Did you know that the brain doesn’t know the difference between what it sees through the lens of our eyes and mental visualisation? Yep, brain studies show that thoughts produce the same mental instructions as actions. Mental practices can enhance motivation, increase confidence, improve performance, break and make habits and even help you lose weight – all relevant to achieving your best life!
Visualising is an extremely powerful tool that gives us a clear goal and a clear mindset as to what we want. Though when using it with weight loss we have to be careful not to go down the dangerous path of focusing all our attention on only what our bodies will look like. I want you to also visualise yourself free of body image issues, radiating health and a healthy relationship with food, along with the feeling of freedom and happiness that only comes when you’re totally happy and confident in your own skin, imperfections and all! Let’s visualise holistically. Think about what you will see, hear and feel when you’ve reached your goal and remember, when it comes to goal setting the more specific and detailed, the more effective!
The basic concept of visualisation is to relax your body by imagining either the white light going through your body, imagining any part of your body relaxing or simply taking a few deep breaths with your eyes closed.
Once you’ve relaxed a little, you can then create an opportunity for your mind to go into a state of consciousness called the ‘alpha’ and ‘theta’ states – A state of mind where you are much more relaxed and much easier to focus and use the power of your mind for conscious creation.
Once you’re in that state, it’s time to create some visual imagery.
Here’s one I like to use with my clients but remember you can choose any setting and circumstance you like, just make it a happy place of yours.
The beach visualisation
Imagine you’re at the beach surrounded by family or friends, on a beautiful day. You’re feeling confident and looking great in your own skin as you walk along the shore in your bikini without fear of judgement or any negative self-talk. Breathe in how good that feels to be happy, confident and free.
You begin to play, running around – with either, your dog, kids, partner or friends- running in and out of the water, free, light and happy- just like you did as a kid.
Somebody calls “lunch time!” and when you sit down to eat a healthy and revitalising meal you love it, eating slowly and consciously, enjoying every moment, until your hearts content and stopping when you know you’ve had enough, when you’re about 80% full.
*Continue/add as much as you see fit and visualise everything from the moment you get there, to how the sun feels on your skin, how the people you love are around you and how everything about that day is balanced and healing – from food choices to body image issues.
Hold this – your happy place or something like this- image in your mind every day. Take it into the practical realm and transform the images into better choices in your life. This is truly a master tool in helping you make healthier day to day decisions like food choices, activeness and is great inspiration for how you want to look and feel when you reach your goal.
One more thing, remember how stress can cause weight gain? Because we’re in a relaxed state when we visualise, we also reduce our stress levels, which in turn, can help us lose weight by simply reducing the amount of cortisol (the stress hormone) our bodies produce. Increased stress and cortisol = increased weight.
So this is another reason to sit down, close your eyes, take some long deep breaths and tap into that enormous power that we all have inside of us to transform our bods and minds.
Get in touch if you’d like to explore this further with me and now I’ll leave you with my favourite quote:
“What the mind believes, the body achieves!”