(Boot Campers: What follows is a reprint of an older blog post from my other, older blog.
But I thought it was timely and worth re-posting here)
Change your focus to break out of your mental cage Image by Desiree Delgado
I know better.
Yesterday I found myself fretting about my public speaking event on Sunday.
Why? Well it all started in 1988…
~~(cue dreamy Brady Bunch dream sequence music)~~
I saw a copy of my yearbook photo from 1988. And the past came reeling back.
I started focusing on all the mistakes and problems of my past. Which made me feel tension. Which made me feel negative. Which led me to worrying about whether or not I could deliver on Sunday.
Now, the funny thing is, I am used to speaking publicly. I do it daily in my women’s boot camp class But by simply focusing on my mistakes I got into a mini-mind-funk and started projecting “what-if” scenarios into the future.
What if I don’t deliver? What if people don’t understand me? What if I get nervous?
I was literally focusing on what I didn’t want. And it did not feel good at all.
The thing is, the “subconscious” mind cannot distinguish between what you don’t want and what you do want… it only knows what you are focusing on. And what you focus on automatically produces mental pictures which produce automatic emotions.
Fortunately, I am quickly able to catch myself doing this. So I instantly relaxed and immediately focused on what I wanted.
I created mental mini-movies of how I expect and want my fitness seminar to go. I saw myself feeling happy. I noticed how the happy crowd looked. I felt my feet planted firmly on the stage. I heard myself delivering a powerful and uplifting message.
And as the good images got clearer, “The Ghost of Foibles Past” faded into the ether from whence he came.
And I was myself again.
Focus on what you want. Not what you don’t want.
Especially in boot camp.
Cheers,
D
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
2 Comments
Thanks for the great blog post! This was so timely for me, personally. I’ve been learning to focus on, and manifest, what I DO want, rather than conjuring up more of what I don’t want in my life by thinking of those things and allowing myself to cook up a mental soup of worry, resentment or fear about those things. It’s so important to clear one’s mind of all that murky emotional stuff and focus on feeling good, Thanks for the anecdote, and for the reassurance that it gets easier to reflexively catch yourself drifting off track!
See you tomorrow at Boot Camp!!! Yeah!!!
It’s amazing to me how our past seems to sneak to the present at the worst moments. It’s hard to remember that failures that we have experienced do not determine our future successes. Thank you for reminding me that although I have struggled in the past with fitness it does not mean I will have a life long battle. When I have a failure now, I just make it a minor one, re-focus and recommit to a healthier me. I now take the time to envision what a healthy me looks like and does to keep myself motivated.