What’s your inner voice telling you?

“We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light.” – Earl Nightingale

As a movement professional and coach I allow my clients to turn on their own light bulbs.  I’m there as a guide and a facilitator.  I’ll help them until they can do it themselves, but at Mind Body Balance we encourage our clients to be independent (not dependent on us).  There is a whole world for us to inspire to movement.

There is far greater joy and power to watch someone figure it out for themselves; and they do, as long as you create that “place” in which it’s possible that you will be there for them on the other side. Sometimes you just have to close your eyes, hope for the best and push through to the other side.

Fear is only as thick as a Kleenex.
The body is fluid and open to change.  The mind is concrete.
Overcome the concrete mind and the body is ready and willing to be freed.

When it comes to movement, we all have an Angel on one shoulder and the Devil on the other. I know I’m being cute, but think about it. We have the Angel saying, “Yes.  Yes.  Buy vegetables, attend your Pilates today.  You’ll feel better for doing so.”  Meanwhile the Devil is saying, “Ice cream, French fries, be a couch potato.   Come on, I’ve been doing this “plates” thing for five minutes it isn’t working.  Let’s leave.”
Okay so this isn’t a perfect situation of what’s in our head, but you get the point I’m trying to make. We each have two voices; one that is trying to demolish our goals and self-esteem and one that promotes our goals and self-esteem.  Some of us might have a whole committee to deal with.

I was fortunate to have a mother that said I could do anything, that I am a survivor.  At Mind Body Balance “Can’t” isn’t a word that is said in our studio.  As a matter of fact, it’s grounds for a stern “Kim talking to.”

I will accept phrases like:

• “If not today, tomorrow.”
• “Every time I try I get stronger.”
• “Yes, I can.”
• “I release and let go.”… Etc.

We all have a negative voice in our head.  My negative voice tells me things like, “I’m not good enough, strong enough or worthy enough to get what I want”, etc.  You have these voices too, maybe a mob of voices.  These whispers are always with us, good and bad.

Starting a yoga practice can help quiet these voices and put them into perspective. There is something to be said for being still, quiet, peaceful and content with our body and mind in this fast paced world. Our life paths take us through light and shadows, we constantly are faced with choices between good and evil, truth and lies, kindness and coldness.  These interior voices face off on the battlefield of the mind daily.

Changing our mind’s thoughts to positive (turning down the volume of those negative voices) takes practice.  They can be changed as easily as changing a channel on the television from Jerry Springer to the Discovery channel.  We are what we “turn on” at the moment.  It requires diligent repetition of positive statements, and constant, consistent, constructive application.

Daily practice.  Daily practice.  Daily practice.  Daily practice.  Did I say “Daily practice?”

Over time you will observe your interior voice change.  Along with this, will come a change in your results. Take charge of your inner voice today.  You can tell it what to tell you.  Choose the positive voice.  You are worth it, and more.

Is your inner dialogue overly critical? You deserve to be spoken to in encouraging ways. You have the power to change your critical inner voice to a loving and supportive one.

Post your most reoccurring negative voice here and then tell us how you are going to turn it into a positive. Feel free to help each other turn that negative voice into a positive.  Remember, we are a community at Mind Body Balance.  Inspire others to movement.

The Fear of Change

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, or the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” –Charles Darwin

How much do you fear change?  Are you too afraid of failure, or is it change?

Can you follow that fear? What if “x” happens?  Then what? What if a new “what” or “x” happens?  Then what?

Continue following this pattern working through every “what if” scenario you can come up with.

A person must take a risk, or make a mental change, to overcome a fear.

There is an old saying, “The only thing that likes change is a wet baby.”
Do they really though?  How many babies cry about being changed?  Why would they cry about such a thing? They cry about it, I feel, because they have to be still and they have to change their focus from what they were doing to being in the present moment.  I don’t know about you but I find it hard to slow down, to change my focus or to be still with a big emotion.  I’d like to cry about it to anyone who will listen. I have learned through my years though that this isn’t productive.  It would be hard to keep a support system around for long because they’d get sick of it.

