Your self-image, how you perceive yourself, can interfere with the lifestyle change you desire. Your desired change starts with training your brain, and here is how:
"I have never been very athletic... I was never good at playing sports... I never managed to stick to a workout regime... I was always told this was not for me and I probably could not do it... I was always told I was the fat kid at school...I was always laughed at when I tried something new… I never managed to maintain a healthy weight…"
Sounds familiar?
Your self -image, how you perceive yourself, often based on what you have been told during your childhood and later on in life, can affect how you behave and how you feel about yourself. Because thoughts, feelings and actions are intertwined. Your self-image can create a self-fulfilling prophecy that interferes with a desired lifestyle change. (Did you know: Your perspective on food can hinder desired weight loss as well!)
For example:
If you have always been told you are very clumsy and not athletic, there is a chance that over the years this has become part of your self- image and you yourself are (unconsciously) convinced this is you, this is your truth. This can result in not exercising at all, or trying it every once in a while with only little confidence, setting yourself up for a negative experience. If you think exercising is not for you, if you think you will probably fail, you will also probably see confirmations of your truth all over the place and you will probably quit.
But what if your self-image is not the truth? What if your thought and convictions are false, or only part of your past but not of your present anymore?
Check your facts
Do you have proof that you never ever undertake anything that looks like exercise or physical activity? Are you sure? Do you never go for a walk? Ok, so there is an athlete within you!
You are not your past
You might have been told in the past that you were…. whatever it was for you. But you are not your past. You do not have to drag your past with you anymore. You do not have to live in the past anymore.
How to break your cycle
If you would like to make a lifestyle change that is really sustainable, you need to develop a matching self -image.
Do you want to be more athletic? Then perceive yourself as an athlete. Live by who you want to be. This is not a matter of fake it until you make it, but a matter of doing it and being it. Because by starting to behave more like an athlete, you already are an athlete!
-> A matching self- image will lead to matching actions and to the desired outcome.
If you consider yourself an athlete, then physical activity becomes part of your life and you will probably enjoy it much more, because that is what athletes do.
How can you develop a self- image that matches the lifestyle change you desire?
1. Visualize your new persona
Create a mood board with pictures and words of your new persona, your new self- image: What does your new desired self- image look like? Who is that person, what does that person do, what convictions does that person have, how does that person feel about themselves? Put your moodboard somewhere, where you can see it every day.
2. Say goodbye to your old self- image
Write down what your old self- image looked like. Who was that person? How did that person behave and feel? What convictions and thoughts did that person have? And then write a letter to that person to say goodbye. Without resentment or frustration. It is simply time to move on. You can keep the letter, to remind yourself every once in a while for example when time gets rough, or you can burn it for final closure.
Train your brain and create your desired change!
Create your own health!©
