A paradigm that has been popular since ages, and something that has been widely researched upon - is the effectiveness of visualization as an important tool right from weight loss to even treating cancer!
Though it sounds illogical and fantasy-like, millions of people all over the world have used and continue to use visualization to get the results they want, of course complementing it with exercising and healthy food habits. Infact, it is not uncommon to find that exercising and eating healthy were a consequence of visualizing oneself in the desirable body! It has also been used popularly in sports, especially athletes, who visualize their winning performance.
The underlying beauty of the visualization process is that it honours the relation of the mind on body, instead of isolating the two or focusing on only either of them. The conscious mind has a limited capacity and is just a small part of our brain-mind system, while the sub-conscious forms the more important part, with unlimited capacity!
The effect of mind over body and its health/illness is well established and is usually categorized as ‘psychosomatic’, with many specialists, experts and therapists working in this domain.
Hence, even if we are regular and religiously do our exercise, if we have a negative image of ourselves or are unable to visualize us in our desirable bodies, the results take a long time to manifest, if they do!
Some simple and very popular tips are -
o Cut out a picture of some actor/actress or any other role model, or may be a picture of yourself from the past, and place it in front of your work-desk, or somewhere in the kitchen or even the bathroom door – any place you frequent! Give the subconscious mind something to chew on.
o Couple of times in a day, sitting/lying down in a relaxed manner, imagine yourself in the desired health or fitness level, soak in and feel the happy and positive emotions that it brings up.
Showing posts with label mind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mind. Show all posts
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Friday, June 12, 2009
Mind & Body -- The connection
Last week, we talked about the power of mind and how it controls our body. This week, we shall see how this can explain the most common complaint in our lives – putting on too much weight, or rather how to lose weight.
Gaining excess weight is usually the effect of a deeper underlying cause.
Everything in our body is interconnected and ultimately controlled by the mind. So, our thoughts and feelings can manifest in the body, over a period of time, cumulatively, as excess weight. These thoughts and feelings are usually of “fear, resentment, guilt, sadness”.
Fear is the most important reason that is interconnected with the other three and various other feelings. Fear is one of the most important underlying causes of anger. When a person stifles his anger or fails to express it and get a closure on it, it usually builds up in the body as resentment. This fear and resentment manifests as excess weight.
Guilt again works in the same way and coupled with any of the above reasons gives rise to issues like emotional over-eating, obsessive eating of sugary foods etc. The fact is that, when you are depressed or sad, usually the blood sugar levels get affected and hence some people get a sugar craving and end up eating the wrong kinds of sugary foods, which gets stored in the body as fat.
Some people are able to step out of their negative emotions, especially when they start exercising due to two reasons –
a) They receive support from the people around or they themselves become mentally stronger and thus can keep themselves motivated.
b) Exercise releases happy hormones like endorphins, dopamines etc. in the body and they like the feeling.
However, this is not true for all the people. If your root cause is not taken care of, the problems will come back to haunt you even if you do manage to succeed the first time.
Gaining excess weight is usually the effect of a deeper underlying cause.
Everything in our body is interconnected and ultimately controlled by the mind. So, our thoughts and feelings can manifest in the body, over a period of time, cumulatively, as excess weight. These thoughts and feelings are usually of “fear, resentment, guilt, sadness”.
Fear is the most important reason that is interconnected with the other three and various other feelings. Fear is one of the most important underlying causes of anger. When a person stifles his anger or fails to express it and get a closure on it, it usually builds up in the body as resentment. This fear and resentment manifests as excess weight.
Guilt again works in the same way and coupled with any of the above reasons gives rise to issues like emotional over-eating, obsessive eating of sugary foods etc. The fact is that, when you are depressed or sad, usually the blood sugar levels get affected and hence some people get a sugar craving and end up eating the wrong kinds of sugary foods, which gets stored in the body as fat.
Some people are able to step out of their negative emotions, especially when they start exercising due to two reasons –
a) They receive support from the people around or they themselves become mentally stronger and thus can keep themselves motivated.
b) Exercise releases happy hormones like endorphins, dopamines etc. in the body and they like the feeling.
However, this is not true for all the people. If your root cause is not taken care of, the problems will come back to haunt you even if you do manage to succeed the first time.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Mind Matters
Have you been in a situation where you have been a regular fitness enthusiast and yet not got any results? Or rather, you have been ‘trying’ to lose weight, but the scales just won’t budge! And you wonder why it is so difficult to achieve your desired weight and then feel like giving up?
History has recorded many leading psychologists and scientists proving that it is indeed the mind that controls the body. All bodily manifestations of disorders, diseases and discomforts have their origin in the mind. This has been around as commonsense since centuries but just that it has not been given its due importance.
What is most important to realize is how our thoughts and corresponding actions over a period of time manifest into diseases and disorders. The word ‘dis-ease’ itself shows that something is not at ease! So, sometimes you must have come across people who have developed diabetes after a close one’s death or someone who has developed tumor due to childhood abuse. Trauma usually manifests itself as some chronic disease or disorder.
The power of our human mind to heal itself without external help is unimaginable. That does not mean that medications are not necessary. It just means that along with medications, using the power of the mind can give more effective and faster results. Medications are usually required to bring a disease or disorder under control, initially. However, once under control you can learn to use the mind power to root out the cause of the disease or the disorder.
As a proof of our tremendous power, there have been many cases like the “Miracle Man”, so called because he used his mind power to get him out of a complete paralysis due to an accident. There have been many other people who have cured themselves of their cancers, tumors and paralysis – miraculous things, which otherwise sound impossible!
History has recorded many leading psychologists and scientists proving that it is indeed the mind that controls the body. All bodily manifestations of disorders, diseases and discomforts have their origin in the mind. This has been around as commonsense since centuries but just that it has not been given its due importance.
What is most important to realize is how our thoughts and corresponding actions over a period of time manifest into diseases and disorders. The word ‘dis-ease’ itself shows that something is not at ease! So, sometimes you must have come across people who have developed diabetes after a close one’s death or someone who has developed tumor due to childhood abuse. Trauma usually manifests itself as some chronic disease or disorder.
The power of our human mind to heal itself without external help is unimaginable. That does not mean that medications are not necessary. It just means that along with medications, using the power of the mind can give more effective and faster results. Medications are usually required to bring a disease or disorder under control, initially. However, once under control you can learn to use the mind power to root out the cause of the disease or the disorder.
As a proof of our tremendous power, there have been many cases like the “Miracle Man”, so called because he used his mind power to get him out of a complete paralysis due to an accident. There have been many other people who have cured themselves of their cancers, tumors and paralysis – miraculous things, which otherwise sound impossible!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