I find it interesting that even though we know a change is better for us, will be good for us (we might already be practicing it and feeling and seeing the results) in a heartbeat we will abandon this change and return to old patterns. We long for the new but are terrified of it.

Sometimes it takes a whisper that knocks us to our knees and if we don’t listen it takes away our legs and if we still don’t listen we start to bleed until we are humbled.  Learn from it and change our patterns, weave a new web (a finer web) of life. We think during this “time of humbling” that our life is over, this “tragedy” will do us in, but as time goes by we realize we are better for it.

We should be allowed to make mistakes, big or small.  This is how we learn. Don’t beat yourself up or judge others that make mistakes because they will do better next time. Our victories in survival create in-depth understanding, compassion and empathy toward ourselves and others.

Love, life, health, experience, learning are on the other side of change. The stinking garbage becomes a nutrient base to grow a rose, a caterpillar becomes a butterfly and a seed becomes a flower. What if a caterpillar was afraid to come out of the cocoon?  We wouldn’t have a butterfly.   What if a seed was afraid to flower?  We’d lose so much of our beautiful world. Every experience is valuable.  What doesn’t kill us makes us better than before.

You are endlessly creative.  Health flows naturally from our creative endeavors. Put yourself out there.  Push through the barrier and become your best self today. Remember the hardest thing sometimes is walking through the door and asking for help. After that, you put one foot in front of the other.  Baby steps add up to something full of change, growth, love, health, etc.

So, I ask one more time and I encourage you to post your answer here: How big is the fear, the risk that you are afraid to take? Don’t be afraid to comment because you’ll be giving others inspiration to have courage too.

Mind Chatter

Beth Shaw, Founder of YogaFit, first introduced me to affirmations or mantras. I’ve been practicing them ever since. They are powerful and always help me overcome limiting beliefs. I’ve never thought about it until right now, but I guess I’ve used affirmations in my life before without giving them a name.  I’ve used them to overcome health obstacles.  I just always referred to them as my gift for positive thinking and my strong spiritual belief that I could make things happen in my life if I put my mind to it.

“We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light” – Earl Nightingale

Let’s face it, we all have this mind chatter.  Some of the time it’s negative and some of the time it’s positive. Some of us have just one voice while some of us have a mob of voices. I can have conversations in my head.  If we aren’t careful we can get trapped there.

Okay, so now you all are thinking I’m loopy but really, tell me you haven’t been grocery shopping… and you know you should be buying vegetables… but instead you buy chocolate cake and ice cream. This is what I mean by the two different types of voices. Oh! Here is another example for you.  How many times have you come up with every excuse known to man as to why you shouldn’t show up for exercise?  Believe me, I’ve heard a lot.  You can be on the treadmill already and still talk yourself into getting off and leaving.  You know you’ll feel better afterwards and it is good for your health and well-being.

These voices can either promote or demolish us, our goals and our self-esteem.  I can learn something the hard way and pick myself up and be more successful the next time around. She doesn’t understand why I do what I do but knows that because I’m doing it I will be successful at it. When your negative voice creeps in, you can always count on your mom to give you a good kick in the pants. What does your negative voice tell you?  “You aren’t good enough.  Why change now you’ll just fail.  You’ll never be beautiful.  You’re not worth the effort.”   Do you have this voice?  Maybe several voices? I meditate and practice yoga.  It helps me quiet the mind chatter and still my mind; even if for just a moment. I practice Pilates because it gives me inner strength and I love my body for it. I practice fitness coaching because it gives me the grace and patience to see that every step (no matter how small and what time I start) is better than giving in to the negativity that surrounds us. Our lives are always swaying between light and darkness; we face good and evil, truths and lies, kindness and bitterness daily. You can’t escape completely but you can control the volume of certain voices.  It requires perseverance, dedication, self-sacrifice, and hard work daily.

