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Beyond
Walking
By Ronda Gates, MS
Ronda
Gates, MS, is a pharmacy grad who traded her white coat for a pair of
athletic shoes and never looked back. Her health promotion business,
LIFESTYLES, provides motivational speaking, program development, and
fitness assessment services to support people making a lifestyle change.
She has developed health promotion programs for many organizations nationwide.
Visit www.rondagates.com for
a complimentary subscription to Ronda’s weekly email newsletter.
An
early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
— Henry David
Thoreau |
A New
Way of Thinking
If you’ve
ever been mesmerized by a magician or hypnotist, you may be surprised
to learn that one of them changed the face of human behavior. In the
19th century French professor and master hypnotist, psychologist and
pharmacist, Emile Coué, cured hundreds of patients in Europe
and North America by teaching them to repeat the following affirmation
each morning and evening: “Every day, in every way, I am getting
better and better.” Using this affirmation alone, patients reaped
healing results that were nothing less than spectacular. Their health
improved.
Affirmations
are a powerful tool used by psychologists who practice cognitive restructuring.
Cognitive restructuring simply means that you use intellectual processes
to think and behave in new healthier ways. Dr. Phil McGraw has made
cognitive restructuring a mainstream tool for behavior change by asking,
“How’s that working for you?” Instead of delving deep
into personal history he simply encourages his guests to act in a different
way that will work.
Skeptics
aside, affirmations have long been recognized as a powerful tool in
manifesting our desires. Science and personal experience are verifying
that our mind has much more control over our body — and our belief
system — than we ever dreamed possible. It is our imagination or
subconscious mind, more than our will, which drives our behavior. That’s
because the subconscious mind cannot differentiate between actual reality
and the suggestions we give it. It processes statements it hears over
and over again as being real. Our nervous system acts on this perceived
reality and produces a response that, when it is in keeping with our
value system, can be life-changing. Affirmations take advantage of this
phenomenon.
An affirmation
is a positive statement that is used to replace a currently held belief.
If your present reality is a direct result of your belief system and
if changing your thinking can change that belief system then an affirmation
can change your reality.
People
from all walks of life — from athletic coaches, to sales professionals
to religious leaders to peak performance experts — promote the
practice of affirmations. If you are willing to risk getting what you
want, affirmations can work for you, too.
Here are
some guidelines to create your own life-changing affirmations.
Begin your
affirmation with the word, “I.” This demonstrates a strong
statement of your personal power.
Always
affirm in the now as if you have achieved your desire. Instead of, “I
am getting healthier and healthier every day,” say, “I am
healthier every day.”
Affirm
with, “I have…,” or, “I am…” rather than,
“I need…,” or, “I want…” For example,
“I have poise and confidence in every situation,” and, “I
am well balanced.”
Eliminate
“should” from affirmations. “Should” is a dangerous
word anytime. Instead of saying, “I should walk 10,000 steps a
day,” say, “I walk 10,000 steps a day.”
Avoid the
negative words “no,” “non,” “not,” and
“never.” Your subconscious does not recognize these negative
words and instead manifests exactly the opposite of what you want. Rather
than saying, “I am not clumsy,” or “I no longer fall
down,” which are powerful reinforcements of the traits you want
to change, recast your affirmation into a positive declaration. More
useful affirmations are: “I am poised and confident and have steady
feet,” and, “I have excellent balance.”
Avoid the
words, “hope,” “wish,” and “try.” They
are illusory and misleading. For example, have you ever tried to pick
up a set of car keys? You reach out and pick them up! It takes less
energy to do things than to “try to,” or “want to,”
or “need to” do them. Instead of saying, “I am trying
to get over my fear of heights,” or “I hope my fear of heights
will vanish,” say, “I am comfortable in high places.”
Your affirmation
needs to evoke strong feelings within you. Repeat your affirmation often.
If necessary, recreate the affirmation over and over until you feel
comfortable saying it. It takes most people several weeks to generate
their first successful affirmation.
Here
are some suggestions to you get started:
• “I eat only when I am truly hungry.”
• “I am satisfied with moderate portions.”
• “I am stronger each day.”
• “I am full of energy and enjoy exercising every day.”
• “I give myself plenty of time to enjoy what I’m eating.”
• “I experience pleasure and reward from many different activities.”
• “I experience increased energy and vitality.”
• “I feel complete satisfaction with each bite.”
• “I eat when I’m hungry to fuel my body, and I stop
when I have had enough.”
Once you
have constructed an affirmation that is comfortable, write it several
times a day or record it on an audiotape so you can hear it often. The
more you reprogram your subconscious with a positive message, the sooner
your desire becomes your reality. When it does, add to it or create
a new one. IT WORKS! |
