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Stop Resisting, Start Loving
Sherrie Shepherd
Oftentimes, when approaching a goal, the way we approach that goal can be determined by how and what we think. Cultural programming and social pressures can play a factor in how we approach our own body image, self worth and what we want to do about it.
There is something about your body or your running performance that you don’t like or you want to improve. So you focus, mentally, on those specific areas. For example, “I hate my big butt or my squishy tummy,” or “I am such a slow runner, I’ll never get faster”. When we use dieting mentality, we take the negative thoughts we have about our body and we use negative action to correct them. “I’m going to stop eating sugar”, “I’ve got to cut my calories”, “I’m not going to sleep in anymore”.
I call this “dieting” mentality. Two negatives don’t make a positive. You are resisting against your body. You are fighting, pushing, frantic and flailing. You’ll DO anything to lose weight or get faster. You try everything. Why isn’t it working?!
Notice these comments all have negative undertones. Using words like stop, hate, etc. sends a resistance signal to your brain. Saying “I am slow” means it’s something innately inside you. Saying “I am running slow right now” makes it an action rather than an identification. You don’t own slowness. You are not slowness. You just happen to be running slow. That simple shift makes it possible to change it.
“Loving your body means you move it, you feed it healthy foods, you challenge it, you help it to grow and improve.“
Consider this better way to approach your goals. It’s simply Loving Your Body. Negative self talk and judging your own body is a hard habit to break. But you can do it. When you come from a place of love and acceptance, you allow your body to do what it was created to do: serve you. Start talking to yourself and your body in neutral and positive words. Approach your body with love and grace, saying thank you, body, for being alive today. Thank you heart, for beating. Thank you lungs, for breathing. Thank you muscles for moving me.
Loving your body doesn’t mean you don’t exercise or eat healthy. Loving your body means you move it, you feed it healthy foods, you challenge it, you help it to grow and improve. Because you want what’s best for it. You want your body to perform to its highest potential. So you show it the most kind, caring and loving things you can.
Your actions might not even be much different than the actions you take with the dieting approach. Both ways of thinking bring you to healthier habits. But when you are white knuckling your way through it, you will not stick to it. When you relax your mind, lean in and love your body, you can create lifelong health habits.
Which approach feels better to you?
Is The Marathon Mind Right for You?
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