I’m writing this while watching the Stanley Cup playoffs.  I’m reminded of some keys to winning.
Avoid Turnovers. Why, when we are on the path to greater health, do we self-sabotage our efforts?  Every time you use the word “Don’t” you set yourself up for failure? “Don’t eat cake.”  What do you do?  You eat two pieces of cake. “Don’t miss an exercise session this week.”  What do you do?  You miss the whole month.  Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away from our goal.
Build Momentum.  It takes both physical and emotional training consistently over lifetime.  You want it overnight.  Well, you are just starting out on your journey to a new you, a new lifestyle.  It doesn’t happen overnight, because if it did we would miss out on the character it builds going from point A to point B and you wouldn’t understand how to celebrate once you got there.
Play like a champion. Workouts should be called “Playouts.” It isn’t about being perfect and your clock hasn’t struck zero yet, so start today in taking steps to becoming your best self.  Let me and the staff at Mind Body Balance help you become the champion I know you already are.

Consistency is Everything!

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” –Aristotle.

Wow, I think this is a very powerful statement. Do you know that it takes 21 days to change a habit and 21 months to change a lifestyle? If we are cruising along and we “fall down” on day 15, then the “21 days to a new habit” period starts over again.  The same goes for the 21 months.

Knowing how much fuel you use and how much fuel you put into your body is tangible, concrete. You can count it.  You can calculate your results with a small margin of error. Demonstrate this by keeping a journal for yourself.

Change your thoughts about your body and practice affirmations daily. If you are already doing this, do more of them and use them more often throughout your day.  Maybe even more importantly, stop that negative mind chatter.  Stop having negative thoughts about your body.  You can’t resent those that have mastered the skills of health, or have spiteful opinions of people changing their health for the better.

Give up:

 

• Being a victim,
• Resentfulness,
• Anger,
• Jealousy

 

Appreciate and love the body you have, and other’s bodies.  Once you’ve mastered your positive thoughts about your body, turn them into actions.

 

• Quality movement
• Quality nourishment

 

Start with a couple of  items, like taking a ten minute walk after every meal, then move to eating more vegetables during the week and watch how these small efforts bring joy to your life.  Watch how other health habits flow more easily into your life.  Notice how much easier work becomes.

At the end of the month, count the calories.  Add them up to the cumulative total that you’ve expended.  Have you spent more calories then you did before? If your answer is “Yes!” then congratulations on a job well done!  My movement calories are piled high with treasures for my body and I’m unloading them today!

Here is the secret. Keep doing this! Consistency is everything! A lot of us say “Alright! We made it!” and then we stop moving (after we just had amazing results) and just revert to our old, ingrained habits. Sometimes we think we’ve conquered the “mind thing” and don’t have to work at it any more.  No more affirmations.  Guess what?  We sink.  We “roller-coaster” again with our health and ask ourselves, “How did this happen?” Or we accomplish the thinking part, like the affirmations, and stop moving; like the affirmations will work like some magic dust over our body. Nope.  We need to go back to that tangible, concrete method.

• Fuel in – Fuel out.

Things are Looking Up!

With last year being my twentieth class reunion I’ve learned a couple of things. First off, they always hold them on Thanksgiving weekend which never works for me to attend. I wish they held it during the summer when I could attend. But, thanks to the invention of social media I’ve been able to connect with some old classmates and I’m enjoying learning about their lives. One of my classmates lives in Alaska. I love going to his page and seeing the beauty of the landscape (going to Alaska is a dream of mine). He titled one picture “Things are looking up.” and the camera angle was as if you were lying down at the bottom of the trees and took the picture facing up to the sky. These trees had to be old because they went for what seemed like miles. They were graceful, majestic and wise.

“If you look up, there are no limits.” –Japanese Proverb

A lot of people fail at exercise because they don’t do the “thinking part” to exercise. They just rush right out to the action stage. However, there is a big thinking part to living a healthy lifestyle. You have to have some goals and an action plan to get to your goals. You have to know at what stage of change you are at. You need to know what obstacles might get in your way and plan for them to get in your way. You need to have a strong internal motivator or connection with the real you so that when things get tough you hang in there.

