This is a transcription of Episode 25 of the LinnFit coaching Podcast. If you want to listen to it you can find it on Spotify by searching for LinnFit coaching Podcast, or on the Youtube channel here: Ep. 25 - The Power Of Your Mind.
Welcome to the LinnFit coaching podcast where we take some of the most important Lifestyle, Nutrition, and Exercise related topics and make them practical for you, so that you can take control of your path in your own fitness and health journey.
Hey Guys welcome to the LinnFit Coaching Podcast! Today I’m talking about a really interesting topic and that is the Power of your mind. Not just about the way you can think or what your brain can do, but also related to our emotions. Your mind has so much power to control everything you do, from your behaviors to choices and decisions. It’s a fascinating topic because our mind has the power to learn things. We can learn new skills, we can develop new habits, we can store information, and we have the power to feel. It’s just crazy how it’s all this intertwined thing, and our mind is always in constant communication with our body. It’s physically getting feedback from our environment and things that we do, it’s this really reactive organ so that we can always be taking things in and react to them in such a way to protect ourselves, keep ourselves secure and in homeostasis. Our bodies love homeostasis, it’s this normal that our body likes to keep.
Whenever our body creates a new habit, or new skill, initially you have to focus on it, and you have to practice it, you have to put a lot of thought into it about how you’re going to do it and do it well. But, overtime it becomes such a part of you that you may not even realize that you’re doing it anymore. This can be true for good skills and bad skills, good habits and bad habits. It’s crazy how the power of our mind can be something that empowers us to be able to do the things that we want to do and be the person that we want to be but also can be something that holds us back. Sometimes the biggest thing that’s holding you back is that you are not aware of what has become a habit.
For example I’ve had a lot of clients come to me who say, “I eat relatively healthy, I eat pretty healthy already. But I wanted to come to you to ask for some of your help for some tips on how I can do better, and how I can lose weight.” That in itself is your mind telling you that you eat relatively healthy, but if you look at your entire life, if you observe what you are eating, the body that you have, or the life that you have, the way that you feel, is there a disconnect there? Because our mind is a powerful thing, it's able to tell us something but maybe it's a lie. We may not know it’s a lie. So we might need some outside help to understand ourselves more clearly. Maybe when we tell ourselves something after a while we believe that it is true. So maybe you have been eating relatively healthy, but it’s not leading you to the body, lifestyle, or physical feeling that you want. Our mind is something that we have to address along the way.
I wanted to say that I am not a total expert on the mind, I’m not a doctor in Psychology. There are definitely lots of people who could talk over me on this, and go much more in depth and probably use big words that might not be a part of our normal vocabulary. But, I do want to say right now that for you to reach the body that you want to create the habits that you want, to be consistently healthy all the way into old age or competitive in sport now, so much of it has to do with our mind. Working on your mindset working on the way that you deal with stress, challenges, or setbacks is going to be a huge part for you to become who you want to be. Working on your mindset can help you actually free yourself to be able to notice and name, and observe what is going on in your life and how it's affecting you. To observe how you react to things, how you emotionally deal with things it’s all interconnected. It’s super important to be able to be connected to someone who is willing to tell you the truth, the cold hard truth. It’s important to have a team of people around you of personal friends, family, people who support you and you trust, who will help you along the way.
Sometimes you may need a professional to step in and say “Hey I want to help you, this is what I do. I’m an expert in this and I’m going to help you notice what is going on, name the difficulties, and take some next steps, some actions steps to get you past that.” Professionals can help create a new you, to help create a new relationship with food or exercise or any other health or lifestyle related factor that’s holding you back from being who you want to be. These are some of the reasons why the mind is such a powerful thing.
I want to encourage you today to take a minute to think of your mindset. How are you approaching life right now? Are you approaching it in a reactive way? Are you just reacting to situations as they come and not noticing your patterns that are limiting you to where you are right now?
For example, are you overweight? Are you not exactly sure why you’re overweight? Maybe you keep trying certain things but you're not sure if you are getting to the root of it. Are you reacting to certain things, and coping with food? Is that your emotional way to cope, to numb out or avoid certain things by getting a little bit of a high off tasty food that you eat?
Are you seizing control of your diet so much that you’re counting calories, that you are getting nit picky about what foods you eat? You’re just this health freak, and maybe you have an unhealthy relationship with food because you’re super restrictive and that’s causing your body to respond in a way that could be positive or negative. Does this make you socially awkward? Are you completely unaware of what’s brought you to this point now?
Are you skinny and you’re trying to put on weight and you don’t understand why you can’t? Is there a mental barrier? Are there habits that you’re not aware of? How much do you actually eat, and are you eating healthy foods that can actually help you put on mass?
These are all things that start in your mind, starts with your mindset, and starts with you. That’s why it's really important to deal with the mind. The mind and your mindset and dealing with challenges by taking it one step at a time, will help you become who you want to be.
It’s not about this picture of perfection, we all want to be perfect but ask yourself “what is my definition of perfection?” Is that realistic? Is it a media generated idea and something that is not realistic? A lot of things that you may see in the media today are computer generated and it’s not even realistic for the most genetically gifted person. Even their bodies are modified by computers to make them look better on camera. So is your picture of perfection attainable for you, is it reachable?
What’s something that could help you get 1% better today? What are some little things that you can do to get the social support that you need to deal with your past, deal with your emotions, or deal with those patterns and connections that you’ve created in your mind and in your routine? How can you get out of your routine on purpose, just a little bit at a time, to help yourself become more aware? So that you can notice, you can observe, you can name things that are holding you back and name things that are great that you want to keep doing. You can keep building on these things in the future to help remake yourself.
This is a little taste on the power of your mind, and how a changed mindset, and changed psychology, involves dealing with your emotions, focusing on getting little wins at one time and empowering your mind with confidence to take one step at a time and get 1% better each day. I enjoyed talking about the mind and the power of the mind today. We’ll definitely dive deeper into this and more specific topics in the future on the LinnFit Coaching podcast. Thanks for tuning in today and we’ll catch you on the next one.