Minimizing negative thoughts that prevent you from exercising.

7/11/2014

• Do you ever talk yourself out of exercising? 

Do you ever find yourself saying, " I'm too tired." "I'm too busy." or "I'll do it tomorrow."? If you have a tendency to make excuses for exercising regularly. There are ways that you can learn to overcome that little voice in your head that gets in the way of your commitment to yourself. With patience and practice, you can develop healthy and positive ways of thinking that will support your efforts in making physical activity a regular part of your life.

• What are your Mental triggers for skipping exercise?

As we grow from children into adults, we begin forming certain patterns of thinking based on behaviors we see from those whom we are interacting with most: Family and friends.

Our relationship to exercise is formed early on and unfortunately as children we are judged on our ability to "compete." For those adults who were active as youth and have through the years lost interest, this can have it's own set of challenges as we compare ourselves to who we once were.

These perceptions of ourselves and the images and thoughts that we conjure up related to those perceptions have a big influence on the way we make our decisions today. Just as we develop lifestyle habits such as brushing our teeth and combing our hair, our exercise habits also develop into habitual behaviour that shapes our world.

If we examine these thoughts by listening to our self-talk, which is the way we talk to ourselves inside our minds.  We can become more self conscious of our thoughts when it comes to exercise and can then make the necessary adjustments in making better life choices concerning our fitness activity.

For most people, self-talk includes not just talk, but also phrases, pictures and images. It runs the gamut from," I can't believe it's Thursday already!" and" The chocolate one looks good," to more emotionally laden images,such as being buried in work, or phrases like," "I'll never make it through this day,"

Most of our self-talk is benign. Just us thinking to ourselves. But some self-talk can lead to thoughts that can be destructive. Especially when they reinforce negative beliefs and harmful behavior.

To uncover un-productive self-talk, when it comes to exercise, be as conscious as possible and simply observe your thoughts for a few days. Make a list and write down any thoughts that come to mind trying to talk you out of exercising. Then take a look at your list. Which statements reflect real problems that need to be addressed? What are the situations that you are in that "trigger" these thoughts?Brainstorm ways to deal with these problems.  Which tend to be"excuses?" Is there a pattern? What are the common themes? Do certain phrases appear over and over?

• TALKING BACK

To begin talking back to your negative self-talk,you must first take a look at the underlying beliefs that are causing the negative self-talk in the first place. Once you examine these beliefs (and where they originated), you can begin to form new and realistic self-talk that sounds convincing and begin to dis-arm these thoughts.

While many people know on one level that they need regular exercise to stay healthy, in their hearts they live other beliefs that conflict with their desire to stick to a program of regular physical activity. For example, some people may have been told as a child that sports were frivolous and that exercise was a waste of time. Or that regardless of ability you were always told " good job" when in fact you "needed to improve" and get better. Some people worry that they look silly in exercise clothes, or that exercise is not appropriate for someone "their age."

Once you begin thinking about these feelings you have been holding on to over the years that have been hindering your positive approach to a regular active lifestyle. You will now be ready to arm yourself with new self-talk to counteract those negative self-talk thoughts that might pop into your mind just as you are preparing to enjoy your exercise session.

Reformulate negative beliefs, and construct new self-talk that supports your willingness to make health your priority. For example, if you hear yourself thinking, " I'm too busy to exercise today. I'll do it

tomorrow," argue back, "I am always busy and tomorrow won't be much different. I'm still going to take my lunch hour to get the gym. The exercise will give me energy and help me get more done this afternoon." To counteract, "Exercise is a waste of time," try thinking, "I need regular exercise to stay healthy and manage stress. What is more important than my health? I must take care of my health so that I can do my work and take care of my family."

To reinforce these new mental thoughts write a phrase on some post-its and place them on or near things that by deference you will have to "see it" and it over time will begin to help  shape a new mentally stronger you. A person committed to themselves and their loved ones as an example of living a fitness based lifestyle.

Hope this email gave you some food for thought.

Yours in health,

Dr. Pigott
NLPFS