So, I met this guy this week that came into the studio and said “Kim I have to get healthy.”

I said “Great! Have you thought about what it might take to reach your goals? How it might help you and how it might hurt you?”

He said “No! But I want to live and my doctor said I need to start exercising and so the journey has begun.” 

You need to think about what outcome you want? How are you going to get there? What the process might look like? What are you really willing to do, rearrange, sacrifice to get you started on the journey? One lady shared with me that she was going to have to sacrifice eating out at McDonald’s every day in order to afford my services and that she’d have to put in the effort of planning and packing meals in order to do this. In my studio and through my global services that I offer, everyone always gets one free session; it’s just the way I do business. I do this because you need to try on that service to see what it feels like so that you can start believing that it’s possible to get healthy and that you are worth the effort. Not to mention… you may be surprised that with little effort you can actually afford services such as a fitness coach/ personal trainer, Pilates Apparatus classes, Yoga, etc. Don’t let your limiting beliefs slow you down!

I have written a free eBook which you can find at this link http://www.mindbodybalance.com/archive/Plan%20for%20Results%20Ebook.pdf  that goes into more detail of how to plan for success not failure. I hope that it inspires you to become a goal making machine and you start getting healthy today! You will be surprised at how much sooner you reach your ideal self when you have something specific to shoot for!

Are You Wishing or Doing?

I’ve discovered just recently that those clients that call up and say “Well, I can work out at 6 p.m. on Tuesday or 5 a.m. on Wednesday only” just aren’t ready to do what it takes to get healthy. I’ve learned that when I meet their narrow demand that they are surprised, plug along for a few sessions and then develop excuse after excuse until they have exhausted all of them. At that point, we either do some “thinking” work or we part ways and they are encouraged to come back when they are truly ready. Clients are always surprised that I don’t take everyone as a client or that I fire them if they don’t make an honest effort to keep consistency in their program. I don’t do this because I’m perfect or snobby; I do this because it doesn’t do either of us any good to waste each others time or their money if they aren’t ready. Deciding to become healthy is like deciding to go to AA.  You just aren’t ready until you (and only you) are ready to make that change. Your doctor, work schedule, personal trainer, slimming club etc. can’t do the work for you.  Ultimately it comes down to you doing the hard work with guidance and support from others.

Before this life as fitness professional I was a successful manger. With that success came some compromises, one of which was my health. I remember the first day that I was on my way to the gym to meet my personal trainer. It was a beautiful sunny day outside, so she suggested a run before my weight routine. On the way back from my grueling run, I said “I thought I’d only have to do this for 6 months but I’m going to have to do this for the rest of my life, aren’t I?” She smiled back and said “Yep!” Somehow, that task seemed overwhelming. I wasn’t prepared for heroic efforts daily, weekly, monthly, annually. So, I looked for a way that I could sustain a healthy lifestyle forever. For me it was accountability, quality of life and self-efficacy development. Yes, I still struggle. Yes, I still need a coach to make me see that I’m forgetting myself. But, I’m successful because slow and steady wins the race every time!

Are you sitting in your office chair wishing you were healthy? Are you changing your negative thinking to positive thinking by saying your affirmations but then not acting on them? Remember, you just can’t pull weight loss out of the air or find it in a magic pill. Use an affirmation to build positive energy and self esteem so that you feel as though you can start moving.  Create repetition with your workouts both physically and emotionally. The act of “doing movement” along with positive beliefs creates the magic in the movement!

Now I know you’re thinking “Well Sally doesn’t have to do anything and she’s beautiful, strong, thin, etc.” Well great for Sally! Call her up and ask her to be honest about her efforts because I’d love to know what she is really doing and how long it lasts for her.

It is time that you worried about you and only you and your self care. Are you really exercising consistently? Are you sitting down to a mindful meal that is balanced between carbs, protein and fat? Or are you wishing for something that will never come?

“If people only knew how hard I worked to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.” — Michalangelo

Building Self Efficacy for your Fitness Goals is in the Phone!

