Mind Power

The following article is a small excerpt from one of my books.  I hope you’ll want to learn more and let me help you to get into the best shape of your life.

Your mind and body are not only connected, they are also locked together. Researchers have known for years that exercise can boost brain power and enhance your creativity. Some researchers even theorize that aerobic exercise suppresses activity in the left hemisphere of your brain, the half that is responsible for logical thought and stimulates the right hemisphere of your brain, that regulates intuition and creativity.

Another part of your brain is the subconscious, which has a powerful impact on each and every area of your life. If you have a negative self image in your subconscious, you probably lack confidence, are overweight and generally unhealthy. You’re probably a procrastinator, you don’t exercise, you feel you don’t deserve any success, and you’re generally unhappy with your life and can never get a lucky break. No matter how much you consciously try to change these images you can’t, because they exist in you subconscious mind.

But what if you could change your self image in your subconscious, and gain more confidence, willpower, and determination. Would you make and take the daily adjustments necessary to make these changes? If you could gain control over your thoughts and images and improve your level of physical and emotional well being. . . would you? You feel you have the willpower but you are still unable to create these changes using willpower alone…why? Part of the reason for this is your conscious part of your mind accounts for only 12 percent, the other 88 percent and the most powerful part of your mind is made up of your subconscious.

The subconscious part of your mind, is the part you must use in order to make effective, permanent and positive changes in your life. The way to do this is by self-hypnosis, allowing you to enter your subconscious mind and make these powerful and permanent changes in your life.

There are many ways and books written about self-hypnosis, but the one I like to use is very simple. Find yourself a quite comfortable floor place and sit. Keep your upper body erect, your back flat and bring the soles of your feet together and pull your heels as close to your groin as possible. Rest your palms on the inside of your thighs. Now, breathe in slowly through your nose and hold for ten seconds, and exhale slowly through your mouth. Keep your eyes closed and continue breathing for several minutes. When you feel completely relaxed, start to count backwards from five to zero. It is here that you can start to make positive changes in your subconscious, by making suggestions to yourself.

Some sample suggestions might be;

‘I will receive only positive thoughts, that
are beneficial to me. I will reject all
negative thoughts and suggestions. I love
to work out and exercise, and enjoy the
changes that are happening to me and my body.’

‘I am a winner and I love being a winner.
My confidence is increasing and I am becoming a better more positive person.’

As you give yourself these suggestions, imagine and visualize these suggestions as if they were real. See yourself making these changes and visualize situations that you may be in and make these positive changes. Visualization is an important technique in the art of self-hypnosis.

When you can imagine yourself exercising, before you actually begin to work out, you get tangible results, build better quality muscle and will find your performance levels will be enhanced. When you visualize your workout, make sure you go over all your sets, including your warm up sets, right on through to your maximum lift attempts, and cool down.

By getting your mind into your muscle, and visualizing the proper technique and movements, this could be the difference between a 70 percent success and a 95 percent success in your workouts. The more vivid your image, the more effective your workout. If you dream of success you will be successful.

Once you’ve finished your visualization, take a moment to enjoy your state of relaxation. When you are ready to come out, slowly count from zero to five. As you are counting out, you should be telling yourself you are feeling refreshed and filled with new energy.

You should practice this self hypnosis technique about twice a week for your life changing suggestions and for no more than fifteen minutes at a time. You should also use your visualization techniques right before your workout, going over your entire workout before you start to train. It should go without saying but I’m going to say it anyway, you should not practice self hypnosis while driving or doing any other activity that requires your full concentration.

You should also focus on just one or two suggestions per hypnosis session. Trying to concentrate on too many thoughts at once may dilute your results. When you give yourself a suggestion, you should visualize and imagine each suggestion as if it were real. See yourself in the situation you want to become and think positively. Avoid the word try. I will try to become more patient. You should be suggesting, I will become more patient.

Another technique that is effective is a technique called dissociation. It’s essentially a form of controlled daydreaming, where you consciously direct your mind away from the task you are doing and onto more pleasant thoughts. Here is how it works. If you are riding a stationary bike, instead of thinking of your heart rate and exertion level and how much you hate what you’re doing, think of something else… anything…Think of what you are going to make for dinner and how. Think of the names of Batman villains, you can even read a book. Before you know it, your exercise time will have been completed successfully and you can prepare yourself for the next workout level.

You should approach your weight control with confidence and enthusiasm, and anticipate that you will need time and practice before your lifestyle changes will be your new way of life. Remember old habits do not die easily. When you slip, don’t be hard on yourself, and don’t give up. Learn from your experiences.

The decision to change your lifestyle to include healthy eating and physical activity is a conscious choice that requires change. It’s also natural that while working towards your goals you feel a strong desire to obtains these goals you also simultaneously feel a strong resistance not to obtain your goals.

