If you talk to anyone who competes, they’ll most likely say ‘beware the post-competition blues’ or ‘the post-competition blues will hit you hard’, or something to that effect.

And while it’s totally normal to experience post-competition blues, it’s not something you definitely will experience and you might not even notice it if you do.

My concern with the post-competition blues being written and described as something you will definitely experience and it will be unpleasant, is the effect it can have on your brain.

As once your competition is over, you will likely be expecting the post-competition blues to arrive and, depending on what you believe, have been told and your preparedness, will likely determine IF you experience the blues and the level at which you experience them.

(This is called the ‘nocebo effect’, which is the opposite of the placebo effect. It describes a situation/event where a negative outcome occurs due to a belief that the intervention will have an adverse effect.)

However, you can train your brain to help avoid and beat the post-competition blues with these 10 strategies:

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If you’re thinking this or something similar:

“My competition is over and now I have post-competition blues”
“When my competition is over I’m going to get the blues hard.”

Herein lies two problems:

Describes an issue you can't change or influence: your competition being over
Other events are also appearing: down and blue feelings

So due to these sentence structures, it feels like these feelings are:

Linked
Dependent
Caused

by these unchangeable things e.g. competition finishing.

These sentence are therefore ‘passive’, because it feels like you're powerless to the circumstance beyond your control, in this case post-comeptition, and you just have to feel blue until you can start properly training for your next competition.

Passive language therefore creates and maintains the sense of being stuck with these blue feelings for the foreseeable future - which isn't fair.

So if passive language creates and maintains stuckness, what happens if you go from being passive to post-competition blues, to being active?

This starts by changing your self-talk from passive to active language, and you do this by adding in the word 'do' (doing, does, did) into your sentences.

The ‘do' (doing, does, did) indicates and tells you that although you're involved in the post-competition feelings at a certain level, your involvement is unconscious and unintentional.

And the 'do' enables you to recognise that you have the power to change how you feel and influence what happens post-competition. It gives you that crucial second option.

When you use 'do' (doing, does, did) in your self-talk, you'll feel a small pause in what you're doing and how you're feeling.

You'll realise that you have the amazing power to stop doing the unhelpful thing, e.g. blue and down feelings, and instead, start doing something else consciously and intentionally that will enhance your life!

For example:

“My competition is over and now I have post-competition blues”

Becomes

“I am doing down and blue feelings around my competition being over”

____

“When my competition is over I’m going to get the blues hard.”

Becomes:

“Once my competition is over I’ll do satisfaction, happiness and relaxation while celebrating and recovering.”

The words you say and use trigger the feelings, emotions, actions and physical manifestations associated with that word.

For example, when you say ‘My competition is over and now I have post-competition blues’, this triggers all of the stuff you consciously and unconsciously connect with post-competition blues, so you feel more blue.

If I asked you, what do you want instead?

And you answered, ‘I don’t want to feel blue’, your brain doesn’t hear the ‘not’ and it still triggers all of the stuff you connect with post-competition blues.

This is because, in order for your brain not to think about something, it has to first understand what you don’t want it to think about.

Unfortunately, your brain can’t differentiate between what’s unhelpful and helpful to you. It only understands which brain pathways you use the most and the least.

If you often repeat to yourself, consciously or unconsciously, ‘I’m going to get post-competition blues’ or ‘I have post-competition blues’, your brain will strengthen the neuropathways associated with post-competition blues. This means they’ll become easier to activate and the state of post-competition blues is easier for you to enter.

But here’s the good news!

You can use your brain’s powerful way of working to your advantage!

By thinking performance and life-enhancing thoughts e.g.

‘I’m recovering as fast as possible‘
‘I did absolutely brilliantly and now get to enjoy a well-deserved break’
’Now I can get ready and excited for my next challenge’
‘I can now focus on spending quality time with friends and family’

You’ll trigger all of the feelings, thoughts, actions and physical manifestations you associate with these positive words and experiences.

And the more you stop yourself saying ‘I have or I will get post-competition blues’ and replace these phrases with life-enhancing words, the more you’ll activate and strengthen those powerful neuropathways.

And the old pathways?

The less you use them, the weaker and weaker they become, making it harder for your brain to activate.

When you return home after your competition, you don’t have to stop living your athlete lifestyle.

I’ll let you into a little secret… you don’t need to be training for a competition to live the athlete mindset.

