Keith Earls has revealed he has been working with Irish hypnotist and magician Keith Barry in a bid to boost his performances.
The winger has hit prime form amid Ireland's bid for a third Six Nations title in five years, admitting that aged 30 he is enjoying his career more than ever.
"The last 18 months is probably the most I have enjoyed rugby since I was about 13 years of age," said Earls.
"When you're enjoying something and it doesn't seem like work you enjoy it a lot more. It's what a lot of us do. It is our job, but we think it is everything, which it isn't.
"I have been relaxing a bit as well.
"As I am getting older I am trying to find the one per cents between diet and stuff, the psychology and the visualisation; I have been working a bit with Keith Barry as well, just trying to get them one per cents, which seems to be working.
"I don't want to get into the detail but he knows the brain better than anyone and just in terms of visualisation and stuff like that."
Earls has also spoken of his firsthand experience of just how dangerous Gregor Townsend’s men can be.
The Scotland head coach was in charge of Glasgow Warriors when they comprehensively beat Munster in Belfast in the 2015 Pro12 final and it’s a loss that hasn’t been forgotten by the Ireland winger.
Scotland arrive to Dublin on Saturday (kick-off 2.15pm) with their own NatWest 6 Nations championship aspirations intact after impressive wins over France and England and Earls is adamant Ireland, on course for a grand slam, won’t be caught unawares.
"They’ve been brilliant the last couple of weeks," Earls told RTÉ Sport.
"But leading up to the Six Nations they’d beaten Australia [home and] away, they’d run New Zealand close [a 17-22 loss].
"They are a team on the up and I think Gregor has done a phenomenal job with them. He’s proven it before with Glasgow, they beat us in a final in 2015, they play a great style of rugby.
"They can play any type of game they want, they can play hard, they can go wide, they have a kicking game as well that’s going to be tough to deal with."
Earls, who will win his 66th cap if selected on Thursday, also admits that Ireland have room for improvement and expects to see the team, who conceded three tries to both Italy and Wales, and were beaten by the Scots last season while also leaking three five-pointers, to reach a higher level at Lansdowne Road.
The Munster man, who was on the scoresheet in Murrayfield last year, added: "The biggest thing for us is trying to get that 80-minute performance.
"The way the competition is going now a lot of teams will leak tries, the standard has gone through the roof.
"We’ll work on the mistakes that have been made for those tries and hopefully they won’t happen on Saturday.
"Scotland are coming over here on a high and they are coming for a championship as well.
"We’ve been improving week on a week and that happens naturally when you are together for a while.
"There’s going to be hiccups with injuries etc but hopefully we do get better, starting with Saturday."
Meanwhile, Tadhg Furlong and Iain Henderson are "expected to train fully this week".
The IRFU confirmed that both players were set to train with the squad this week in the build-up to the Aviva Stadium encounter having 'continued their rehab last week'.
Prop Furlong is recovering from a hamstring strain, while Ulster lock Henderson has also been struggling with a similar ailment.
