This blog post is inspired by a couple of genius quotes, that with trial I have proven true in my life, as well as seen true with my clients.
First of all, "never say anything about yourself you don't want to be true" Brian Tracey
and "you can never be bigger than your dreams" JR Ridinger
The mind works in an interesting way; we become what we think about. For many years, I criticized my body every morning as I was getting dressed. I would poke and prod at all the areas I wanted to go away, or "tighten". I thought that if I wasn't aware of every imperfection I wouldn't be able to solve them. Boy was I wrong. Back in those days, I would run and run and run. Every day, I ran, swam, skiied; you name it, I did every thing I could to burn the calories I needed to achieve the body I wanted.
Did I ever get what I was working for? No, because I continued to poke and prod and think poorly of my shape. So much that I even verbalized these thoughts to those around me.
When I heard Brian Tracey's quote, I didn't quite believe it but I thought I'd just test it out. So I woke up in the morning, looked in the mirror, squinted my eyes so I couldn't see my lumps and bumps and said "You are beautiful." it felt kind of good, so I went on. "You are hot" not quite convinced I continued anyway "your body is hot" I really wanted to believe it so I said "other people think your body is hot". This was a completely foreign thought to me, whether it was true or not.
Something switched in me that day, and since then I've had the "perfect body". I don't know if I've actually lost weight or even if anything has physically changed (others have commented it has) but is doesn't matter, because as soon as I released myself of thinking I was "fat" my body let go of that image.
I share only my personal testimonial because I'm not an expert on the mind and how it works, but I'm sure my friend, Janice Manson a hypnotherapist would agree, the mind is very powerful. It has the ability to materialize our thoughts. Even little thoughts that we think are private and confined to inside of our skull can still become a self fulfilled prophesy.
So never think anything you don't want to be true.
Now that you've erased all of your negative thoughts, go ahead and dream big. Imagine, picture, visualize, and write out goals, of what a healthy body is to you. If it's playing with your grandkids, or running a marathon, or just getting through the day without pain, start to create what that means in your mind. Create an identity of the healthy you, and start acting like that. For instance, if you think you are overweight, (I only use overweight as my examples because most of my clients relate however you can insert any health issue in this spot), and you've put yourself on a diet in order to try to lose weight. You'll always be overweight and on a diet trying to lose weight. However, if you adopt the image of a healthy person who is living a healthy lifestyle and therefore easily sheds excess weight, this is what you'll become.
Don't be afraid to set your goals or your image of yourself beyond what you can imagine, because if you set big goals and you achieve half of them you can still look back to where you came from. It's true that you'll never be bigger, or thinner, than your dreams.
My Challenge to you is to create an image, whether it's in writing or pictures of what you as a healthy person looks like, what it feels like, and what you do. Make sure it is in present tense and read it out loud, or look at it everyday and truly live in that image. I want to hear your testimonials of how by changing your mind about something you've made a physical shift in your body, or your life.
