Where's your head at?
No, I'm not referring to the early 2000's Basement Jaxx hit song. I'm talking about what your mind is telling you, or more accurately, what you are telling yourself.
Our minds are powerful. The things we have going on in our heads can drive us to achieve great things or drive us to terrible depression or anxiety attacks, and many things in between.
One important fact that most people don't really take notice of is that we are the person we talk to most in this world. Think about it, every thought, every memory, every consideration we make is essentially a conversation with ourselves. If we tell ourselves that something is impossible, guess what, we usually believe that it is.
Now I don't want to make this blog post some diatribe of positivity platitudes. I understand that just believing you can do something isn't the only thing you need to make it happen. But I believe that we need to pay more attention to how we talk to ourselves.
Think about the majority of the way in which you think about yourself and what you are capable of. Are you generally positive? How do you react when others give you compliments? When faced with a challenge, do you believe in yourself or is your default setting automatically a negative reaction?
Now consider that these reactions are not just one-off events. They are generally the way you will react in similar situations over long periods of time. Think about how it would feel to see someone telling their child that they can't do something every time a challenge arises in their life. Would you want to intervene to stop this negative influence on the child? Of course you would, and this is a hypothetical child you don't even know. Why do you allow your mind to do it to you?
These are things that impact your ability to achieve your goals, whether they are health and fitness related or entirely outside that aspect of your life. We need to pay attention to that little inner critic who can be a right pain in the ass sometimes. We need to know when they are just flat out lying to us, or more than likely just nagging away at us that something is too hard, too big, too challenging.
But how can we change that voice you may ask? Well, there are a number of ways. Firstly there is positive self-talk. Instead of listening to the negative voice in your head when challenging situations arise, drown it out with a positive one. It doesn't need to be out loud, but hey if that helps then have at it. Otherwise, just keep telling yourself positive things to crowd out the negative ones.
You could also use something physical to give yourself a reminder to reset your thinking when you notice it becoming negative. I've seen people use rubber bands on their wrists for example. When they start to get those negative thoughts swirling, they flick the band and use it as a reminder to reset their thinking to a more positive tone. But it could be anything that you have on you really, just make it something you wear most days.
Food, exercise, and sleep are huge parts of a healthy body, but a healthy mind is just as important. Work on being a good coach to yourself, you spend 24 hours a day with yourself, you may as well say some nice stuff along the way.
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If you found this blog post useful it would mean a lot to me if you could share it on social media, email it to a friend who might find it useful too or leave me a comment below.
Our minds are powerful. The things we have going on in our heads can drive us to achieve great things or drive us to terrible depression or anxiety attacks, and many things in between.
One important fact that most people don't really take notice of is that we are the person we talk to most in this world. Think about it, every thought, every memory, every consideration we make is essentially a conversation with ourselves. If we tell ourselves that something is impossible, guess what, we usually believe that it is.
Now I don't want to make this blog post some diatribe of positivity platitudes. I understand that just believing you can do something isn't the only thing you need to make it happen. But I believe that we need to pay more attention to how we talk to ourselves. Think about the majority of the way in which you think about yourself and what you are capable of. Are you generally positive? How do you react when others give you compliments? When faced with a challenge, do you believe in yourself or is your default setting automatically a negative reaction?
Now consider that these reactions are not just one-off events. They are generally the way you will react in similar situations over long periods of time. Think about how it would feel to see someone telling their child that they can't do something every time a challenge arises in their life. Would you want to intervene to stop this negative influence on the child? Of course you would, and this is a hypothetical child you don't even know. Why do you allow your mind to do it to you?
These are things that impact your ability to achieve your goals, whether they are health and fitness related or entirely outside that aspect of your life. We need to pay attention to that little inner critic who can be a right pain in the ass sometimes. We need to know when they are just flat out lying to us, or more than likely just nagging away at us that something is too hard, too big, too challenging.
But how can we change that voice you may ask? Well, there are a number of ways. Firstly there is positive self-talk. Instead of listening to the negative voice in your head when challenging situations arise, drown it out with a positive one. It doesn't need to be out loud, but hey if that helps then have at it. Otherwise, just keep telling yourself positive things to crowd out the negative ones.
You could also use something physical to give yourself a reminder to reset your thinking when you notice it becoming negative. I've seen people use rubber bands on their wrists for example. When they start to get those negative thoughts swirling, they flick the band and use it as a reminder to reset their thinking to a more positive tone. But it could be anything that you have on you really, just make it something you wear most days.
Food, exercise, and sleep are huge parts of a healthy body, but a healthy mind is just as important. Work on being a good coach to yourself, you spend 24 hours a day with yourself, you may as well say some nice stuff along the way.
_________________________________________________________________________
If you found this blog post useful it would mean a lot to me if you could share it on social media, email it to a friend who might find it useful too or leave me a comment below.
I agree you need to feel good about yourself and project that to others.
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