And that's true, but that's not the general premise of what I'm talking about here.

What I'm talking about is the brain likes things to be in sequence, right?

That's why if you talk to anybody who builds training programs or any teacher, right, they're taught on how to teach content and layer it in for people.

I mean, you start with certain relevant information and build on it, right?

Because the brain learns differently and applies knowledge differently when it's done in that way.

And so the brain likes order, it likes logic.

That's why, that's why routines are so helpful, because it brings order and consistency to how one shows up to a day, to a pregame, to a pre meeting, right?

The brain likes order.

That's why it's really helpful to keep your space organized, because then the cognitive load on your brain is less and it can just focus on the work in front of it versus being distracted by all of the other work that needs to be done, AKA cleaning the room up around you or the desk in front of you.

And so again, people have varying degrees of tolerance for those things.

But in general, the order of which things can get organized in one's brain allows for more cognitive capacity for More mental flexibility to exist.

And so I want to take a different spin on this conversation today, and partially this season is about the many of the scientific principles I tend to go back to in sports psychology, but also how I typically supplement that with a scriptural lens.

And so, you know, I think some people are really hesitant to go to therapy, right, to counseling, because it feels like I'm weak or I'm soft.

But here's the thing.

The brain likes order, and it likes logic.

And guess what happens when we stay in our own mind on things that are really important to us.

I'm giving you a second to think.

Think about the last time that something's been really, really important to you and you've stayed in your own brain.

Whether it was a problem you were trying to solve at work, whether it was a relationship that you were trying to sort through, whether it was some dynamics at work that you didn't understand.

What happens when you stay in your own mind on those things.

Anxiety builds, stress builds.

Your brain starts to go all over the place.

And then you think about this and you think about that, and before you know it, you're just kind of a hot mess mentally, right?

And this happens.

You might hear me and you're like, oh, that's women.

That's men, too.

Okay?

Every human does this.

And it's just.

We might process it differently, and it might come out differently, but when we stay in our own heads on things, it builds up, right?

It get.

It creates stress, it can create anxiety.

And so what James 5, 6 tells us is, therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed, that the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

And so I always share this verse with people with.

When they might be hesitant to go to counseling or maybe even just hesitant to share what's on their mind to a friend or a mental performance coach, right?

With my athletes, it might be.

Tell me how you processed that game.

I know.

I know it didn't go the way that you wanted or intended.

How are you thinking about it?

They're like, nah, man, Doc, I'm fine.

I beg to differ.

One, I know you, and I can see the light and the energy gone from your eyes and your heart right now.

But two, I know that you really care about winning, and we didn't win, and you didn't play super well.

So let's talk about it, because you need to get out of your head, and you need to organize your thinking in a way that your brain can Understand it and walk away and still believe that you are good enough, that you are here for a reason.

Because when we're winning, it's easy to tell yourself that.

When we're not winning, it is very easy to start to question yourself and to watch your bad plays on replay over and over and over again, and then start to get stressed and not know why you're playing that way or how to get out of it.

But as you talk through it with someone, right?

As you confess to someone else and talk through things, now, the brain can start to hear it, it can start to organize that, and it can start to think differently.

And last week we talked about the broaden and build theory.

As you talk about it, the brain organizes the thinking.

Then someone else can ask you questions or bring a different perspective to it.

You can generate a little positive emotion around something that was only attached to negativity and therefore start to build your internal resources and your resilience to come back and fight more.

That is the power of speaking with someone, whether it's formal counseling or whether it's a coach, a leadership coach, a mental performance coach, a friend, a mentor.

Don't stay in your own head on things.

I heard one of our coaches tell one of our guys one day, which I thought was brilliant.

You got yourself into this mess.

You're not going to get yourself out of this mess.

I'm your coach.

Let me help you.

You got a full staff of people here to help you.

You gotta let us help you.

At Lippert, we have a team of, like, almost 30 people that help in personal development, leadership development, philanthropy, coaching our people, chaplains.

Right.

To help our people.

