Athletes before a final don't wait for the nerves to pass on their own. They rehearse them. In their heads they replay the penalty kick, the last jump, the start of the race - so that when the real one comes, the body feels as if it has already been there. The technique is called mental rehearsal and, according to experts, it isn't reserved for stadiums.

"It prepares the nervous system to act, and you arrive at the moment with a body that tells you you've been here before," explains Toni Espigares, an expert in meditation and personal transformation. The idea is to anticipate difficult situations in advance and train how you'll react to nerves and to the unexpected. A job interview, a tough meeting, a speech in front of an audience - the principle is the same.

Worry is rehearsal - just the wrong kind

The sharpest part of the explanation is about anxiety. "Anxiety is visualisation without training. To worry is to rehearse the worst-case scenario," says Espigares. In other words, many people already do mental rehearsal every night before bed. They're just replaying the wrong recording, over and over.

The difference comes down to a few points. Worry starts with a body on alert; visualisation starts with a calm body, after a few deep breaths. Worry circles around the problem; visualisation rehearses the response. And positive affirmations are not the same thing: they're phrases, not experience. A real rehearsal has concrete details and sensory elements, and deliberately includes the obstacles that might come up.

Good news for those who can't picture an image: you don't have to "see" anything. Some people experience the rehearsal through a feeling in the body, through sound or through movement. Even people with aphantasia - the inability to form mental images - can use it. The most powerful kind, in fact, is kinaesthetic rehearsal: the kind you feel in your muscles, your breathing, the weight of your body.

Five minutes a day and 21 days of patience

The exercise takes five to ten minutes a day. According to Espigares, it takes 21 days of practice for new reactions to become automatic. Progress shows in three signs: the body reacts differently, so your pulse stays calm when you think about the situation; your behaviour changes, so you prepare better without long hesitation; and the unexpected throws you off less.

How many times have we heard "don't think about it" as advice before an exam or an operation? The idea that you should think about the hard moment deliberately, calmly and in detail runs in exactly the opposite direction. Are we ready to train stress instead of just putting up with it?