When skiing, emotions play an important role and influence positively or negatively the performance of the recreational skier as well as that of the athlete. Both would be more efficient if they learn to regulate themselves emotionally.
It is obvious that we prefer positive emotional states to negative ones, and self-regulation is aimed precisely at consenting to these states. Negative emotions are related to avoidance and positive emotions to approach. Negative affect allows us to avoid dangers and learn what not to do and, although it is an adaptive utility that allows us to avoid potentially dangerous situations, this function restricts our behavior and does not allow us to be predisposed to what we can do.
On the other hand, positive emotions provide an amplitude of action towards favorable conditions and enhance satisfactory emotional learning. In other words, we learn better with a positive emotional state about what we can do than with limitations about what we should not do.
Three fundamentals aspects are differentiated in emotional self-regulation:
- Regulatory anticipation implies that we, on the basis of previous experiences, can anticipate the occurrence of negative or positive emotions and thus assume that a pleasant situation will generate an attitude of approach, or that an unpleasant one will produce one of avoidance.
- In the regulatory reference, we take a positive or negative affective situation as a reference. For example, when learning to snowboard and feeling like a beginner, if we are an advanced skier, we may adopt a positive attitude by thinking about how enriching the experience would be; while we would not do so from a negative state by imagining how unpleasant it would be.
- The regulatory approach differentiates our orientation towards our own aspirations and self-fulfillment, as well as towards the prevention of our safety.
A situation perceived as threatening and generating negative emotions can become an emotionally positive experience if we learn to minimize the aspects related to fear and develop those that allow enjoyment.
As for the symptoms experienced, there are those skiers who manifest a large number of symptoms (sensitive skiers), others in which the somatic predominates (internalizing skiers), and those who reveal verbal or bodily behaviors (externalizing skiers). Verbal expression can be used to regulate emotion and reduce tension. The first two would have a propensity to experience emotions intensely and greater difficulty in regulating them, while in the latter, the release of emotions would prevail over regulation.
As mentioned, there is currently a tendency to avoid negative emotions. Many skiers take lessons so as not to feel anxious in front of an intimidating slope or not to be afraid of moguls. They believe that if they learn to improve their skiing they will eliminate negative emotions by replacing them with positive ones, which makes them concentrate only on skiing better when, in reality, they would benefit from focusing on maintaining confidence, calmness, and enthusiasm, aspects that contribute to sustaining their own skiing.
Emotions influence our skiing performance both positively and negatively. Experiencing a threatening situation will most likely generate negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, or distress. These emotions can be recognized as soon as we externalize some of the following signs:
- Withdrawn or, conversely, restless.
- Our posture is tense affecting our balance.
- Our actions are clumsy.
- We exhibit boredom and confusion.
- We show indecision.
- We do not try hard enough.
Emotions are known to be an essential part of skiing. The problem may arise when we become addicted to positive emotions. The ideal is to achieve a healthy emotional state through emotional regulation, i.e., through limiting the extremes.
While emotions guide our skiing behavior, we should not be driven by these impulses so we should at least understand how to manage them. We cannot directly control the emergence of an emotion but we can regulate our emotional expression, within what is desirable, to avoid disorganized behavior.
It is not advisable to repress the emotion since we must be able to express it spontaneously, otherwise it could affect our mental health in the long term. It is a widespread belief that repressing an emotion is equivalent to suppressing it, since it can manifest symptoms again in a masked manner that will be overcome once its origins are recognized and accepted.
It is always healthier to consciously accept emotions, regardless how intense they may be, and then integrate and overcome them in an orderly fashion. Some skiers do not externalize their emotions when skiing. These remain repressed and reappear in the psychic activity under other forms such as fixed ideas, phobias or persistent tendencies to distraction.
Suggestions for exercising emotional self-regulation
We cannot control what we feel but we can learn how to regulate those unpleasant emotions. Repressing them entails missing essential signals that lead to the waste of an appreciable part of the control over our own decisions. Observing them does not mean disqualifying reasoning but taking into account that these signals promote our own affective states. Generally, difficulties are generators of negative emotions.
Although psychologists suggest the regulation of negative emotional states to diminish their effects, it is also true that positive emotions should be promoted.
The following strategies can help:
- Initiate self-regulation with the selection of a situation generating mildly threatening negative emotions.
- Focus on the present moment through slow and deep inhalations and exhalations.
- Identify the emotion by feeling the location of bodily sensations. This identification collaborates in the self-management of the emotion.
- Experiencing the emotion does not mean that it lasts in time, therefore, learning to tolerate it means feeling it without blocking it, which contributes to take another step towards emotional self-regulation.
- Accepting it and trusting that it can be successfully managed by reinterpreting the situation.
- Expressing and communicating the emotion collaborates with relief through sharing it with others by seeking social support.
- Identify our inner dialogue that triggers the negative emotion.
- Acting compassionately with ourselves by accepting and learning from the experience.
In conclusion, negative emotions are mainly regulated by detachment, paying attention to something else, and diverting thoughts away from the situation or object that generates the negative emotional state.
Emotions considered as failures of instincts and behavior
When skiing, we tend to maintain a balance in our reactions to the context but suddenly, unforeseen situations arise causing affective disturbances. Most likely we will not have an automatic response, so we will experience a certain inner emotional turmoil that translates into detrimental acts in our skiing behavior. This then generates the ‘failure’ of our instincts since fear appears as soon as we do not obey our instinct of escape or become irritated because our instinct of aggression fails as a reaction to the hindering situation.
Emotions can also be considered as behavioral failures. When we experience unforeseen events intensely, we may feel incapable of any motor reaction and manage an emotional reaction derived from the nervous energy released by the emotion. It can then be considered that it is not that our intelligent behavior fails because we feel imprisoned by the emotion but because, by intensely experiencing an emotional situation, we feel the failure of our habitual behavior.
