Visualize your way to Health

 

Visualize your way to health

“A man’s health can be judged by which he takes two at a time – pills or stairs.” Joan Welsh

When you come face to face with a set of stairs, do you go up them or do you TAKE them?

I know what you’re thinking…

What’s the difference?

Taking the stairs means you have chosen to go up them. Going up the stairs means you don’t have any other choice. But why are we talking about stairs?

Taking the stairs or going up them is a great analogy for whether you are in control of your life and decisions, or if you are letting life happen to you.

And we can apply this to health and fitness, too.

• Do you drag yourself to the gym every morning, dreading your workout and leave feeling defeated?
• Do you eat kale with every single meal even though you despise it, because you feel like you have to, to be “healthy”?
• Do you jump between diet and fitness programs, because you end up feeling discouraged when the results don’t come as quick as you’d like?

The answer to fixing these issues lies in reframing how we view health and fitness.

It should be something you enjoy and CHOOSE to do! Life is about finding what works best for YOU.

Choosing yourself is an act of generosity.

I’m here to tell you that it’s NOT selfish to choose you! I want you to ask yourself two questions:

1. Who in your life will benefit from you feeling irritable, unhappy and unhealthy?
2. Who in your life will benefit from you feeling strong, healthy and happy?

With this perspective, taking time for yourself is not selfish, but in fact an act of generosity.

Here are 3 powerful mindset shifts you can start using NOW to empower you on your way to health

1. This is NOT hard

You need to start viewing this process of change as a gift to your future self. Change is never easy, but by viewing it this way you can save yourself the time and uneasiness of thinking of this as an uphill battle of pain and deprivation.

2. To say “I’ll try” is setting yourself up for failure

Commit to the changes you’re making in life. Start by committing with one habit change to not overwhelm yourself. You can then focus on being consistent leading to feelings of success. No trying allowed!

3. To say “I’ll try” is setting yourself up for failure

Commit to the changes you’re making in life. Start by committing with one habit change to not overwhelm yourself. You can then focus on being consistent leading to feelings of success. No trying allowed!

The bottom line: your mindset is responsible for your successes and your failures.

How to tie it all together

To make these mindset shifts and habits a part of your life, try using the technique of visualization.

Research has revealed that when we visualize ourselves doing a particular habit, it ignites many of the same parts of our brain as when we are physically doing that same habit!

This reveals to us that mental visualization can be used as a tool to condition ourselves towards new and more desirable habits or behaviors.

It works like this

• We often mentally visualize ourselves doing an activity
• Strong neural connections are built in from the repetitiveness
• The neural connections built become a more natural reaction in the brain
• Then when we are presented with a situation similar to the one we imagined, we become more likely to act out the habits we trained ourselves to act out during the visualization exercise.

 

Here are 5 tips to help you start visualizing your way to better habits:

Begin your visualization with a relaxation exercise

To get your mind ready to go for visualization, meditation is perfect to calm a busy mind and put you in the mood to focus. OR you can do this practice for the first 20 minutes after you wake up in the morning!

Picture yourself in situations that are similar to your everyday life

An effective visualization relates to the real world. If you’re trying to change habits related to work, imagine yourself actually sitting in your workspace.

 

Visualize the process, not end goals

Visualizing the process of a goal is much more effective than visualizing the end goal. You need to actually visualize yourself going step-by-step in achieving your habit.

 

Evoke as many senses as possible

By trying to evoke as many senses as possible such as touch, smell, and taste, the better prepared you will be to duplicate that habit in the real world.

 

Practice 15-20 minutes a day

Practice makes perfect! Start visualizing one habit 15-20 minutes per day and you should start seeing improvements by the end of the week. 

 

Shifting your mindset, and thus your identity is KEY to creating long lasting changes in your life.