Your health is a reflection of your current beliefs. If you can change your mind, you can change your health. Does that sound a little too woo-woo for you? Before you head off in pursuit of a resolution to improve your health, ensure your success by re-programming your mind first.
What is The Law of Attraction
Michael Losier, in his book Law of Attraction, defines the Law of Attraction as: “I attract to my life whatever I give my attention, energy, and focus to, whether positive or negative.” That’s really not so mystical. Think of areas of your life to which you devote a great deal of attention and energy. How are things going in those areas? Probably pretty well.
What about your negative energy? Can you see how you are attracting things you don’t like and don’t want? That’s not quite as intuitive. Let’s say you’d really like to eat healthier. What thoughts do you replay in your head about this desire? Would they sound something like; “My problem is I eat too much”, or “I don’t like being overweight”, or “I hate it when my clothes don’t fit”. These thoughts all focus on what you don’t want. Repeating thoughts like these gives importance to what you don’t want and, as we’ll see, your mind seeks out what you consider important.
How Your Mind Operates as a Self-Fulfilling Mechanism
Our senses are capable of sending billions of bits of information to our brains every second. Without a filtering system our brain would quickly become overloaded. Our brain uses a complex set of nerves known as the reticular activating system (RAS) to filter these myriad incoming signals. The RAS’s priority is to let through signals which are important to survival. New and novel stimulus, stimulus with previously strong emotional content, and stimulus of high relevance are immediately passed through for processing.
When our daughters were young I was always amazed how my wife could awaken instantly from a sound sleep if either daughter made the slightest sound. Here is the RAS at work. It takes no notice of a dog barking outside, a house creaking, or a husband snoring, but instantly passes through to the brain the sound of an infant’s whimper.
It’s critical to understand this mechanism is operating at a sub-conscious level. Goal setting doesn’t work here. My wife didn’t wake up because she set a goal to. The conscious mind has an attention span measured in only seconds. Your subconscious mind, however, never loses focus, ever. It has to regulate every function in your body; respiration, heart rate, temperature, metabolism, etc. It does all this while simultaneous monitoring all sensory inputs.
Once the sub-conscious has been programmed with what is important, it independently operates to achieve the desired result.
Re-programming Your Mind for Health
The RAS has been compared to a Google search. You type in a search string and, from the millions of possible links to data, Google selects just the information relevant to your inquiry. In the same way your mind is constantly scanning the environment for what is relevant for you. When you have imprinted in your mind exactly what you want, in emotionally rich definition, supported by affirmations that feel good, you will have set your mind and body on auto-pilot to achieve exactly what you want.
Using a Vision Board
A vision board is a simple and powerful tool for re-programming your mind for success.
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| Vision Board |
You can create a Vision Board by clipping images and words from magazines or you can use your computer and a word processor, spreadsheet, or graphics program. Cut and paste images, add affirmations, and your done. To be effective it is critical that you follow these guidelines;
- Imprinting – Your brain has the ability to form new neural pathways throughout your entire life. These pathways are created by repeated thoughts. Once you create your Vision Board you need to view it at least once a day and preferably multiple times per day. The more the better. If you meditate or have a relaxation program, view the Vision Board after you are deeply relaxed as your brain is more receptive at these times.
- Exactly What You Want – Your images and affirmation must be exactly what you want. Make sure they are NOT what you don’t want. Your RAS doesn’t register “want” and “don’t want”, it registers what you focus on. Spend some time on developing a very specific goal.
- Emotionally Rich – Use images in your Vision Board that elicit a positive emotional response. When you look at the images they should make you feel good. If you look at the image and think, “that looks great but I’ll never achieve that”, then it’s the wrong image. If you look at it and think “I love that image”, you’ve got the right picture. Remember the RAS gives importance to emotionally charged stimulus. My images included activities I enjoy participating in.
- Affirmations that Feel Good – This is critically important and not building it into your affirmations makes them unlikely to work. Notice in my Vision Board I don’t say “I’m IN the best shape of my life”, rather I say “I’m GETTING into the best shape of my life”. At the time I created the Vision Board I was not in very good shape. Saying “I’m in the best shape of my life” would have been untrue and in my gut would not have made me feel good. How the affirmations make you feel is critical to developing a strong neural pathway! Also at the time I created the Vision Board I had read enough nutrition books to know the body truly craves nutrient rich food. I wasn’t eating that way, but I believed it to be true so the affirmation had a positive emotional content. Helpful phrasing from Michael Losier’s book includes using; “I’m in the process of”, “I love the idea of”, “It excites me to think of”. Can you feel the different emotional content of these phrases versus “I am” when it’s not true?
Another brilliant book on the topic is The Answer , by John Assaraf & Murray Smith
Your mind is an incredibly powerful tool. You have the power to direct it to help you achieve whatever you desire. Make a powerful vision board and start attracting the health you deserve!
This post is part of Fight Back Friday, Monday Mania, and Real Food Wednesday.
This post is part of Fight Back Friday, Monday Mania, and Real Food Wednesday.
Written by Peter Wright
Nutritional Therapy and GAPS Diet Practioner at Healing Center of Maine
I’m on a mission to help you prevent and reverse chronic illness by utilizing nutrition to restore your body’s natural balance.
Contact me directly for a free 30 minute consultation.
Contact me directly for a free 30 minute consultation.
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