15 Mar The Power of Self-Image
Written by Lifebook Team Member Sandra Garest
Written by Sandra Garest
The 12 Categories of your life are profoundly connected. They all support each other and are supported by each other. That is why none of them can be left out, left behind, or left to chance.
Our research shows that an especially powerful connection exists between your Intellectual Life and your Health and Fitness. So strong, in fact, that your Health and Fitness may actually hold the key to lasting positive changes in your Intellectual Life.
When your body is healthy and functioning properly, you experience greater intellectual stability and strength. Eating right for your body type, physical exercise and proper nutritional supplementation affect your brain energy in positive ways, which has a direct positive impact on your mental state.
When you feel good physically, you have a greater depth of mental strength and energy to draw on. This allows you to think more clearly and rationally, make better decisions, and achieve the goals you set for yourself.
On the other hand, when your body is unhealthy, it can have a devastating impact on your intellectual life. If you feel bad physically, you are automatically compromised intellectually, experiencing less energy and strength to draw on, and less “mental wherewithal” with which to come at life.
Simply put, the quality of your Intellectual Life is determined, to a large extent, by your Health and Fitness.
Our research shows that if you increase your Health and Fitness score, your Intellectual score will increase right along with it.
Bob Proctor said, “When we change the way we think, we change our lives. What most people do not understand is how powerful our thinking is and how involved it is in our health.”
How you think plays a large role in how you feel emotionally and physically.
Did you know that every thought you have sends electrical signals throughout your brain? Thoughts have actual physical properties. They are real and they are very powerful. Your body reacts to every thought you have (we know this from polygraphs or lie detector tests).
Your thoughts can make your body feel good, or they can make you feel bad.
Every time you have a good thought, a happy thought, a hopeful thought or a kind thought, your brain releases chemicals that make your body feel good. Think about the last time you had a really happy thought. How did you feel inside your body? When most people are happy their muscles relax, their hearts beat slower, their hands become dry and they breathe slower.
On the other hand, when your body is unhealthy, it can have a devastating impact on your intellectual life. When your mind is burdened with many negative thoughts, it causes problems like irritability, moodiness, depression, etc.
Every time you have an angry thought, an unkind thought, a sad thought, or a cranky thought, your brain releases negative chemicals that make your body feel bad. When people get emotionally upset, they can actually develop physical symptoms, such as headaches or stomach aches. Think about the last time you were mad. How did your body feel? When most people are angry their muscles become tense, their hearts beat faster, their hands start to sweat and they may even begin to feel a little dizzy.
Unfortunately, almost no one is taught to think much about their thoughts or to challenge the notions that go through their heads, even though their thoughts are always with them.
Unless you think about your thoughts, they are automatic or “they just happen.” Since they just happen, they are not necessarily correct. Your thoughts do not always tell the truth. Sometimes they lie to you.
Thinking about thinking is what led to one of my most profound breakthroughs in my Lifebook journey. And it’s this: Sometimes the best strategy you can implement to achieve your desired results is to change your self-image – to change the way you think about yourself, the way you talk to yourself, and the beliefs you hold in a particular Category.
Your beliefs will help set the foundation for the person you are working toward becoming.
You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one. You cannot step into your future while holding onto past beliefs and the same old thinking patterns you’ve always had.
I like to use my Lifebook as a Mental Training Exercise – specifically the Premise & Vision sections in each category.
I read the book “Psycho Cybernetics” after a fellow LB member recommended it to me. The author, Dr. Maxwell Maltz, talks about how our actions, feelings and performance is in direct relation to how we imagine ourselves to be. He makes the “self image” the cornerstone of human behavior. Change the self-image and you change the person, he argues.
According to Maltz, when we imagine what we would most likely want to be, the mind and body begin to follow.
This breakthrough was furthered last month when I listened to an interview with Celebrity Trainer Joel Harper, author of the book, “Mind Your Body.” In this book he gives a lot of great advice for maximizing your efforts and using your mind to help accomplish your goals.
The key thing that stood out to me was his answer to the following question…
What is the biggest reason people fail to meet their fitness/weight loss goals?
Mindset is exactly what is missing in most health & fitness plans, and Joel believes that is why most people don’t achieve the results they are looking for.
“Deep down inside they don’t feel like they deserve it. In the book I call this the “deserve level” and define it as a rating of self-worth, self-respect, and self-esteem for a given category in your life. It’s the blessing or permission you give yourself based on what you believe you deserve in your life.
You get what you subconsciously believe you deserve.”
Harper went on to say that when you change your Deserve Levels, it’s like installing a new version of the OS on your computer or phone and that’s when new things become possible. You operate differently in life and things you couldn’t access before become instinctive.
My advice: Study what you think you deserve.
Update your foundational beliefs – the operating system in your subconscious.
Shift your Deserve Levels (in any category) support you in achieving the life you want – the life that’s not possible as long as your Beliefs and your Deserve Levels don’t match your Life Vision.
I would love to hear from you…
Where would your life be if you raised your Personal Deserve Levels?
Are you ready for your upgrade of your beliefs and self-image?
Comment below to share your thoughts and answers!
Remember, the better you think, the better your life will be…