By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
--------------------------------------------------
Metaphysics & Brain science merge and prove that
positive thinking and goal setting literally
create your body and your entire life experience
---------------------------------------------------
On recently broadcast special edition of CNN's Larry King Live,
Mr. King interviewed a panel of "mind experts" about how the
thoughts you think literally turn into the events you
experience, the material things you possess... AND even
the health of your body.
For years, "positive thinking" and goal-setting were
often criticized as "pollyanna" and "the law of attraction"
was relegated into the category of "new age" fluff.
On the recent Larry King show, panel experts Bob Proctor, John Assaraf
and others who were featured in the movie 'The Secret' explained
that recent breakthroughs in neuroscience along with understanding
mental laws, reveal why goal setting, the "law of attraction" and
"positive thinking" all work, regardless of whether you look
at them from a metaphysical or a scientific perspective.
Scientists have even identified specific parts of the brain,
such as the reticular activating system (RAS), which works
with the visual parts of our brain to call our conscious
attention to things that are important to reaching our goals and
to filter out those things that are unimportant.
The RAS is activated by "programming" goals into our sub-conscious
minds. Our sub concscious mind is the "power center" and THIS is
the mechanism that explains why goal setting and positive thinking
are now being accepted as scientific methods for change.
We are discovering that our brain is cybernetic in nature, which
means that it is literally like a computer, waiting for a program
to be installed.
Here's the kicker - the subconcsious is completely neutral and
impartial - it will carry out any instructions you give it.
Unfortunately, many of us are still running negative programs we picked up
from others as children when our non-conscious minds were totally
open and impressionable, or which we developed over the years as
a result of repetition of our own negative thinking.
As it turns out, our own thoughts, repeated daily, are one of the
primary ways that our "mental computer" is programmed on a sub-conscious
level, which is the level of beliefs, habits and automatic behavior.
To change your results, you must overwrite old negative programming
and install positive new programming into your subconscious.
This can be achived through such techniques as written goal setting,
positive self-talk (affirmations), and mental imagery (visualization).
In the 1970's, the Soviets and East Germans were the first to formally
use structured mental rehearsal, and at that time, they dominated in several
olympic sports. This was reported in great detail in Charles Garfield's
landmark book, "Peak Performance." Today, virtually all elite athletes use
visualization extensively, as we now know that the brain cannot differentiate
between real practice and practice that is vividly imagined.
If you are getting more of the same negative results in your life - such as
the same health problems, or the same body fat continues to return even
after you lose it, then you have probably been un-consciously running old
negative programs and re-inforcing them with negative thought patterns.
You can begin the positive mental reprogramming process by writing down
your goals, changing your internal dialogue and taking a few minutes
to relax, quiet your mind and perform a session of visualization or
mental rehearsal every day (seeing yourself in your "mind's eye" not
as you currently are, but as you ideally would like to be).
These methods, repeated often enough, will begin to program the non-
conscious portion of the mind, which is the same part of the mind that
controls your heart beat, digestion and new cell production, all on
"automatic pilot."
In the last decade, neuroscientists discovered that you have the capacity to
create an almost infinite number of new neural connections in your brain
when you run new thought patterns.
The Old neural pathways are like grooves in a record, and if you are
struggling with your health related behaviors or behaviors in any other
area of your life, you have been playing the "old records" over and over again.
If you were to carve a new groove into that record, it would never play the
same way again. the old pattern would weaken and the new one would take over.
Brand new, positive thoughts, feelings and images begin to create new
neural patterns.
Psychologists estimate that it takes 21 to 30 days to establish a new
pattern in your brain. During this time, the focus on sticking with
your practice and repeating your new thought patterns is critical.
Is this easy? For most people, no it's not. In fact, controlling your
thinking and keeping it constructive may be one of the most difficult
challenges you have ever faced. Fortunately, writing goals and reading
affirmations can help get you started.
You can take some of the pressure off yourself by simply accepting that negative
thoughts and self criticisms will pop up from time to time. Just observe
them, without mulling over them or adding to them, and change the polarity
of the thought by quickly repeating one of your positive affirmations or
by changing your mental pictures.
So is there something to this whole "positive thinking" thing?
The philosophers and theologians have been saying yes for the entire span
of recorded history: "As you think, so shall you be." Variations on this
proverb can be found in every spiritual and philosophical tradition.
But... if you are the left-brained, "prove-it-to-me" type, you dont
have to go on faith anymore. Scientists are beginning to prove more
and more convincingly that thoughts are powerful things. Even Larry
King seemed impressed with what his panel of "mind mentors" had to say.
So how soon are you going to begin your mental training right alongside your
physical training? When are you going to learn how to harness this power
locked up inside your mind?
Guess what? You're already using this force every day because you cannot
turn it off. Whatever you are thinking and picturing in your mind repeatedly
on a daily basis is already on it's way to you, so it's simply a matter
of HOW you are using it, not IF you are using it.
What do you say to yourself every day? Do you say, "I am becoming leaner,
healthier and more muscular every day?"... or do you say "I am a fat person -
Ive tried everything, nothing ever works?"
The fact is - you can think yourself thin and healthy or you can think
yourself obese and ill. Maybe not in the literal sense...but most certainly
as the critical part in the chain of causation...
You see, there's a lot of talk these days in the personal improvement world
about law of attraction, manifesting, intention, visualization, affirmations and
of course, positive thinking.
Without understanding that there is an orderly, scientific basis underneath
all of these things, many people will simply remain skeptics, while on the opposite
extreme, others may get the idea that you can sit around meditating and
visualizing, then expect a mystical "law of attraction" to kick in and then
"poof!" a great body materializes out of thin air... along with the perfect
relationship, a nice bank account and fantastic career success.
What really happens is "Positive thinking" and related methods quite literally
re-program your brain, which in turn creates new behaviors that move you
physically toward whatever you have been thinking about and focusing on.
So success is achieved through positive thinking + positive doing....
attraction + action. There are two sides to the coin. Without paying
attention to both, you may continue to struggle... often against nothing
but yourself.
If you want to transform your body or any other aspect of your life, then
you have to change on the inside (the mind) first and then everything else
will follow.
This process of *scientific* goal setting and mental reconditioning
through emotionally charged mental imagery (visualization) and internal mental
dialogue (affirmations) is the very first thing I have always taught my clients
and the first thing I wrote about in my book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle
You can learn all of these techniques in detail in chapter 1. Learn more
about the psychology of body transormation inside the Burn The Fat ebook:
www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder and author of the #1 best
selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how
to burn fat without drugs or supplements using the little-known secrets
of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get
rid of stubborn fat and turbo-charge your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com.