I believe that my clients are intelligent and that with the World Wide Web they have a pretty good base of knowledge on what they need to do to get healthy. However, I believe the gap in actually accomplishing these goals starts with knowing how to apply this vast world of information to their lives. This is why I believe in Fitness Coaching.  I know you are wondering, “How do I get fit over the phone?”  It sounds a bit gimmicky, right?

Well, have you ever heard of a business coach or a life coach? It is very similar to this; only we are talking about fitness and well-being goals. We develop a personal health plan for you (one that fits your individual life) and helps you overcome your obstacles. The number one reason people are not successful with exercise is because they quit.  This system is designed to keep you motivated and moving, even when your life is busy. The secret is accountability (which most personal trainers don’t share with you).  By holding you accountable to someone other than yourself, the likelihood of sticking to your exercise program increases by over 2200% (yes, that’s really two thousand two hundred percent). Lack of motivation and commitment are the two main reasons why people drop out of an exercise program.

Stanford University has been studying this concept for over 24 years. If you’d like to learn more… Google “Telephone-Assisted Counseling for Physical Activity Cynthia M. Castro and Abby C. King” (Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, vol. 30(2), pp. 64-68, 2002).

Having a coach that holds you accountable to your goals is like gold. Your coach will guide you so that you don’t get distracted with life as easily. When you are healthy and fit you are energized, ready to lead life with vigor, you pay attention to your self-care. Currently, businesses are looking for ways to cut costs.  So do your part in keeping health care costs down. Start a conversation with your boss about low cost and no cost programs that can help inspire your co-workers to take better self-care steps. Who knows, you may just get healthy and secure your job all at once.

It is also not our doctor’s or healthcare provider’s responsibility to foot the bill to make us well. We need to be responsible for our own body and subsequent health. Did you know that 75% of diseases are preventable and are directly related to the lifestyle choices that we make? Here is a statistic that might be affecting your bottom line right now: obesity is associated with a 36% increase in healthcare spending (more than smoking or drinking). Private U.S. companies report that obesity costs them an estimated $45 billion annually in medical expenditures and work loss (Barrington & Rosen 2008).

Here is a link to a free e-book that I wrote.  Share it with the management at your place of employment:

http://www.mindbodybalance.com/archive/Healthy%20Business%20Next%20Exit%20Please.pdf

I teach my clients self-efficacy because we need to understand that our health is a personal responsibility and healthcare is there to help us in prevention and treatment of disease that we can’t prevent.

Try this affirmation on for size:

I keep a weekly phone call with my fitness coach because it improves my quality of health. My friends, family and co-workers are ringing my phone off the hook just to learn my secret to success.

Today is a Big Movement Day!

Movement can be physical movement and it can be psychological movement. Movement comes in many different forms. The first step is to think positive thoughts. These positive thoughts will help you lead a healthy life all around. But it isn’t enough to just sit there and think or dream of this healthy life.  You’ve got to take some action in order to get the job done.

“The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs.” –Vance Havener

 

Okay, I love this quote. Have you ever started a workout video, decided “This is work.” and sat back down on the couch to watch the rest of it… snacking and thinking “Wow! That is hard.  Look at them work.  Well, good for them.” Or move that stationary bike or total gym into the house just for it to be a clothes rack or plant stand?  What about… Okay, you’ve gotten yourself to the gym parking lot and now you’re sitting there and fighting with yourself about walking in.  So you finally win the argument to walk in and then you are on the equipment for five minutes and decide you are getting off because you’ve had enough. Be honest.  You know you’ve experienced these scenarios or something similar. Oh! What about this one?  You exercise faithfully everyday, beating yourself up to the point that you can barely walk to your car because your muscles are so fatigued and you do this because you’re running away from facing a big emotion instead.

