The trainer who helped me find my green shoes, also explained how our brains take instructions from us in the simplest of ways. She advised us to frame our words with a positive focus. Remember, what we focus on expands.
To explain further she told us that if she said, “Don’t think of a pink elephant”, the first thing our brain did was to think of a pink elephant! It does this because it needs to identify what a pink elephant is before it can follow your instruction to think about something else.
In this vein, saying I want to be a healthy weight is better than I don’t want to be fat; I’m happy is better than I’m going to stop being sad, and I’m saving money is better than I don’t want to keep spending all my paycheck. Our brains pick up “healthy”, “happy” and “saving”, instead of “fat”, “sad” and “spend”.
Another thing she taught us was that we need to be in the present. I’m happy tells you’re brain you’re happy right now, and the instruction is to keep that up. I’m going to start being happy tells your brain you’ll do it later. Stay present!
Give it a try for a few weeks and see how you go. It will cost you nothing, and it might change your focus!
Make sure you also tell yourself I learn things easily every time you catch your unpracticed Self saying“don’t”!
Joni Page 