What's been lacking on today's emphasis on health and fitness is how the mind comes into play.
What we believe about ourselves leads to the kind of behavior which ultimately leads to the action we will likely take.
That includes whether we exercise and what kinds of foods we eat.
Emotional eating is a big component of what drives many people to take unhealthful eating habits.
The emotions that led to the eating habits may have developed from one source or many.
Whatever the reason, those emotions have to be addressed before any healthy eating habit can be developed.
Albert Ellis, the founder of Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), described that many of the emotions that lead to eating disorders are actually irrational behaviors.
The relationship that many people have with food does have its roots in irrational behavior.
Dr.
Bruce Lipton in his book, Biology of Belief, described how our genes can be turned on or off simply by our thoughts (and other external sources).
The science that describes this is known as epigenetics.
It's kind of like a traffic light that control which genes get turned on or which ones get turned off.
By using your own mind power, you can change how you deal with fitness and your health as well affecting your genes.
So what are some of the strategies and techniques that you can do now that will help to change your beliefs? First and foremost, understanding that thoughts that are described as neurotic are irrational.
From that perspective, the use of strategies from REBT, Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), and even hypnosis can help you to get fit and healthy.
The next thing to do is to take immediate action towards what you want.
REBT, created by Albert Ellis, is known as the first form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
It focuses from the perspective that a person that has an emotional problem and that it stems from irrational thinking.
From that it takes rational thinking that leads to rational acting to help make changes.
The final step is to push oneself to take the necessary action steps towards change.
NLP can be described as the learning and modeling of excellence.
In a sense, it's about finding out how others that do things that they are excellent at and then modeling those same behaviors as your own.
In the case of getting healthy and fit - model yourself after people who have those qualities.
That includes their strategies and thoughts.
In both REBT and NLP, language plays a key in affecting behavior.
Self-defeating words such as "try" will not get you to where you want to go.
On the other hand, words such as "will" and "do" are more action-oriented towards our desired goals.
So saying "I will accomplish what I want" is more powerful than "I'll try to accomplish it.
" Hypnosis has shown to be successful in many people who want to lose weight and to get healthy.
By changing our subconscious thoughts, it's possible to change our behavior.
Hypnosis uses a number of different techniques and strategies to make those changes.
In fact, hypnosis is something we experience on a regular basis.
If you've ever driven on the freeway and wondered how you got from Point A to Point B without even remembering how you got there - that's known as "Freeway Hypnosis.
" Our subconscious mind was doing most of the driving.
Sure we had to be consciously aware of certain situations - just not how to drive.
Later I'll write more in-depth articles on each area mentioned above.
Look into each one on your own to find out what works best for you, okay? I wish you a lot of success as you take that journey down the road to being fit and healthy.