Look, you are going to try a lot of different steps to a healthy lifestyle.  Some of those items you try aren’t going to work. For example, you might get those new running shoes to take up running and find out you just die, you may start a walking program with some friends to find out that there has been a mutiny and they’ve left you at the park to go to lunch, you might be in the living room exercising to find that the little pirates of the home have commandeered the TV for video games. The point is that life happens and it isn’t a reason to stop all healthy lifestyle behaviors. Once you get into the habit of doing these healthy habits on a daily basis, even if you think some of them won’t be successful, you still need to build your confidence and be optimistic because every little bit does make a difference in your total well being. Tony Robbins in his book Awaken the Giant Within calls this “massive, positive, constructive action on a daily bases” You have to be ready to try different behaviors, plan to make mistakes, to create awareness without judgment and to seek the help that you need.  Once you are prepared you will find great success in your efforts!

“Health is a blessing that money cannot buy.” Izaak Walton

“Of all the knowledge, the one most worth having is knowledge about health! The first requisite of a good life is to be a healthy person.” –Herbert Spencer

Decide today that you’ve been needing to do more UP UNTIL NOW and start to change your (and your family’s) health!

Change Your Attitude to a Winning Attitude!

“Sad facts: many people go throughout life, committing partial suicide –destroying their health, skin, heart, youth, beauty, talents, energies and creative qualities. Indeed, to learn how to be good to oneself is often more difficult than to learn how to be good to others.”  –Paul C. Bragg

A thought conceived over and over and over again becomes belief. Our thoughts then transmit or transfer a feeling in our body. This feeling then neurologically leads to a behavior. And the behavior leads to a result. Often times we’ve learned to get rid of a feeling by replacing it with food. Or, our thought of fear is bigger than reality which then leads us to the results we feel and see in our life. 87% of what we think about is made up, so why make our thoughts negative and self-destructing. If we can choose our thoughts, why not make them positive?  Let’s just go for the big pay off! The human brain fights everyday to be right. Your brain will fight to come up with ways to be right even if it’s made up.

Say you go into your favorite restaurant and you don’t know what you want to eat.  The server is standing there patiently waiting to take your order. Are you ordering a veggie omelet, side of fruit and some whole grain toast or are you ordering bacon, hash, eggs, pancakes and juice? Are you ordering shame, guilt, low self esteem, I’m worthless? Or are you ordering healthy, pride, and honor in your choice.

There is this thing called universal law or law of attraction. What you put your energy into you will receive. If you aren’t getting exactly what you want maybe you need to look at your thoughts. Maybe you need to change what you are ordering.

When a negative self defeating limiting belief thought pops up into your mind ask yourself these questions:

• “How does this thought honor you?
• What path does this honor?
• What payoff do you get?”

For example:

“I don’t see any evidence of physical problems, so my doctor must be wrong. The way I eat is not harmful to me.” Instead we could think: “I know mindless eating is not good for my body.  Although I was uncomfortable when my doctor pointed this out, I realize the impact unhealthy eating can have over the long run and I am aware of the consequences.”

“A strong body and a bright, happy or serene countenance can only result from the fine admittance of thoughts of joy and goodwill and serenity into the mind.”— James Allen

Today serve up exactly what you want!

HERE WE GO!

 

“When you put your head together with a Fitness Coach, powerful things happen”—Kimberly Searl

HERE WE GO!

How do you begin to become your Best Self in all of your perfectly imperfect glory?

Let go of your limiting beliefs.

Let go of what others think we should look like

So that you can make way for your best self

On Mind/ Body: Balance’s blog, you’ll find fitness advice, inspiration and healthy/ nutritional tips. I hope that each blog will cast off another layer of you that doesn’t work and help you get to the core of your best self.

I know you are scared of this process; that you are stuck and overwhelmed with the processes of becoming healthy.  You may even be confused, deeply confused, about how to know what is real and what is a gimmick.

I will support you and guide you along your journey (even after you’ve become your best self) so that you are successful in your maintenance phase. Because I know that the maintenance phase is where most people fail.

Figuring out the next step along your journey is tricky. I’ll start at the beginning.  We will take small steps together and you will become your best self! I’m grateful to be on the journey with you.

Gratitude, Kim