Love Commandment 5: Think Positive | VLCD / TFR
We are mid-way through February, and it is quite fitting that we are also half way through our 10 New You Commandments to Love Your Body!
In her fifth instalment, Melissa discusses how thinking positively can change your whole life – and the number on the scales too: [article below]
Love Commandment 5: Think Positive
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, either way you are right” – Henry Ford.
I have been looking forward to writing this particular article immensely, as it is so close to my heart. Since I discovered how POWERFUL positive thinking can be, it has changed every aspect of my life – including my weight!
Now, don’t get me wrong: I am one heck of a cynical gal and when I was first told about all of this I dismissed it instantly as a bunch of New-Age, hippy bumph 😉
However, I figured that I would give it a go as it didn’t cost any money and it took up very little time… AND I AM SO GRATEFUL THAT I DID!
By using positive thinking I went from being a very depressed, morbidly obese girl with bleak career prospects and hardly any friends to what I am today: a happy HEALTHY woman with a career I ADORE and an active social life, filled with JOY EVERY DAY.
Yes, I do have some days when I’m stressed, or angry, or a little sad: but I’m still in love with my life and appreciate the highs and lows, and relish the challenges that are helping me to grow.
Anyway, enough about me! What is this Positive Thinking and HOW can you use it to help YOU?
WHAT IS POSITIVE THINKING?
Positive thinking is a little more than just being optimistic in general, but don’t worry – it is not complicated at all once you get your head around it. To better understand it in its entirety I recommend watching or reading The Secret as it clarifies and elaborates on this much more than I can in a short article 🙂
The main message that you need to understand Positive Thinking is this:
YOUR THOUGHTS CREATE YOUR WORLD!
If you feel good about your life and believe wholeheartedly that you can be, have, do, or experience what you CHOOSE for yourself then YOU WILL.
Sounds simple, right? But how do you go about this?
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
To fully and properly practice positive thinking, I have just three things for you to do that will assist you in selecting and receiving all you want from life, including succeeding on your VLCD / TFR diet and getting to a healthy BMI:
1) VISUALISATION
Visualisation is key to believing that what you want can and will happen. A big problem that I had when I was obese was that I couldn’t imagine myself ever fitting into a size ten dress – when the thought flitted across my mind I would push it away as RIDICULOUS! As I couldn’t see myself at that size, I was already defeated as I had labelled my goal as impossible.
One way to help yourself visualise is IMAGINATION, and we can utilise this by doing the following exercise:
I want you to imagine that you are in your bedroom. Picture yourself sitting on your bed, feel it beneath you and sink into it. Now stand up in your mind and walk over to your wardrobe. How does the handle feel – cold to the touch? Open your wardrobe and reach in, select the expensive fitted shirt hanging there. Grasp it with your hands and pull it towards you, and smell the scent of fresh linen. Look inside the collar, it says SIZE SMALL (or your goal size!)
Undo the buttons one by one, and put the shirt on… it buttons up so easily. Walk over to your nearest mirror and see yourself – IT FITS BEAUTIFULLY! Admire yourself from every angle – YOU LOOK GREAT!
This may seem a little silly, but for those that simply cannot imagine themselves at their goal weight this can be an effective way to bypass your inner critic.
Another way of keeping your dreams and goals in your mind’s eye is to create a vision board – and this is incredibly fun too! Find pictures from magazines, photos and words that truly illustrate what you want and use these to create a picture of what you want your life to be.
There is a little more to this, which I discovered at a workshop I recently attended at the Crescent Arts Centre with the amazing Caroline Dunne a week ago! Here is the Vision Board that I created:
I hope to be covering how to create one for yourself in greater detail with you in the upcoming months – watch this space! 😀
2) FEEL THE POWER
A very important aspect of utilising the power of positivity is EMOTION – and many people do not realise this! It is not enough to simply imagine what you would like to achieve – you need to FEEL as though you have already accomplished what you are aiming for. For example, in the exercise above you need to feel the JOY that you would experience when putting the shirt on, savour the HAPPINESS and PRIDE that you will be feeling and focus on these emotions.
When you pair imagination and emotion together it create a powerful force that will assist you greatly in receiving.
3) GRATITUDE
The final element of Positive Thinking is GRATITUDE. There are so many things in your life that you can be thankful for NOW, and by consciously doing so you will bring more and more things to be grateful for into your life!
Try writing down three things each day – or more if you can 🙂
In addition to this, gratitude is an integral part of harnessing the power of positive thinking in another way: state “I am thankful NOW THAT….” and feel the gratitude of achieving your dream RIGHT NOW.
This brings all of your goals from the future into your present, so that you can receive everything you have asked for.
I really hope that you have enjoyed today’s post, and THANK YOU for reading it! I would love to know if you would like a bespoke Vision Board workshop video in the future, and if any of the above struck a chord with you 🙂
Lots of love,
Melissa
