subject: Golf Yourself To Sleep [print this page] Golf Yourself To Sleep Golf Yourself To Sleep
Forget about counting sheep jumping over the fence in an attempt to get off to sleep. What I do is I play a round of golf.
I know, it's a bit sad really, but it not only seems to take me off to those luscious, verdant, undulating 18 holes in the sky somewhere, fast asleep, but it appears to be beneficial for my real golf game as well.
It slows me down and helps me to strike the ball better. And it does this quite simply because, in the dream world that I have created, like all controlled dream worlds, and maybe even uncontrolled dream worlds (I'm no expert), the holes that I play I play well. I often, mid dream, think to myself, "right, that was struck well; how did I do it?". And then I magically replay the motion of the swing, and, lo and behold, it was a perfect swing, effortlessly performed and with the best possible result I can allow myself to imagine (there is a modicum of reality in this otherwise unreal world!).
I find it a little bit annoying that I often seem to play my home course. This is because I can't always remember the holes or the order in which you play them on other courses. Well, sometimes I can and sometimes I can't. Not surprising really. I know two courses very well indeed. Every blade of grass you might say. But the hundred or more other courses I've played are a bit fuzzy. It doesn't actually matter though. Very soon I've skipped a few holes, or mixed up holes from different courses, and, needless to say, I've played them all brilliantly. Amazingly, a loose thought about a particular hole will remind me of an entirely different course, and then I'll go off and play that one instead!
Another thing that I do is imagine how much under par I was and consequently what the handicap reduction is going to be, and even what it's like to (have to) play off that handicap.
I haven't yet achieved the complete realisation of this part of my fantasy world, but, little by little, I'm getting there!
