Weight Loss And The Power Of Affirmations
All thought is creative. What have you created lately?
Note: This article is an excerpt from Catherine L. Taylor's new ebook The Power Of Affirmations - Reshaping Your Mind, Body And Destiny One Thought At A Time.
Affirmations are powerful tools for weight loss, and any other goal you would like to achieve in life. Affirmations are short, positive statements about something that you would like to attract or manifest. The word affirm means to “make firm.”
Your mind works like a powerful computer. Affirmations work like software programs to help reprogram the subconscious mind. Affirmations harness the power of your mind to bring about what you want to create. Affirmations help focus your attention on your goals and help to keep you on track. Using affirmations will make your weight loss goals a reality.
What you put your attention on grows. The law of attraction states that you attract to you what you think and feel most about. Your mind is like a powerful magnet attracting to you people and events that energetically match the content or vibration of your thoughts and feelings.
Everything in the universe is made up of energy. Thoughts too are a form of energy. You have probably heard the term “Thoughts are things.” I’m sure you have had the experience of being brought down by the negative vibes of a person, or you have found yourself depressed by your own gloomy thoughts.
All thought is creative. You can use your mind to create good with the use of positive thought, or you can use your mind to destroy by focusing on negative thoughts. Our bodies actually have a physical chemical reaction to the content of our thoughts. Negative thinking makes our bodies produce cortisol and other stress hormones, which make us store fat around our bellies.
Positive thinking has the power to unleash endorphins and other feel good chemicals throughout our body. Most of us have far more negative thoughts than positive ones. Yet, most of us go through our days unaware of the negative content of our minds. Then we wonder why we feel so badly.
If you are like most people, you probably focus more on what is missing in your life and on what you don’t want, rather than what you want to create. You focus on the problem, not on the solution.
Each of us is responsible for the content of our own minds. You have a choice as to the content of what you program your mind with. I like the saying “Garbage in, garbage out.” It reminds me to become more conscious of what I put into my mind. If I want to feel good and create positive actions and results in my life, I need to feed my mind a steady diet of positive thoughts.
You can use your emotions as a gauge as to the content of your thinking. How are you feeling? If your happy, and feeling great, you are thinking positive thoughts. Are you feeling irritable, angry or depressed? You can be certain you are thinking negatively.
When you are feeling badly try to remember what thoughts led up to feeling this way. Then reframe those thoughts in a more positive manner using affirmations. Anxiety and depression are nothing but loops of repetitive fearful and negative thoughts.
The field of positive psychology is a relatively new field of psychology. Its focus is on what is right with people instead of what’s wrong with them. There is a large body of evidence that shows that optimists (people who see the glass half full) live longer, healthier lives than people who are pessimists (people who see the glass half empty).
Pessimists are more prone to loneliness, colds, illness, suicide, depression, and even cancer. People shy away from negative people. Optimists attract others like bees to honey!
You will find evidence for whatever life view you hold. A pessimist is continually looking for what is missing or wrong in their life, and that is what they find. That’s why pessimist’s lives are filled with evidence that life is horrible. That’s where their focus is.
You get more of what you pay attention to. An optimist is looking for the good and the good is looking for the optimist. Your beliefs bring you more of the same. Life becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Many chronic dieters and people who are struggling with weight tend to be pessimists. It's hard to stay positive when you’re failing or starving on a diet. Dieting is a very negative act with its focus on lack and deprivation. I don't trust anything with the word die in it! Weight loss doesn't have to be such a struggle.
The good news is that it is possible to change your pessimistic, negative thinking. Affirmations are a form of positive self-talk. Using affirmations will change your negative thinking into positive thinking. With practice you will begin to automatically reframe your negative thoughts into positive, powerfully creative ones.
Affirmations create a powerful intent. Repeated often enough they will create a powerful shift in your reality. Most people do not use affirmations correctly and therefore have minimal success with them. They either choose ineffective wording that is not meaningful to them or they do not use affirmations long enough to effectively reprogram the mind. They give up on them too quickly.
When you begin to use affirmations for weight loss, or any other goal in life, it is important to choose an affirmation that matches your desires and emotions. It must feel right to you. If you weigh 250 lbs. and start to use an affirmation that says, “I now weigh 110 lbs,” it will feel like a lie to you. It’s just not realistic.
It is best to start with affirmations that are more realistic and achievable. A better one in this situation is “I’m getting thinner every day!” By making your affirmations more realistic they will become reality sooner. Break down your weight loss goals and affirmations in small, doable increments. You want to build success quickly as that will build the positive energy and momentum for more success!
When you begin to use affirmations for weight loss you may notice resistance coming up for you in a matter of days. This is to be expected. Most people give up at this time. This resistance is the analytical, critical side of your brain saying things like, "This is dumb." "This will never work." Or "You’ll never lose this weight, etc." This is also the voice of the saboteur inside of you. This is the part of you that does not want to change. It has a vested interest in keeping you fat.
When this resistance comes up use one of the following affirmations:
•I am willing to change.
•I can do this.
• I have the power to change my life.
•Yes, I can!
Repeat these 100 - 200 times a day until you feel less resistance. Remember, your weight has been serving you in some way. It has been filling a void or need in your life. Along with doing affirmations and visualizations, you must find out what that void or need is and find a healthier, positive way of filling it. If you do not, you will quickly lapse back into your old destructive behaviors. This is one of the main reasons why diets fail.
Affirmations are powerful to use when you are going into situations that cause you to overeat. If you’re at a restaurant or party where you are tempted by the food you can repeatedly say one of the following affirmations:
•I eat only what I need.
•I choose to eat healthy foods.
•I choose to stay on track.
•I am committed to my goals.
•I effortlessly stay on track.
•I eat foods that support my new weight.
•I eat like a thin person.
Repeating affirmations at these times will keep you focused and on track.
Using affirmations will help you to begin self-nurturing yourself. If you beat yourself up about your weight, or if you say negative things about your body, use affirmations instead. If when looking in the mirror you say things like, “You have such thunder thighs." "Look at that cellulite." "I hate my butt, stomach, body, etc.” Choose to say positive affirmations like this:
•Thank you for serving me.
•I am getting stronger and slimmer every day.
•I treat my body with love and kindness.
•My body is the temple of my spirit.
Every time you catch yourself speaking or thinking negatively turn it around to something positive. Negative thinking is just a bad habit. It will take some time but it can be turned around. I used to be a very pessimistic, negative thinker. It’s also the reason I suffered from depression. If a negative thinker like myself can become an optimist, anyone can!
Affirmations do take some work. That work will pay off for you. They are not a quick fix. They are however a powerful tool in your weight loss toolbox. Hopefully you have already come to the realization that all your efforts at dieting and the search for a magic bullet has not paid off. Think of this work as an investment in your thinner and inner life!
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