Your body is a temple, but only if you treat it as one. ~Astrid Alauda
These days I exercise regularly to keep healthy. What started out, as vanity is now self-preservation as I advance in age. But I remember years ago when I was overweight and out of shape. At the time I was quite busy with my family and career. I did not believe I had the time to exercise.
I remember the day I decided to make a change to a healthier me. One morning I got a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror and was disappointed with what I saw. Just a week prior at a doctor’s appointment, I had learned the dangers of being overweight. It was these two factors that propelled me to make a commitment to reshape my body. Because of my past experiences with weight loss I knew that diet and exercise were only the beginning. Real change occurred when I made a commitment to a new way of living day to day.
Talking to others who struggled with weight, I could see that many times their excuses were a false belief that kept them in habits they felt powerless to change. Like me in the past, they had countless reasons why they remained unhealthy. Are you happy with your body? Do you feel tired all the time? Do you want to get more energy to enjoy life? Are the beliefs you have stopping you from creating the necessary change to a better healthier you?
If you want to make changes sometimes simply recognizing the limiting beliefs take away the mental obstacles and allow you to see how you can attain results. Whatever you believe about yourself (‘I am fat’, ‘I am lazy’, ‘I can’t lose weight’, ‘It is just the way I am’), will make your mind create plenty of evidence to support that belief.
A simple way to start reshaping limiting beliefs is to start reprogramming your negative beliefs by regularly affirming how you want to look and feel. Change your thinking patterns by repeating more positive, present-centered beliefs about your body like, ‘I am radiant and healthy’, I have the power to reshape my body’, I can make time to exercise’. You may feel a bit odd repeating these statements at first but over time you will discover that you start creating evidence to support these ideas. You will start to find time to exercise, your eating will migrate to better foods for your body, and your thoughts will become more conscious of what you think about your body. Changing your body starts with changing the beliefs you have about how you can accomplish radiant health in your busy lifestyle.
Right now do this exercise to help you check your body beliefs
* Take out a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle
* On one side write all the negative beliefs you have about your body
* Keep it in simple sentences, such as ‘I am fat’ or ‘I have no time’. Seeing them written out makes your mind see how you think about yourself.
* On the other write the positive aspects of those beliefs, such as, ‘I am in great shape’, ‘I have 30 minutes today to workout’.
* Underline the positive statement and go back and put a line through the negative ones.
Now read your positive statements again.
* For the next ten days, read your positive statements. Now you are on your way to reshaping your body belief. Take action and live with joy.
