Letting the tummy hang out!
So every day we go about our daily routines without much thought as to how we are performing them. We eat what we can find, that which is quick and convenient, we sit how we always sit, we stand like we always stand and yes, we let our tummy’s hang out like we always do! ……And yet, we hope for different results because we have started exercising!
Not gonna happen!
I read a very powerful book a while ago and I do believe that within this book lies the fundamental reason as to why many fail in many attempts to make any form of change. Take for example your stomach. Most wish it was smaller, flatter, narrower, tighter…whatever you wish for it. But there is one reason why it is not so and that is because you do not make the effort to contract it partially constantly. Did you know that from this constant partial contraction something magical happens. That partial contraction becomes permanent because it becomes involuntary :).
Imagine that….now you can’t let it go. You will now have to think about letting your tummy go and letting it all hang out because it just doesn’t want to :0!
Fantastic….you will look like you have lost 2kgs around your belly and you will add more support to your trunk. But this does not just happen over night. You are going to make a point of always thinking of contracting your abdominals 30% everyday as much as you can in any position your find yourself in. You are also going to think this is never ever going to work because just the thinking of it is so much effort for you. But the more you practice the more the whole process comes together.
Why?
The science behind this is amazing! Your subconscious mind stores all of your habits, be they the way you do things, speak, personality, things you say and yes negative movements! You need to tap into this area and re-train it to achieve whatever it is that you want to change. Even for silly everyday things. The more you do a new thing and repeat it over and over and over and over and over, the better the chances are of the change becoming the new habit. This part of the brain doesn’t distinguish between good and bad habits or good and bad movements, it only knows what you always do. If you try to change a habit or negative pattern the subconscious part of your brain will always be alerting you of needing the old bad habit. Oh My Soul, no wonder when you start ‘dieting’ you want to eat everything in site, no wonder you just can’t maintain a tight tummy, no wonder you battle to take a new route to work, no wonder it takes forever to rehabilitate shoulders because we are all full of deeply engraved bad habits.
Good News!
You have the personal power to change this….ya ya ya….another lecture of how to…..I know! But honestly, why did nobody explain this to us scientifically. They just say, you can do it! You can do anything and then most of us are totally disappointed because we cannot do it! The power of all change lies deeper than you know.
This is exactly how I have done my 40 day sugar free stunt without any difficulty!
You have to power to speak to your subconscious at any given moment. When you feel you are going to make the wrong choice you just tell it “Sorry my friend, I am in charge and soon you will thank me for it” and the subconscious will eventually say, “Wow, I have a new habit of no sugar & a tighter tummy and a healthy lifestyle”. How do you know it has changed?
When you do the old habit, your mind will immediately kick in and tell you it doesn’t like what you just did. You will eat some sugar and you will get a tummy cramp, or feel ill, or instantaneously need water. Or when you let your tummy hang out, you won’t even notice it when the tummy muscles automatically contract again!
I remember going to a pharmacy the one day. I had the worst pain on my tummy and i just felt like I needed to give it some space, so I let it go (trying very hard to make a paunch). I started talking to the pharmacist about what he could give me as I had eaten something bad the night before (assuming some mild form of food poisoning). I was so irritated that day by the fact that every time I looked down at the tummy…the bloody thing went back in and it couldn’t give me the relief I needed. I never realized that subconsciously it was programmed to stay partially contracted due to all of my training, Pilates and dancing. Now I laugh about it, but that day I had to go and lie on the floor and consciously think of letting my tummy muscle go.
The same principle applies for so many things in our lives. To stop swearing, stop eating badly, stop being lazy, stop breaking our exercise routine….and the list goes on.
So do you want to know what the book is called?
‘The power of the subconscious mind’ Couple this with meditation and you have a powerful combination of living a life filled with meaning, vision and health.
Use it, don’t use it……this is the Healthy truth!