Up until now you’ve probably focused on all the negative aspects of being overweight and wondered why you haven’t been able to succeed in accomplishing any of your lifestyle changes. One reason for this is that you are comfortable in your old lifestyle and know where all the bumps are.
When you resist change, part of you wants to desperately move forward, yet part of you wants to resist the changes you are trying to achieve.

There are basically two types of self motivators, those that use words like, have to, need to, should and must. This type of person focuses on the negative aspects of lifestyle change and creates a resistance within themselves. The other type of self-motivator uses words like, choose to, plan to, want to and intend to. This person usually embraces change and moves forward in accomplishing their lifestyle changes.

When you choose to open your mind to all the possibilities of change, and see change as a challenge for growth, you will then begin to see options and alternatives where you once saw obstacles and frustrations.

Conventional diets often neglect one of the most important aspects of weight loss and that is the psychological. Remember all actions must first start out as a thought. There is even a recent theory that we are thinking ourselves fat. It comes from the differences between French and North American diets. The French have an obesity rating of about 8% while the North Americans have an obesity rate of 30%. Although the French have a higher Fat content in their diet they eat fewer calories than North American diets. The French view food as good and an enjoyable experience and only 12% would if possible replace eating with a pill. North Americans on the other hand see food as fuel and worry if it’s going to turn up as fat in their body and 26% would take a pill if they could to replace eating. So is it guilt and anxiety towards food that makes us fatter? I personally wouldn’t rule out anything when it comes to the powers of the mind.

In order to bring about a permanent lifestyle change, you first need to set goals, and goals that are specific. Saying you want to get healthier is too generic, you need to be more specific, like you want to increase your strength or aerobic level.

Your next step is to make a realistic plan to accomplish your goals. It’s also important to learn from your past and make goal adjustments. Have you tried to obtain this goal before…what worked and what didn’t? Once you’ve made the plan to obtain your goal, how are you going to maintain your goal. These are a few of the questions you must ask yourself. But perhaps the most important question to ask yourself is, why do you want to make these lifestyle changes. Forget what other people say, want and expect from you, why do you want to accomplish these goals. Write down all your reasons why you want to change and keep the list handy. It’s good to read it once in awhile to help you stay on track.

Success starts with the setting, and planning of realistic goals, and a realistic weight loss goal to strive for would be to lose no more than 2 pounds per week.

You should also set a definite date for you to achieve your goal and commit yourself to obtain it. Wishing does not make it happen. You have to be committed to making it happen. You must come up with compelling reasons why you want to achieve your goal. You should also feel that success is so important to you that nothing can or will stop you. The idea of failing is so painful in your mind, that you will do whatever is necessary to succeed in achieving your goal. Remember permanent results are only achieved through permanent change.

One of the reasons people fail in making their lifestyle change is that when on their ‘diet’ they needlessly remove their favourite foods from their meal plans. The result is that they have intense cravings. As the cravings become more intense, the person may go on a binge and consume large amounts of their forbidden foods. This may lead to a self defeating attitude like…well now that I’ve blown it, I may as well really blow it…and continue to binge. This thinking is really illogical and what you really need to do is just stop the binging, promise yourself that you will do better and move on.

To achieve long term success you must learn to manage your favorite foods and not to avoid them. This unrealistic thinking about binging that I just mentioned is one of the classic problems and reasons why dieters fail. They view the world and dieting as either right or wrong, perfect or terrible, good or bad. When you have a set back and slip on your diet, you tend to beat yourself up for not being perfect. This will probably lead to you increasing your eating in order to soothe your injured feelings and help yourself to feel better.

When you make statements to yourself like ‘I will never eat chocolate bars again’ or I must exercise every day’, you are creating a self defeating situation. By using absolute words like always, must and never, you are setting yourself up to either accept the statement or fail. When you think in absolutes you tend to focus on the slight imperfections and forget about your accomplishments. Instead of saying, ‘I will never eat chocolate bars’, you may want to say, ‘I will eat fewer chocolate bars and if I have one from time to time, it’s O.K.’.

Remember to take one day at a time, and if you have a set back, move forward. Forget about yesterday, now is what matters. If you believe in yourself and what you are doing you will succeed.

Mental muscle or mind power, can not only change your physique, it can also play an important role in changing your life. By getting better control over your thoughts and images in your mind, you will soon see the improvements in not only your physical structure but your emotional side as well.

I know you want to get in shape and look great. Whatever your fitness goal to slim down… gain muscle… tone your arms or flatten your tummy I’m here to help you accomplish your goals and to improve your fitness level. You will learn how to select and combine your diet with exercise, so that you can be the best you can be.