Seventy thousand people in the stadium have their eyes glued to the track. The tension is palpable. Millions more are watching at home. The athletes are in their positions, ready. For four long years, they’ve trained for this moment. Seconds stretch into what feels like hours. Everyone waits for the starting gun.

To withstand the pressure in moments like these, athletes must demonstrate mental strength. But you don’t have to be a professional athlete to know the feeling: sweaty palms, racing heart, dry mouth, shaky knees. Perhaps it’s a job interview, a presentation, or navigating traffic – how well we handle stressful situations depends on our mental strength, and the good news is, it can be trained. Though the concept originates from sports, it is applicable to every aspect of life.

The term mental training involves enhancing performance through psychological strategies and methods, such as organising thoughts or self-talk. For the past 15 years, studies have increasingly shown that supportive training techniques from sports psychology can optimise performance by the systematic and structured practice of linking thoughts, feelings and physical reactions. This means, for example, that specific movements or key aspects of a sport are first rehearsed in the mind and then mentally replayed. This significantly strengthens the complex connection between the brain and the body.

A shot putter has their spinning technique perfected before the throw. But if they’re not feeling well – physically, emotionally or mentally – it can weaken their performance. It is mental strength that often makes the difference between victory and defeat.

Take, for example, the case of gymnast Simone Biles who had to withdraw early from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to mental struggles and overwhelming pressure. “She couldn’t synchronise her mind with her body,” her coach explained.

At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Biles won four medals: three golds and one silver. Similarly, Olympic legend and swimmer Michael Phelps has long credited his success to his mental strength. Visualisation plays a major role in his training philosophy: “I’m prepared for everything that could go wrong.” He mentally rehearses his arm movements, breathing techniques and the dive into the water over and over again.

This approach is equally effective in other fields: if you thoroughly prepare for every possible scenario for your next presentation, your response is already stored. Anticipating potential questions in a job interview helps prevent being caught off guard. Goals should be clearly defined and internalised in advance.

All expectations have one thing in common – they create pressure, which triggers stress signals in the mind and body. This pressure almost always leads to doubt and fear of failure. To understand the root of this thought process, ask yourself “what happens in my body and what happens with my thoughts when I’m nervous?”

The process typically takes place in the autonomic nervous system, which includes breathing, digestion, metabolism and the cardiovascular system. Everything connected to feelings and thoughts has its effects right here. To prevent this chain reaction from being triggered, athletes learn to recognise fear as a danger signal in the brain and manage it mentally and physically.

But fear isn’t always the same. A significant difference is that in everyday stressful situations, we are rarely in real danger, so the body can learn to manage it. This can be achieved through the body-mind principle: when you start with the body, the mind follows. The only part of the circulatory system we can consciously control is our breathing. Practicing breathing exercises during stress links the two processes. The brain then knows you want to calm down. It learns to manage fear and perceive it differently.

Like any improvement process, mental training requires effort. However, once you understand the link between thought, feeling and physical reaction, you possess a sustainable asset that can be applied in any areas. Reaching this state is undoubtedly challenging. It requires actively questioning yourself and your thoughts. The more you practice, the greater the success, until a resilient inner mindset becomes a permanent state. A few mindful breaths can be all it takes to leave stress and performance pressure behind.