Why?

To think.

Right.

To organize their thinking, to show up to be the best versions of themselves.

We need our athletes to be their best.

We need our team members to be their best.

From our CEO to our frontline team, from our head coach to the freshman that just walked in the door a couple months ago.

How do we do that?

We talk to one another.

We confess.

We share what is on our hearts, what is on our minds.

How do I think right about this, to bring order and logic to my mind so that I can get myself in a place to broaden and build my resilience, to come back again tomorrow to get better, to go at it and hopefully win the next fight, to keep fighting the good fight.

That is how order and logic, mentally, from a performance standpoint and how Scripture shows us we got to talk to each other.

We got to bring this to light.

And so I told you That I often reference this scripture, right?

Like confess to a brother and so that you can.

You can be healed, right?

And so, and this is why this is what Catholics, you know, when they do confession, this is what it's built on.

I don't believe that you need a priest to forgive your sins.

I believe you can go straight to God for that.

But I find the value of confession, I find, is that it brings peace, right, to who you are and how you're operating and gives you a sense of mental order that allows you to go forward as your best self.

But it's really interesting, so I always say that part of it.

But when I was doing some research on the scripture side of it, I read a little bit more around in James 5.

And so I want to go back a little bit and read to you just so you can kind of hear a little bit more Scripture.

But I'm going to start in verse 13 where it says, so James 5, 13, 16, it says, is anyone among you in trouble?

Let them pray.

Is anyone happy?

Let them sing praises.

Is anyone among you sick?

Let them call the elders of a church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord in the prayer offered in faith will make the 6 per sick person well, and the Lord will raise them up.

If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.

Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

And so I wanted to share that because I'd never read those earlier verses.

I mean, I have, but not in this context.

And it's like the Bible is such a great resource for solving problems.

Are you in trouble?

Pray.

Are you happy?

Sing songs of praise.

Amplify your joy a little bit more.

Are you sick?

Call on someone to get prayed over with oil.

Have you sinned?

Confess that.

Don't hold on to that.

What's in the darkness can get manipulated, but what is in the light can get ordered.

And the brain likes order and it likes logic, and it frees us as people because it is for freedom's sake that we've been set free.

We have to live like that if we want high performance, we need to operate in freedom.

Guess how you find freedom?

Through your faith?

Through Jesus.

Right.

And it is for freedom's sake we've been set free.

And so we need to live in that.

And when we.

Even when we just get bound up in our own minds on thinking about things in wrong ways, man, when we talk to Someone like James tells us, it allows us to create that order.

It allows us to have that freedom.

It allows us to unleash our greatness on a more consistent basis to the world around us.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I am after for myself and for those around us.

Whether you want to think about it through the lens of faith or you want to think about it through the lens of high performance, frankly, I don't care.

I do.

But if you can start on this path of just wanting freedom in your life and finding the key in that, in sports psychology and how our brain works, I believe that it will ultimately lead you to truth.

And the true truth in Jesus is what's ultimately transformative and healing and freeing.

And that's what I think our world needs more than ever in so many different ways.

But sports psych is a great avenue and an intro to find that.

So if there's anything I can do for you, if you've got questions on your faith even, or want to know more about Jesus, or want to understand how to think more logically and clearly and orderly through mental performance training, reach out Dr.

Selkine@selkineperformance.com I can't wait to talk to you.

I can't wait to hear this from how you're processing it and with that, share it on social media.

How are you applying this stuff?

What are your questions?

What are you curious about?

Put it out there.

Let's have a.

Let's have a conversation on social about it.

You can find us on X and Instagram, amp mindsets on Facebook and LinkedIn, @Seltie Performance Group on TikTok as well.

And then again, lots of resources on our website, selfie, performance.com and again, anything that we can do to serve you, we're here for you.

Thank you so much for tuning in.

You've been listening to Building Championship Mindsets, the podcast.

This is your host, Dr.

Amber Selkin.

And from the locker room to the boardroom, I just want to challenge you to continue building your championship mindset.