Focus On The Solution

The mind is a powerful thing and whatever you give your attention to, you will see in your life experience. Thoughts are things.  This is true about everything.  Your house, your car, your tv, a building, the Earth, even your children.  All of these things that exist in physical nature were thoughts in someone's mind before they were created.  You can't have something unless you think about what you want first, right?

You have to treat your new, slim and trim body like this as well.  View yourself not as it is, but as you want it to be.  You need to think of yourself as healthy, slim, trim, sexy, or whatever, even if you aren't that way now.  Viewing yourself in this way should provide some excitement, enthusiasm, hope and inspiration.  Then, the things that you do, the action that you take (eating right and exercising) will net you far better results than if you think otherwise.  See, most of us are great at identifying a problem, such as being overweight.  This usually motivates the majority of us into some sort of exercise routine or new diet.  The problem with that is that motivation is a negative mindset. (If you're new to the blog or need a refresher on what I'm talking about, click here).  Operating in a negative frame of mind never gets good results.  You can't continue to think about yourself in a negative way, and expect positive results.  You can't see yourself as fat, and expect to become thin.

One of the phrases repeated over and over again in the books by Jerry and Esther Hicks is "you get what you think about, whether you want it or not".  This is so true, and if you think about it a little bit, you will see as well.  So, the work to be done is to change your thoughts and focus only on that which you want.  "But, I always think about losing weight all the time and I'm not seeing any results", you might be saying to yourself.  But are you really?  Sure, you may want to lose weight, and you may think about it often.  But how many times is the word "but" part of your mental conversation?

"I want to lose weight but it's too hard."
"I want to be slimmer, but I don't have enough time to exercise."
"I want to be healthy but it's too hard."
"I really want to lose weight, but when it comes to exercise, I'm just too lazy!"

Does any of this sound even remotely familiar?  It should.  We're all guilty of it.  So, I'm here to tell you that you need to work on cutting out the second part of each of those sentences.  No ifs, ands, or buts (even though I only used "but" examples, you get the idea).  Now, its okay to identify and realize that you are, in fact, overweight or out of shape, but it has to stop there.  Once the problem is identified, you then put on your blinders and only focus on the solution.  Only focus on the end result.  Don't look back.  Then, you will see people, places, articles, concepts, foods, ideas, etc. come to you to help you with your goal of losing weight or getting in shape.  These things will come from places you could've never thought of in a million years.

This may be awkward to do at first.  To think of yourself as thin, when you can easily look in the mirror and see that your body is not the way you want it to be.  But just continue to imagine yourself the way you want to be.  One thing that may help is to take a piece of paper and make a list of every single positive aspect of yourself (mind, body, spirit) that you can think of, and then put this paper somewhere where you can easily reference it if you need a shot of inspiration.

Lots more where this came from.  Hope you liked it.

**The image in this post is from www.ineedmotivation.com (but we'll pretend it says www.ineedinspiration.com!)

Lady Loses 530 Pounds!!!

WITHOUT SURGERY OR RADICAL DIETS!  This is so good and I happened to be home to see it just at the right time!  Today, Good Morning America profiled Nancy Makin who, over the past few years, has lost over 500 lbs and kept it off.  How she did it PERFECTLY illustrates the concept of the philosophy that I believe in and will be sharing frequently on this blog.  That philosophy is Law of Attraction based.

One of the quotes that Makin said on the show was, "Food is not the enemy, it is the misuse of food".  That statement is the crux of my book and my beliefs about obesity.  You've seen me refer to it in past posts about people overeating or overindulging in the wrong foods.  It's absolutely true.  Makin lost her weight over a period of several years, and that is important to note.  Too many of us are too impatient, and because of that, go about things the wrong way.  As I discuss in detail in my book, you need to lose weight at a slow and steady pace if you want to keep it off.  There is a very prominent physiological reason for this!  But don't take it from me.  Take it from a lady who lost a quarter ton!

The way that Makin said she lost her weight was by developing relationships online, and getting happy first.  That is critical!  It really is the Law of Attraction in action.  It would be way too long to go into detail here, but I have several posts lined up that will explain what this means.  I think it will totally change the way you look at things and possibly introduce you to concepts that you've never heard.

