How to Deal with your Internal Chatterbox

You’re about to play an important tee shot. You’ve done all the right things… pictured the shot you want to hit, gone through your routines, focused your attention on whatever thought you have that will help you hole out – perhaps the centre of the face or a technical swing thought that’s been working. Perfect preparation! You’ve given yourself your best chance of finding the fairway. 

Yet it is so often at this point that our brain decides to turn into a chatterbox. From nowhere, random thoughts fill your mind… anything from what’s on TV tonight to the garish shirt your partner is wearing to what they might think if you find the trees. In eastern disciplines like meditation they talk of something called the ‘monkey mind’ – a situation where your focus jumps around like a monkey from tree to tree. I’m sure most of us can relate to that, not just in our ever-busier lives, but also on the golf course. Such random thoughts have a clear potential to compromise performance because they pull our attention away from the task we are trying to achieve. But they don’t have to.

At this point you might be expecting some ‘wisdom’ on how to banish those random thoughts. In fact, I don’t believe this is advisable, or even possible. This is simply how the brain works, and we are not about to change that. 

Instead, I want to talk about what I call the ‘thinking mind’ and the ‘observing mind’. The thinking mind is the chattering one that sends through that stream of pointless observations, deductions and instructions. However, you can also access an observing state where you are simply making yourself aware of what is going on.

The idea here is that you observe that useless thought, let it pass, then bring your focus back to where it was. Meditation often compares these daft, undesired thoughts to clouds that blow through, and that’s not a bad image here. Experience the thought, accept it, let it blow through, refocus.

Playing golf in this more observational state has three key advantages. First, it calms the mind because you are no longer at the mercy of the brain chatter. I’ve never heard a good player explain a great round by saying his mind was very active; the adjectives that crop up time and again are ‘calm’, ‘still’ and ‘clear’ – the very word used by Ryder Cup hero Martin Kaymer to describe his state of mind over that crucial six-footer at Medinah in 2012. 

Second, the observing mind keeps you in the moment, allowing you to create useful attention. The thinking mind wants to pull you back to putts made or missed in the past, or send you forward to the consequences, neither of which are any help to completing a given task.

And third, the observing mind gives you a much better awareness of what you’re doing. I once worked with a grumpy player who felt his attitude was hindering his performance. Instead of telling him he had to play four rounds smiling and being nice, I told him to go out and play four rounds simply observing his behaviour. He was appalled, and instantly changed the way he played the game. This is a great exercise for anyone to try. You may learn many things about your game that have been holding you back; and a thought or behaviour, once observed, cannot have the same form or power.

Incidentally, playing golf with an observing mind can work for you technically as well as mentally. Swing the club with an intention simply to observe rather than influence the move in any way, and you can start to build a much sharper feel what is going on with your action. That’s great for long-term improvement.

Here’s a simple way to experience playing the game with this observing mind. Take a single ball to the putting green. Set up normally to a putt. Now look at the ball, the colours and shapes on the cover. Hit the ball but keep your eyes pinned on its location; you’ll see a dark, circular shadow, what’s known as a retinal afterimage of the ball. Hit five putts, seeing that image; this forces you to into that desired, observational state of mind. You’ll begin to feel how this drill doesn’t just keep your head still; it keeps your mind still as well.

Ultimately, the observing mind touches a quieter part of the brain. You are not going to stop the chatter, but if you can learn to observe it and let it go, your brain will find it easier to settle down and refocus.