What did you hear about health, fitness and well-being when you were growing up?
Did you ever hear phrases like I’d do anything to lose 10lbs…except eat healthy foods and work out, I don’t run unless someone is chasing me, I have bad genes – my parent(s) died young so I will too, I don’t have enough willpower/discipline to stick to a diet, healthy people are boring, no rest for the wicked, I’ll sleep when I’m dead, I don’t have time to exercise and take care of myself, I’d rather enjoy my life than be regimented with my food and exercise, I workout so I can eat whatever I want, or exercising will wear out my joints?
All the statements you heard about health, fitness and well-being when you were young remain in your subconscious mind as part of the health blueprint (discussed here in Part 1) that continues to run your life forever…unless you step in and change them! In other words, verbal conditioning is extremely powerful.
Any time the subconscious mind has to choose between deeply rooted emotions and logic — emotions will almost always win. That’s why we devour ice cream right from the tub in front of Game of Thrones, even when we understand this won’t help our favourite jeans fit better!
There are four Key Elements of Change, each of which is essential in reprogramming your health blueprint and living the extraordinary life you so deserve. They are simple but profoundly powerful.
- Awareness: You can’t change something unless you know it exists, right? Become aware of the non-supportive beliefs (the toxic weeds in your garden) you learned – from your parents, siblings, teachers, or authority figures – that are running the show for you.
- Understanding: By understanding where your “way of thinking” originated from, you can recognize that it has come from outside of you.
- Dissociation: Once you realize this way of thinking isn’t you, you can separate yourself from it and choose in the present whether to keep it or it let go – based on who you are today, and where you want to be tomorrow. You can observe this way of thinking and see it for what it is – a “file” of information that was stored in your mind a long time ago and may not hold any truth or value for you today.
- Reconditioning: This step is crucial, where you’re introduced to mental files (supportive programming/declarations) that will generate lasting health. Declarations state our intention of doing or being something, from which we then take purposeful and consistent action to achieve. When said aloud, declarations send a clear and powerful message to the subconscious mind.
Steps for Change: Verbal Programming
- Awareness: Write down all the statements you heard about health, fitness, and well-being when you were young.
- Understanding: Write down how you believe these statements have affected your health so far.
- Disassociation: Can you see that these thoughts represent only what you learned, and are not part of your anatomy and not who you are? Can you see that you have a choice in the present moment to be different?
- Reconditioning: Declare out loud: “What I heard about health, fitness and well-being isn’t necessarily true. I choose to adopt new ways of thinking that support my health, happiness and success.”
I really encourage you to invest the time to do this exercise (and the ones coming up in Parts 3 and 4). Your health, vitality and energy may depend on it!
Now I want to hear from you. What’s one toxic weed that you need to pull from your subconscious ‘verbal programming’ garden? Please leave me a comment below and remember, you have a choice to think and act differently going forward. How liberating!
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