The basic premise is that you get whatever it is that you are giving your attention to.  The fact that I even saw this story is an example in and of itself.  I haven't seen Good Morning America in years.  I am usually at work by 6 am.  On my days off, I sleep in way past the time that Good Morning America comes on.  What are the chances that on the day they ran this story, I happened to be off work and woke up naturally in time to see it?  The chances are really slim.  But it wasn't a coincidence.  The universe brought it to me because my thoughts were similar.  Ever since I started this blog and started writing my book and doing research on it, diet and weight loss is on my mind a lot, and so diet and weight loss related things seem to move into my experience more frequently.  In fact, several of my posts have been quick, pop-up posts where I was going to write about something else, but I came across something that I wanted to share immediately.  It sure takes the work out of having to come up with ideas all the time.

Anyway, click here if you want to read her story.  She credits her weight loss success to making friends online where she had a support group and felt inspired.  Because she was inspired, the action that she took (eating right) netted her far better results than if she were to do the exact same thing while feeling sad or depressed.  That's what I want to achieve for people with this blog, because everyone deserves to feel good!  If this story isn't inspiring, then I don't know what is!

Are You Motivated or Inspired?

Eating right and physical activity are 2 things that are absolutely essential to your health.  You know that.  By the way, you'll always hear me using the term "physical activity" as opposed to "exercise" or "work out" because I think the latter two phrases are associated with the gym, long, grueling routines, etc, and none of that is required to have the body you want.  Physical activity can be anything from jogging to playing basketball to yoga to swimming.  I like going to the gym, but we're all different.  The point is to burn some extra calories and get your heart pumping a bit.  However, I believe that eating right and physical activity are really only about 14% of the effort to be healthy and fit.  There is a much larger phenomenon that can be put to use to achieve your wellness goals, and it has to do with your mind.

Over the course of this blog, in addition to all of the biological and physiological info I'll be sharing, I hope to share many techniques that I have come to know to help you "think" better.  I'll start with motivation and inspiration.  What is the difference?

Well, you can see from the name of this blog which one I think is the better path to wellness.  The information I am about to share I came across by reading books by Jerry and Esther Hicks.  Their philosophy is based on the Law of Attraction which basically states "that which is like unto itself, is drawn".  Simple.  Thoughts or things that are alike, attract one another.  Birds of a feather flock together.  You get the idea.

So why should you be inspired as opposed to motivated?  Well, you may not know it because you probably never thought about it, but motivation is actually a negative mindset.  When you are motivated to do something, you are operating from a feeling of lack.  A lack of something you want.  Think about that for a second.  If you have a huge project at work that you don't want to do, you usually try to motivate yourself to do it because you would rather be at the beach.  If you want to lose weight and are frustrated at not seeing results, you usually try to motivate yourself to go to the gym because you want a better body.  However, if you are operating from the negative frame of mind, you can do all the exercises in the world, eat all the right foods and do everything you've been told to do, but you will see very little result.  In other words, you can't feel fat and attract thin.  You can't feel sick and attract health. You can't think negative thoughts and attract positive results.

On the other hand, if you are inspired, then you are operating in a positive frame of mind.  When you are inspired, you have a goal, you want it and you expect it, and there are no thoughts in your mind telling you that you can't have it.  If you want to be a singer, you are inspired into action every time you see your idol.  If you come into contact with someone who is wildly successful, the mere thought of having that success too can really inspire you.  When you are inspired into action, you will see a much larger result than if you were motivated into action, according to the philosophy of Jerry and Esther Hicks.

You're work is to get inspired by changing the way you think.  This blog will include ways to do that, hopefully.  I've recently tried a few techniques and I can honestly say I have seen some pretty amazing results.  I try not to make by posts too long because I know you are busy, so other posts that continue the train of thought on this one will come later.  Besides, isn't a good writer supposed to leave his audience wanting more?  Evil, I know!

Anyway, this post serves to ignite the fire underneath your willpower to get the body you want and feel great.  Like everything else, it's easier said than done.  Hey, I'm no expert yet.  There are still many goals I am working towards, and I have my blinders on.  The point is that you can't think of something you want, but then also think of reasons why you can't or don't have it.  The problem is that it's so damn easy for those negative thoughts to get into your mind!

You've obviously been thinking about losing weight or getting healthy which attracted you to this blog.  In the meantime, swing by www.abraham-hicks.com to check out Jerry and Esther's website.  They have a lot of positive quotes and good info there.