Are you hearing voices in your head?
I hope your 2024 is off to a fantastic start!
Whether you’re already crushing your goals or you’re wandering around trying to figure out what day it is (🤪like me!), I’m proud of you and I see you.
Sometimes, we just need to be told those two simple statements.
And if you’re curious, today is Friday…you’re welcome.
Today, I thought it would be fun to dive into one of the areas of mindset coaching that I work on most frequently with my coaching clients.
The voices in their heads…
Or more accurately, the LACK of voices in their heads.
There is an inner dialogue going on constantly throughout your body, whether you recognize it or not. Your brain is constantly talking to the rest of your body.
And your brain is constantly talking to itself, or maybe it’s more accurate to say it’s talking to you? Either way, don’t try to take this too literally or you’re going to make your head spin!
This constant communication is what keeps us safe and stops us from doing things that could put us in danger.
It tells you not to walk out into traffic and it keeps you from making snippy comments to the stranger in front of you at the grocery store.
That voice also tells you when you’re happy or sad, when you should reach out and help someone in need, and to stop doing something that annoys your loved ones.
That inner voice also tells you when you should eat food or drink water.
Unfortunately, many people have learned to tune out this inner voice over the years.
We’re often taught that our feelings don’t matter or that our instincts are wrong. And that crazy-wild human brain of ours has become really good at talking us out of making changes to our health.
Your brain wants to be comfy and it doesn’t like change.
This is important to understand in the context of making health changes. According to your brain, it’s much better to continue to sit on the couch eating chips than to go to the gym because it’s what you’ve always done.
Even though we all know that sitting on the couch and eating chips every day is not healthy. But your brain doesn’t care.
It sees the idea of going to the gym as more “dangerous” than the potential to develop heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, ect. because it would rather not change.
*See how that first thought is not true but the second one is? Your brain doesn’t care.*
Your brain creates evidence as to why it’s better to stay home and eat those chips:
You might hurt yourself at the gym.
A family member might get mad at you for spending time on yourself rather than doing things for the family.
You would need to buy new gym clothes.
You would need to buy new shoes.
Your muscles might be sore afterward.
And on and on.
Sure, these statements could be true. But are they really?
What else could happen if you start going to the gym?
You could build more muscle.
Your back pain could lessen.
You could meet new people.
You could lose weight.
You could have more energy.
And on and on.
We often don’t give equal time to think about everything that could go right with that change. We just default to looking for the negative.
Your brain goes to the dark side because it doesn’t want to change.
But you do want to change! So now what?
This is where mindset coaching comes in handy.
Here’s a simple task that works for any change or, really, any decision you need or want to make. I use this all the time with my coaching clients. It’s so helpful that many of them have taught their friends and family members to do this as well.
Get out a piece of paper or open a blank document on your computer.
Set a time for 10 minutes.
Think of the health goal you want to make and answer the following three questions by writing as much down as you can. Keep going for the entire time. Don’t filter, just get everything out of your head.
What could go wrong when I make this change?
What could go right when I make this change?
When have I been successful with making a similar change in the past?
Don’t think, just go!
Your brain is probably going to struggle to come up with positive things. And that’s ok, it’s totally normal. Nothing has gone wrong.
These are not new thoughts. They were there all the time, you’re just bringing them to the surface now.
This is going to give you evidence.
Remember, your brain doesn’t want to change so it will tell you all the reasons not to change. When you force it to think of positive things instead, it puts a different spin on things.
You just made a big list of reasons why this can work! Good job!
Now, you can use this list to continue cleaning up your thoughts. Usually, I recommend repeating this process and answering questions 2 and 3 daily, until you notice a shift in your thinking. The more evidence you give yourself as to why this can work, the easier time you will have achieving your goal.
With time, you can actually rewire your brain with this technique.
I used this process with Mary, a former health coaching client. She was struggling to use her food journal and record what she was eating. She knew it would help her identify the foods that were causing her digestive issues, but she just couldn’t get herself to do it.
Mary quickly realized that she didn’t want to record her food because she was going to judge herself if she missed recording a meal or two. And that made her feel sad.
After about a week of daily practice with this mindset work, Mary realized that she was already judging herself for not doing the food journal at all.
There was still judgment, it was just in a different place.
Mary made a deal with herself. Instead of recording 100% of the food she eats, she was going to record for 5 days each week. This gave her some wiggle room and also gave her permission to miss a day or two (not that she needed permission, it just felt better for Mary).
Guess what happened? Mary was successful! She identified several “trigger” foods and we were able to work to replace those and alleviate her digestive distress.
Mary would have continued struggling to record her food if she hadn’t put in the time to clean up her thoughts and figure out what was holding her back.
It’s a small change that seems too easy, but oftentimes, those small changes are what matter the most!
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