I talked about this powerful secret
to achieving almost anything you desire in life a few months back, but
just today, my friend Tom Venuto sent an email and did an amazing job
explaining the exact methods on how to use this secret to successfully
attain your goals... whether these goals pertain to your dream body or
anything else for that matter.
Tom's incredible article is below.
For those of you that don't know of Tom yet, he's the author of one of
the most popular fitness ebooks in the history of the internet - Burn
the Fat, Feed the Muscle.
Metaphysics & Brain
science merge and prove that positive thinking and goal setting
literally create your body and your entire life experience by Tom Venuto
Last week on a special edition
of CNN's Larry King Live, Mr. King interviewed a panel of "mind experts"
about how the thoughts you think literally turn into the events you
experience, the material things you possess... AND even the health of
your body.
For years, "positive thinking" and
goal-setting were often criticized as "pollyanna" and "the law of
attraction" was relegated into the category of "new age" fluff
On last week's show, panel experts
Bob Proctor, John Assaraf and others who were featured in the movie 'The
Secret' explained that recent breakthroughs in neuroscience along with
understanding mental laws, reveals why goal setting, the "law of
attraction" and "positive thinking" all work, regardless of whether you
look at them from a metaphysical or a scientific perspective.
Scientists have even identified
specific parts of the brain, such as the reticular activating system
(RAS), which works with the visual parts of our brain to call our
conscious attention to things that are important to reaching our goals
and to filter out those things that are unimportant.
The RAS is activated by
"programming" goals into our sub-conscious minds.
Our sub concscious
mind is the "power center" and THIS is the mechanism that explains why
goal setting and positive thinking are now being accepted as scientific
methods for change.
We are discovering that our brain
is cybernetic in nature, which means that it is literally like a
computer, waiting for a program to be installed.
Here's the kicker - the subconcsious is completely neutral and impartial - it will carry out any instructions you give it.
Unfortunately, many of us are still
running negative programs we picked up from others as children when our
non-conscious minds were totally open and impressionable, or which we
developed over the years as a result of repetition of our own negative
thinking.
As it turns out, our own thoughts,
repeated daily, are one of the primary ways that our "mental computer"
is programmed on a sub-conscious level, which is the level of beliefs,
habits and automatic behavior.
To change your results, you must
overwrite old negative programming and install positive new programming
into your subconscious.
This can be achived through such
techniques as written goal setting, positive self-talk (affirmations),
and mental imagery (visualization).
In the 1970's, the Soviets and East
Germans were the first to formally use structured mental rehearsal, and
at that time, they dominated in several olympic sports.
Today,
virtually all elite athletes use visualization extensively, as we now
know that the brain cannot differentiate between real practice and
practice that is vividly imagined.
If you are getting more of the same
negative results in your life - such as the same health problems, or
the same body fat continues to return even after you lose it, then you
have probably been un-consciously running old negative programs and
re-inforcing them with negative thought patterns.
You can begin the positive mental
reprogramming process by writing down your goals, changing your internal
dialogue and taking a few minutes to relax, quiet your mind and perform
a session of visualization or mental rehearsal every day (seeing
yourself in your "mind's eye" not as you currently are, but as you
ideally would like to be).
These methods, repeated often
enough, will begin to program the non-conscious portion of the mind,
which is the same part of the mind that controls your heart beat,
digestion and new cell production, all on "automatic pilot."
In the last decade, neuroscientists
discovered that you have the capacity to create an almost infinite
number of new neural connections in your brain when you run new thought
patterns.
The Old neural pathways are like
grooves in a record, and if you are struggling with your health related
behaviors or behaviors in any other area of your life, you have been
playing the "old records" over and over again.
If you were to carve a new groove
into that record, it would never play the same way again. the old
pattern would weaken and the new one would take over.
Brand new,
positive thoughts, feelings and images begin to create new neural
patterns.
Psychologists estimate that it
takes 21 to 30 days to establish a new pattern in your brain. During
this time, the focus on sticking with your practice and repeating your
new thought patterns is critical.
Is this easy? For most people, no
it's not. In fact, controlling your thinking and keeping it constructive
may be one of the most difficult challenges you have ever faced.
Fortunately, writing goals and reading affirmations can help get you
started.
You can take some of the pressure
off yourself by simply accepting that negative thoughts and self
criticisms will pop up from time to time. Just observe them, without
mulling over them or adding to them, and change the polarity of the
thought by quickly repeating one of your positive affirmations or by
changing your mental pictures.
So is there something to this whole "positive thinking" thing?
The philosophers and theologians
have been saying yes for the entire span of recorded history: "As you
think, so shall you be." Variations on this proverb can be found in
every spiritual and philosophical tradition.
But... if you are the left-brained,
"prove-it-to-me" type, you dont have to go on faith anymore. Scientists
are beginning to prove more and more convincingly that thoughts are
powerful things. Even Larry King seemed impressed with what his panel of
"mind mentors" had to say.
In fact, I just found out that Larry will be
airing part two of this "Power of positive thinking" show next week.
So how soon are you going to begin
your mental training right alongside your physical training? When are
you going to learn how to harness this power locked up inside your mind?
Guess what? You're already using
this force every day because you cannot turn it off. Whatever you are
thinking and picturing in your mind repeatedly on a daily basis is on
it's way to you already, so it's simply a matter of HOW you are using
it, not IF you are using it.
What do you say to yourself every
day? Do you say, "I am becoming leaner, healthier and more muscular
every day?"... or do you say "I am a fat person - Ive tried everything,
nothing ever works?"
The fact is - you can think
yourself thin and healthy or you can think yourself obese and ill. Maybe
not in the literal sense...but most certainly as the critical part in
the chain of causation...
You see, there's a lot of talk
these days in the personal improvement world about law of attraction,
manifesting, intention, visualization and of course, positive thinking
Without understanding that there is
an orderly, scientific basis underneath all of this, many people will
simply remain skeptics, while on the opposite extreme, others may get
the idea that you can sit around meditating and visualizing, then expect
a mystical "law of attraction" to kick in and then "poof!" a great body
materializes out of thin air... along with the perfect relationship, a
nice bank account and career success.
What really happens is "Positive
thinking" and related methods quite literally re-program your brain,
which in turn creates new behaviors that move you physically toward
whatever you have been thinking about and focusing on.
So success is achieved through
positive thinking + positive doing... attraction + action. There are two
sides to the coin. Without paying attention to both, you may continue
to struggle... often against nothing but yourself.
If you want to transform your body
or any other aspect of your life, then you have to change on the inside
(the mind) first and then everything else will follow.
Train hard and expect success,
Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Author, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle
PS This process of *scientific*
goal setting and mental reconditioning through emotionally charged
mental imagery (visualization) and internal mental dialogue
(affirmations) is the very first thing I have always taught my clients
and the first thing I wrote about in my book, Burn The Fat, Feed The
Muscle You can learn all of these techniques in detail in chapter 1.
Learn more about the psychology of body transormation inside the Burn
The Fat ebook:
Thank you Tom for your insights and sharing this enlightening article. I couldn't have said it all better myself. I think the most important point to take from all of this is that no matter what your goals, dreams, and aspirations are in life, everything starts first with your mindset. Nothing is achieved without first attaining the proper mindset for success. Hopefully this article has given you motivation to take action with your weight loss or whatever your fitness goals may be, as well as other areas of your life that you would like to get a handle on.
If you enjoyed this motivational subject today, please feel free to email this link to any of your friends, family, or coworkers who would enjoy it.
Hope you're having a great day!
Ally Goldsmith
www.losebellyfatforlife.com
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