Would you like to completely clear your mind – to enjoy absolute quiet and experience peace in that busy space inside your head? How would it really feel to have a peaceful mind that you can tune out when necessary, just for a rest from all the busyness? Our heads can be so full of internal chatter it’s often difficult to hear yourself think. I have been reading and enjoying “The Buddha’s Brain” by Rick Hanson and using some of the techniques described. It’s amazing how difficult it can be to just shut yourself up! I mean really shut up; even as you read this are you repeating the words out loud in your head or chatting to yourself about your opinions on shutting up? It’s a real skill and the more I learn about how to use your mind to change your body, the more important and valuable I realise this skill is. I specialise in the field of weight loss, but also work with clients with anxiety and depression, but whatever a client presents with, there is always the factor of the internal dialogue which ultimately directs behaviour. Animals don’t make emotional decisions about what to eat, they eat what they need from what is available. Humans however make emotional eating a habit without consciously thinking about what they are eating, or how much.
Did you know that thoughts actually form neurological pathways in the mind, synaptic connections that once created can be used over and over again? well that’s good news if you are thinking positively, but not so good if your mind is full of negativity. If you habitually think about what you can’t/haven’t achieved or constantly review bad experiences, you literally become hardwired to think that way. The good news is that these pathways can be downgraded and replaced by new more positive ways of thinking. To do this you must learn to create a mind space where you can just rest. This is not just a physical sensation of resting, it is a chemical process inside your brain that is physiologically beneficial and promotes not only emotional health but physical healing generally.
My weight loss clients are always surprised when they ask me the best exercise to lose weight, and I say yoga or meditation; because if you really want to change your body, to naturally change eating habits that may have been installed for years or even decades (without needing willpower!) then you must first change your mind. Guided meditation can help you to create new synaptic connections that allow you to literally reshape your brain. This process is called neuroplasticity and I teach a variety of techniques that can aid this process on my Easy Slim retreats (run at Champneys Health Spa’s). These practices are as important if not more important than any amount of sit ups if you truly want to change your body shape and size and not diet; to simply change – for good.
One of the most established forms of achieving mind quiet is to focus on your breathing, It sounds easy but to really “lose yourself” in the process of breathing takes practice. In The Buddha’s Brain Rick Hanson teaches that when you can stay totally immersed in the process of breathing to the exclusion of all else for 10 breaths, you are learning to truly meditate. Try it – first make yourself comfortable, it’s easier with your eyes closed, and then notice the first thing that you feel as you breathe; maybe it’s the rise and fall of your chest? where is the breath coming from and going to? which parts of your body are moving the most, is it in your chest or your stomach? what is the temperature of the air? does it change as you breathe in and as you breathe out? there are so many things you can notice about your breathing. Is there rhythm? is there natural flow? is it shallow, or deep?
If you want to change anything about your life, your shape and size, how you feel or think, or any of the choices you habitually make that don’t serve you, learning how to use your mind is the single most powerful thing you can do.
If you would like to join me in person to learn a range of practical techniques so that you can be healthy, lose weight and learn how to use your mind to change your body, then come along to CHAMPNEYS for a totally unique and life changing approach to weightloss 2 night and 4 night Mind Body Weight Loss retreats, and I will personally guide you through the process of using your mind to change your body. Alternatively you can read Think More Eat Less and follow the process using the techniques in the book and the FREE audio hypnotic downloads