Be thoughtful to yourself!

Are you thoughtful to yourself?

Many people try to lose weight and fight themselves with constant inner commentary on how badly they are doing.  Let’s look at some ways we can change the quality of our thoughts to help us instead of hinder us in our quest.

Identify your negative thoughts. Cognitive behavioral therapy practitioners believe that we have the ability to change our behavior by changing our thoughts. Thoughts are the catalyst which leads to certain behaviors. The first step in controlling your thoughts is awareness of their quality. Are they encouraging, motivating, and goal-oriented? Or are they unconstructive, demoralizing and problem-oriented?

Consider keeping a thought journal.  In this journal, write down the way that you perceive different things: yourself, your work or school, your parents, politics, the environment, and so on. What are you telling yourself, especially in stressful situations?  This will force you to pay attention to the critical voice in your head and listen to what it’s saying.

STOP your demoralizing thoughts.  This is a technique from mental training and is used whenever negative and destructive thoughts pop into your head.  Just say „STOP“, out loud or in your head, which breaks the negative pattern you’ve gotten into the habit of using.

Be grateful

Take time every day to recall things you are grateful for.  Instead of reciting a laundry list of items, research shows that a gratitude journal is more effective, especially when the person writes about a handful of instances in depth. Spend a few minutes reliving and savoring these moments that you write about. The gratitude journal will help you remember the positive things in your life.

Use positive imagery to re-program your brain

Scientists believe that we may experience real-world and imaginary actions in similar ways, explains Aymeric Guillot, Ph.D., a professor at the Center of Research and Innovation in Sport at University Claude Bernard Lyon, in France. Whether we climb up stairs or only picture it, we activate many of the same neural networks—paths of interconnected nerve cells that link what your body does to the brain impulses that control it. For example, imagining yourself doing movements can help you get better at them: Legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus executed each shot in his mind before taking it. Simply envisioning a movement elicits nervous system responses comparable to those recorded during physical execution of the same action.

Using visualization makes it clear to your brain in which direction you want to move. The more intense and detailed you imagine, the more likely you are to achieve what you are striving for.

There are two types of visualization, each of which serves a distinct purpose, but for greatest effect, they should be used together. The first method is outcome visualization and involves envisioning yourself achieving your goal. To do this, create a detailed mental image of the desired outcome using all of your senses. The second type of visualization is process visualization. It involves envisioning each of the actions necessary to achieve the outcome you want. Here you focus on completing each of the steps you need to achieve your goal, but not on the overall goal itself.

So, every day, I 1) make a mental picture of myself with the body I am striving for and 2) I imagine eating appetizing whole foods and doing my daily routines of exercise and meditation. This just takes a few minutes but it’s fun and it motivates me.

Try meditation, yoga, or spend a few minutes just taking some deep breaths. Our brains do a lot of chattering and this near-universal tendency is one that meditation has been shown to address energetically. Brain studies have found, among other things, that meditation can deactivate the area of the brain that’s thought to be responsible for mind chatter—the default mode network (DMN). New research indicates that mindfulness meditation actually reduces the subjective experience of intrusive thoughts popping into your head.

Try this: “Become aware of the sensation of breathing…noticing where in the body the physical sensations of breathing are vivid for you, right now…choosing one place to follow the breath… And each time you notice your attention has wandered, gently bringing your attention back to the breath and the sensations in your body…”

And other studies, like one from Harvard (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2840837/), have confirmed that meditation not only reduces activity but also affects the volume of the brain in certain regions—for instance, reducing volume in the amygdala, the seat of anxiety, fear and emotion. And more recently, the same team has found that increases in volume in other areas—those associated with mood and arousal—are linked with more subjective well-being in the participants. That is, they report feeling better and being happier after engaging in daily meditation practice.

Avoid media that causes negative thinking. 

Research shows that negative thinking is supported by media with negative comparisons. (Mulgrew, K. E; Volcevski-Kostas, D. “Short term exposure to attractive and muscular singers in music video clips negatively affects men's body image and mood.” Body Image. Vol.9(4) )

If you notice media making you feel negative, one approach is to avoid that media. If you find yourself frequently comparing yourself to a certain model or athlete, avoid magazines, shows, or games that feature them. Even temporary exposure to media depicting ideal images has been shown to negatively impact self-esteem and self-image.

I even avoid newspapers and newsfeeds including frightening information and pictures. That is the kind of news that produces fear.