While you rest and recover after your competition, you can ask yourself performance-enhancing questions and still live by the athlete mindset, for example:

What do I need to focus on to recover as fast and best as possible?
What do I need to do today that will make me a better athlete?
What do I need to think/do/act to take me towards my goals?
What’s more performance and/or life-enhancing for me to think/feel/act/do/believe?
What went really well in my competition?
What 1-5 things will take my performance to the next level for my next competition?

If you find yourself doing blue and/or down feelings, or feelings that aren’t taking you towards living a life you love, it’s time you asked yourself this question (maybe more than once a day!):

What would be life-enhancing for me to do instead?

For example, if you’re doing low levels of energy or motivation and dreading your next training session, what would be more life-or-performance-enhancing instead? Perhaps the answer is ice cream and Netflix or date night with your partner or a lie-in or PJ party with your kids!

Don’t put pressure on yourself to bounce back or push through it.

Take your time to enjoy life and re-frame how you look at things by asking yourself this all-powerful question.

It’s really important you address the physical implication of pushing your body to its absolute limits.

After a big competition, it’s normal for your body to feel worn down and fatigued, after my last Ironman I was sore to walk for days!

Take pleasure in creating a post-completion rest and recovery plan, maybe include your partner/family/friends/coach too.

If you’re a body builder, maybe it’s enjoying a box of donuts with friends, after an Ironman having a massage, or maybe you’re more looking forward to going out for dinner and drinks, having a party, not jumping on the turbo or in the pool at 6AM. (you can also look forward to the above and use it for extra drive and focus during competition!)

You’ll also want to add in some active recovery, like yoga, easy activity days and other things to help your body recovery and come back fired up when your next training block starts - your coach will be able to advise here!

You’ve trained hard and for hours, made sacrifices, tapered and then used up all of your energy in one big competition.

While you’re in the rest and recovery period, spend time in the areas of your life that you had to sacrifice for training.

Where do I begin with the amazing benefits that nature has on your mental health?!

Research shows that spending time in nature every day (parks, vegetable plots, exercising outdoors, walking your dog or cat or bunny…) is immensely beneficial to your mental and physical health - not just when you’re doing the blues.

Here’s how it helps:

Boost mood
Helps reduce doing down and non-performance/life enhancing feelings
Helps you increase doing performance/life enhancing e.g. happiness, relaxation, peacefulness, confidence
Improves physical health
Make new connections (everyone is more friendly when out walking!)
Helps you be more mindful

Everyone has different experiences of nature and different ways of wanting to connect with nature. Think of ways you (and your family/partner) would love to bring the benefits of nature into your life and start getting outside.

This is as simple as it sounds, follow what fills your heart with joy. Do the things you day dreamed about and that make you happy, no matter how silly or simple you think they are.

When you can’t train or compete, the next best thing is living in anticipation of the competition!

Researchers have shown that the anticipation of future experiences, such as competitions, is just as enjoyable as the experience itself!

Just don’t book a re-bound competition, choose a competition that excites you and doesn’t interfere with your body’s recovery needs.

I was once walking down a London high street with a friend and she was at that stage in life when she wanted a family. As we passed yet another cafe she exclaimed:

‘OMG I can’t believe how many yummy mummy’s there are here!’

I was so surprised and said: ‘What are you talking about, there are barely any here?!’

Then, all of sudden, I couldn’t help but see yummy mummies everywhere! I was shocked.

I was single and only noticing how many hot guys were around - which she completely missed!

This is called Editing.

How you see the world is a result of what you tell your brain to look out for (unconsciously and consciously), such as families or handsome guys.

Usually an unintentional and unconscious process, but by making it conscious and intentional, you can train your brain to show you all of the amazing things in your life, and dull out the not so good and less important stuff.

Having a gratitude practice of 10 things you’re grateful for everyday activates and strengthens your brain's neuropathways for positivity and abundance.

What’s your favourite way to overcome the post-competition blues? Tell me in the comments below!

Adelaide

P.S. Ready to take your performance to the next level? Here are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Apply for a free 30 minute call to discuss your ultimate performance goal and how to get there. Apply now by clicking here.

2. Read one of my most popular blogs: How to create a game-changing pre-training routine

3. Follow me on Instagram (@adelaidegoodeve) for daily free brain hacks

Adelaide Goodeve

Adelaide Goodeve