ADAM EVANS
The beginnings of
FLOW
Photos: Andrew Oughton,Adam Evans and Angela Ward
I once heard an adventure sports coach describe psychology as being, “All about thinking,” which is about as accurate as saying kayaking and canoeing and stand up paddle boards are all about using sticks in the water. It’s a part of it yes, but in reality they are a very small part. Adam is a professional mental game performance coach, a British Canoeing Guide Scheme Assessor, Advanced Canoe Leader and Canoe Coach and also is kindly supported by Hou Canoes and Palm Equipment. www.mentalgame.co.uk
Our thinking can sometimes be quite analytical, considered and conscious, but not entirely. Although it is conscious and so we do know we are ‘thinking’ whether or not it is accurate, we do know we are thinking it, and when we know we’re doing it, and it is conscious so we can analyse it and evaluated it, which is the basis of Cognitive (thinking), Behavioural (doing happening) and Therapy (improving).
However, there is something more important than our conscious awareness, it’s our non-conscious, often referred to as the unconscious.We do so much that’s beyond our own awareness and this has a significant or probably greater impact than the things that happen within our awareness. Our non-conscious faculty is the part that does much of the perceiving of the world automatically, it can be sometimes inaccurate, it’s very subjective, it’s highly impactful on us and it’s automatic.
