Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 396 of the wildly successful lifestyle podcast! Thanks for hanging out with me. It means a lot that you’re here. So, In episode 395 I mentioned David Goggins saying the most powerful conversation you’ll ever have is the one you have with yourself.
This has been taking up a lot of space in my thoughts since I heard it. I mean I’ve heard it before from other people. But it’s so good to hear it again because we forget. Life happens and we get so distracted and we forget how much power the mind can have over us if we aren’t careful and we just leave it to its own will.
When there’s a lot going on we can just fall right back into this habit of unconscious living which leads to misery. Misery because we are letting the animals run the zoo. We are letting the 2 year old run the house.
Part of our brain is like a 2 year old, wants what it wants when it wants it with no thought to the consequences and the other part is the adult that knows you can’t just run around with a sharp knife in your hand, or eat candy all day, or throw fits in the middle of the store because you’re not getting that thing you want.
We all have those tendencies, well maybe not those but we have tendencies that aren’t serving us and we have part of us that says “you don’t want to do that, it’s not gonna end well”.
I noticed I had been eating a lot more sugar lately. I have been back craving sugar a bit, once my body starts getting a taste of it, it’s like a sugar monster. And it isn’t just my weight that it affects..it’s everything. I notice my joints hurt, my mood is affected. I did start to notice I felt a little fluffy which is a nice way of saying I felt fat….and so I was talking to Kevin about that my trainer, and he said well yeah Because you’ve been really stressed the last month and misery loves company which I thought was kind of weird so I said what does misery loves company have to do with anything…and he said cortisol loves sugar, your stress feeds off of sugar just makes it worse, makes it stronger so of course you have been wanting sugar. The more you eat it the more you want it the more stressed you get..and I thought ugh what horrible thing doesn’t sugar do but it got me thinking about how it’s been affecting my thoughts and so it’s sort of like a snowball effect. I noticed I was telling myself I feel fat I look fat telling my husband I feel fat and I noticed that just exasperated my feeling bad, and so as I often do, I caught myself and I thought OK how can I flip the script on my thoughts about feeling fluffy without lying to myself. First of all I needed to see if I had indeed put on weight or if that was in my head too so I got on the scale and yep. I had put on 4 lbs. Now my mind wanted to spiral into you’re putting on weight, you’re going to get fat, you’re going to be miserable. None of your clothes will fit. It was starting to spiral, but I know I have the power to stop the spiral because the spiral comes from the part of my brain that acts like a 2 year old. So I went into my thinking brain and I said….Ok, What can I tell myself that is true but also empowering? How can I create what I want instead of spiraling which will definitely lead me to making bad decisions. so I came up with this thought that I’m on my way back to 132, which is my goal weight which is where I like myself. so Ive been just saying that in my head anytime my jeans feel a little tight or my mind goes to the number on the scale, I tell myself I’m on my way back to 132 and it gives me this feeling instead of oh my God I’m just gonna keep putting on weight gives, it me this feeling of I’ve got it under control and I’m heading back to 132.
This is again a bit superficial. I know but it works on things that aren’t superficial too.
Everything though always comes back to the power of the mind. The power either you have over the mind or the power the mind has over you.
We all have constant jibberish going on in our head that we mindlessly listen to and if we aren’t careful it will cause us to be sad for no reason, angry for no reason, afraid for no reason. You know I’m right. We will have conversations in our head at night if I’m alone I used to think someone’s in the house and I could go down this path where I’m about to call 911 and then my logic tells me to check the cameras and there’s been no movement at all at any of the doors. I had worked myself up. Or you imagine conversations that other people are having about you or creating things in your mind about other people and what they think of you to the point where you get angry or sad, all from an imaginary conversation that would have you mad at those poor people and they haven’t done anything….
When you find yourself spiraling. Stop and ask yourself what can I tell myself that is true but also empowering? If you’re making things up in your head because a friend hasn’t called you or your partner isn’t answering their phone or you hear a noise in the house, or the scale gives you a number that depresses you…… how do you take control of your thoughts so that you aren’t creating problems that don’t exist or exasperating ones that do??
The mind is so powerful. It’s either powerful in a way that causes you lots of problems, or it’s powerful in a way that causes you to handle any issue that comes up with dignity and grace. Because we will have problems. We all do, it’s part of life. So we aren’t trying to stick our head in the sand. But It’s how we handle the problems that matters. It’s how we allow our mind to make things worse or make them better that matters.
My challenge to you this week is to notice when your mind is starting to create problems for you, or if you’re having a problem notice how your mind is trying to make it worse. I challenge you to catch yourself and ask…what can I tell myself about this that is true, but also empowering?
