Change your inner self

Change your inner self
When I sat down to write this article for the week, I was going to use material from the book "Spark” by Dr John Ratey. Because there seem to have been so many people coping with stress, I thought his unique research on exercise and improvement of stress might motivate people to start doing more regular activity.
What struck me though is our mental state. We seem to accept internal stress or stressful situations and allow these events to ‘put us down'. We are negative, we feel fatigued, and we lose our desire to change. Life seems to create a sense of helplessness, so we eat. The result of eating is to make us feel worse about ourselves and lead to more eating and more self-loathing.
So, I turned to a book written by Doug D'Anna titled "Getting what you want”. He suggests a few ways that you can take negative energy in your life and recycle it into something positive. We need to attain a level of consciousness whereby you can remove the blocks and restore yourself with awareness about how you want to define your future. He suggests...
1. Spirituality: Learn to forgive yourself for past mistakes you, or another, have made. Eliminate painful memories, old patterns, and old beliefs that may right now be causing you to react from fear or anger. Look to the future with anticipation and enthusiasm.
2. Intent: Look to your inner desires in order to move forward. When situations are making you feel helpless or hopeless, look to possibilities. Dream big. Imagine how you will feel if you eat small portions and lose 10 pounds in the next month.
3. Actions: you need courage to move forward. Don't get stuck with your present emotion whether that is anger or fear or ‘lack of motivation'. Let go of these negative emotions and allow your life to flow the way it should. Most of us stand still, reflecting on ‘bad' situations of which we have no control, and we lose sight of how we want to live.
4. Emotions: Good energy is limited by resentment, insecurity, fear, shame, guilt and judgement. Try to replenish yourself with peace, humility and gratitude.
5. Communication; Utter sarcasm, arrogance, unkindness, and lies are an expression of inner anger. Practice appreciation, praise, and kindness in your day-to –day conversations.
6. Thoughts: Remove confusion, negative thinking and doubt. Your thoughts must be open to change, clarity and vision before the negativity can be recycled into something useful.
You see, our thoughts determine if we stay stuck or move forward. Changing our pattern of thinking takes a lot of practice. However, a more positive frame of mind will allow us to make better food choices, help us get to the gym or go for a walk and generally allow us to create the healthy lifestyles we want.
No matter what has happened this week or last, no matter how badly you ate, or how little exercise you did - you can change. It's simply a matter of saying "I will do better”. Let go of guilt or frustration, these emotions will not help you reach your goal.
Unclutter your mind. Reset your goals and don't let anyone or any situation stand in the way of you.
You can do it. Just hang in there, and never give up
Dr Doug