Change Your Life By Changing Your Thoughts

Personal Training is a balance of tough love and compassion. People come to me to make changes to their physical bodies but what often ends up happening is a transformation of the mind.

"If you tell yourself that you can't....you won't!"  I find myself saying this quite often in my group classes as well as in my private sessions. Attitude really is everything. It is my job to give clients the tools and knowledge to execute the exercise but if they have already decided that they are going to fail, they will.

Ask yourself if you are actually sabotaging your own efforts to change your circumstances. I see this in all areas of my teaching. Sometimes when faced with a new challenge we revert back the 'stories' that we tell ourselves. "Oh I cannot do that. I have never been able to do that exercise. I cannot change."

Yesterday we were working on balance challenges as we prepare for slippery winter conditions. I want to make sure that my clients are steady on their feet and part of the way that I do this is to put them in a safe situation that demands the recruitment of their stabilizing muscles.

Once I cue how to stay steady, most of the class will execute the moves perfectly. I can then see the students who are laughing or growing increasingly frustrated as they fall back into their old patterns of thought. I can literally see their thoughts on their faces.  Their whole appearance changes. They are exhibiting signs of self doubt.

So how do we break these self sabotaging thought patterns?  Lets face it, being miserable is just that...miserable. Life is hard. There is so much to be sad about when we listen to the news and we think or add up all of the things that are wrong about our bodies and our lives. In this state, we reach for comfort foods or other self soothing aids.  Before we realize it, we are unhealthy and at risk for serious illness.

Whenever I want to make a change in my thought patterns, I create little rhymes or mantras that I repeat to myself.  No one has to know you are doing this but it will help to snap you out of your pattern.

I have written about 5 mantras up to this point. I started in 2010 when my life was most challenging. I saw how it pulled me through tough times and now I create new ones whenever I feel the need to prop myself up.

You will change your life by changing your thoughts.

Have a wonderful day everyone.

Beth