In Part 1 of this article series, I talked about the difference between those who come unstuck in achieving their goals, and those who achieve them.
I truly believe that our thinking is the number one thing that we need to work on when it comes to us hitting our goals.
This article series offers 3 Powerful Strategies to use our thinking to our advantage.
The first strategy is to: Change Your Focus
The second strategy is to:
Release emotions that are affecting you negatively
Negative emotions such as chronic anger, guilt, sadness, fear and guilt as well as limiting beliefs can hold us back from feeling free in our minds.
Research shows that almost every system in the body can be influenced by chronic stress. When chronic stress goes unreleased, it can suppress the body’s immune system.
I believe that the main cause of stress is how we respond to our thoughts and feelings. It does not lie outside of you in your life circumstances and is not something that happens to you, but something that you create.
Our feelings always stem from our thoughts. Many people think that we can’t control our feelings or that they are just random.
That is not true.
Our feelings are derived from what we’re thinking about.
Without supervision, our ‘hindbrain’ (also known as our animal or lizard brain) can act like an untamed toddler with no discipline, causing destruction without any awareness of the extent of the damage.
An undisciplined mind can be filled with a continuous stream of thoughts, worries, fears and distorted perceptions, all of which trigger degenerative processes in the mind and body.
You cannot control all of the events or circumstances of your life but you can control your reactions. And research shows that controlling those reactions can lead to a much healthier mind and body.
Many people are holding on to emotions that are producing tension and stress in our bodies and can lead to illness and dis-ease if they carry them for too long.
When we are being held back by events from our past and feeling things like regret, fear, guilt or shame, we are not fully free.
Don’t let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries.” ~Astrid Alauda
Releasing emotions that are affecting you negatively involves stepping back and thinking about what you’re thinking about.
My three favourite ways to do this are:
1. Journalling
You can do a simple ‘mind detox’ at the end of each day to dump everything weighing on you out of your brain.
Write out everything that’s taking up space and clutter in your psyche. Keep your pen moving without stopping, editing or judging what you’re writing.
Once you have it out, you may choose to read it and prioritise any actions you’ve identified, but even the act of writing it will help you feel better.
It’s an extremely powerful, yet simple task that makes a very big difference when it comes to your clarity and peace of mind.
2. Meditation
Another powerful way is through meditation.
You can do this in a group or alone, using a guiding meditation or silence and it has a host of benefits for helping you give your brain and body a rest.
There are hundreds of studies showing the benefits of meditation.
PhD psychotherapist Dr. Ron Alexander reports in his book Wise Mind, Open Mind that the process of controlling the mind, through meditation, increases mental strength, resilience, and emotional intelligence.
(Source: Dr. Ron Alexander)
Meditation also increases awareness of your unconscious mind.
A study by researchers from the University of Sussex in the UK found out that people that practice mindfulness meditation experience a greater pause between unconscious impulses and action.
(Source: New Scientist)
This is great news if you’re wanting to practice delayed gratification when it comes to over-eating or skipping workouts.
3. NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming)
NLP is a highly effective way to release chronic negative emotions and beliefs that are not serving you, and change can happen very fast.
Instead of dealing with these things, many people push them down, or self-medicate through over-indulgence, to escape and to avoid facing their feelings.
Doing this is like applying a band aid rather than looking at the root cause. This often causes the ‘dark clouds’ of negative thinking to cover many of the positive emotions and our state becomes much less resourceful.
A lot of people create poor habits and patterns when they are young and haven’t learned how to effectively manage their emotions. They react instead of responding and often feel mentally weighed down, anxious, stressed or depressed.
In order to make sure we smash our goals, it helps to uncover the things that are holding you back from achieving all that you want in life.
If you’d like to read more about how I do this, click here
Stay tuned for Part 3 of this article… coming soon!
Want To Learn More?
If you’d like to know more about how to use your mind to achieve your health and fitness goals, register now for my upcoming free, live, online training.
MIND BODY FREEDOM webinar
on Wednesday, the 2nd of November, 2016.
You’ll Learn:
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The REAL reasons why you struggle to stay on track
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Deeper levels of how your THINKING can stop you hitting your goals
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How to tap into your 3 UNIQUE Motivation Drivers
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How to take back control and feel CONFIDENT in your body again
[…] Part 2 of this article series, I talked about how emotions are related to thinking and how to release emotions that are […]