Live Consciously Mindfulness & Meditation

How Visualization Can Change Your Life (and Weight)

By Patricia Moreno

For a long time, I felt so much fear that I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my dreams and struggled with weight fluctuations, depression, drug use, and feelings of anxiety about my life.

Then, I learned to harness the power of my mind, exercise my brain, and strengthen the power of my relationship to my word. After more than 15 years of using various techniques on myself, my family, and my community of students, the amazing results people experienced piled up. My students lost pounds, overcame life-threatening health issues, healed their hearts, and quit unfulfilling jobs to pursue purposeful careers.

I wanted to make this available to people worldwide, so I created The Practice, a personal transformation training that helps you develop the mental, physical, and spiritual muscle needed to create sustainable change.

When you exercise your power to choose what you think, say, and do on a daily basis, you can elevate your mind, body, and life—one day at a time.

The Power of Visualization

Visualization is a great place to start. It’s one of the seven strategies I use in The Practice, and it’s something we’re doing all of the time. I’m just teaching you to control it.

It can work for any daily challenge, including weight loss.

RELATED: Can Food Journaling Really Help You Lose Weight?

Whenever you’re about to make a change, there’s always going to be a challenge. Otherwise, you would have already made the change. The biggest obstacle is the future you’re projecting in your mind. If you think something’s going to be hard, you’re already rehearsing it as hard in your  mind.

Starting a diet, for instance, you imagine yourself feeling deprived and sad and missing out on all of these things you’ll never, ever, ever be able to have. This starts to weaken your willpower, and we do need to apply some willpower to make changes.

RELATED: Why Self-Discipline is a Muscle You Should Start Flexing

What you need to do is visualize each challenge and rehearse yourself succeeding at it, just like an elite athlete before a game, including the outcome.

Say you’re following a certain meal plan and you’re going to a family party. You know it’s going to be challenging because you love your mom’s cooking, but it doesn’t fit into your current plan.

Close your eyes and literally walk through the event. See yourself going through the challenge as your best self, feeling empowered and positive.

I’d imagine myself saying “Thank you, mom, for doing this. Everything looks so amazing. I’m going to pass this time because right now I’m really developing a new level of self-discipline, but I can’t wait for next time.” And then rehearse your mom’s response. Instead of her being upset or hurt that you’re not eating, rehearse your mom saying, “I’m so proud of you. I’m going to support you in this. If this is really what you want, I’ve got your back.”

Whether that actually happens or not, what you’re doing is saying, “This is my intention. This is the way I’m going to see it. Instead of putting rocks in my backpack before I set out, I’m going to lighten my load and be on my own team.”

Yes, your brain might protest and say, “My mom would never say that!” But that’s the voice of someone who is using an excuse not to put in the effort. We give up our power by blaming other people, the circumstances, the event—all of these other things. If you’re giving someone else or something the power, you don’t have the power to change. Visualize your own power.

visualization

About Patricia:

Patricia Moreno—a Guest Expert for The Nutrition School—is all about helping people awaken their inner bad-ass by combining practices that exercise mental, physical, and spiritual muscle so they can live a life of Thinner Peace. She is the creator of the intenSati method, and her secret recipe is the integration of mind, body, and spirit and the deliberate development of self-love and self-mastery. Sign up for her new 12-month transformation training program, The Practice, here.

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