Functional Freeze in High Performance - By Aura Goldman
I was looking for someone who could explain GHIA (Global High Intensity Activation) and the intense, high-gear state of the nervous system that so many athletes know intimately. I wanted to understand it not only intellectually, but on a cellular and embodied level. I was searching for someone who spoke my language—someone who understood both performance and the nervous system. That search led me to the incredible Aura Goldman, and what a gem she is.
Long story short, I was invited to assist in one of her modules within her Somatic Performance Enhancement Education. What an experience! I truly believe this work represents part of the future of sport psychology—bringing together performance, physiology, and nervous system intelligence in a deeply practical and embodied way. I'm sharing a glimpse of Aura's work below because if you're a coach, therapist, or sport psychologist, her education is absolutely worth exploring. Brilliant is an understatement.
I have sat across from performers who have stood on podiums, people who have broken records, limitations, and expectations, and often noticed a particular quality in their eyes. Not pride, as you might optimistically expect. Not exhaustion either (though that’s usually sprinkled in). It’s something more like a not-quite-thereness, as though the person looking back at me is watching themselves from slightly outside their own body: observing a performance of being alive rather than living it.
When I ask how they felt at the moment of their greatest achievement, a surprising number of them pause. Then they might say something like: I don’t know, I just went through the motions. Or: I was there, but I wasn’t really there. Or: I was dead inside, I just looked the part.
