Tuesday 17th March 2009 - The Importance of Self

This blog is designed to be more focussed on YOU and the Importance of SELF.

This is the part of you that we don't often speak about as we have been brought up to believe that being aware of one's self is vain, and it's considered egotistical to care about our looks and appearance.

Let's talk about Self Love VS Self Loathe and Self Belief VS Self Doubt.

We often speak about connecting the Mind with the Body, and then in practice do everything to ensure that never happens. We discourage belief and abilities with criticisms of vanity that do more harm than good and in fact can lead to a loathing of the very "home in which we live - our bodies".

Well I'm going to go on the record and say that this "disconnect" directly contributes to affecting our esteem and confidence levels, which are both normally prefaced with the word "self". These false perceptions then perpetuate and lead to our actions most of which present in and lead to our ill health conditions.

Why do we do this?
How do we change it?
Well there is only one person in that conversation and that is YOU.

This came to me the day when I was teaching a Spin class and noticed that there always seems to be a high level of doubt over an individual's fitness level. Most people have little self belief in their ability to work with intensity as it brings on "higher pain levels".

Examples of negative mindspeak are:
"It will hurt if I work that hard"
"I'm pretty sure I can't do that"
"I have never tried that so it's probably too late for me"

So here is what I do. I talk to the class when we are about to work harder about the voices that they will hear in their head. Not the voices of reason but in fact the exact opposite, the voices of doubt.

I tell them to tune them out and I try to encourage them to focus on "positive affirmations" as we start to climb big hills on the bike such as "power, strength and endurance".

This simple mantra is designed to push through their own self held barriers and get them to do the following. TRY IT and then I work to challenge those barriers again with sayings such as "If you can, You Must" and also "Don't just do it - Do It Well".

This shifting from Self Doubt to Self Belief more often than not, empowers them through the difficult parts of the class and there is then a building of Self Confidence in their ability, to do what they previously wouldn't have tried.

I then try to build on that by allowing them a moment of personal congratulations where they need to express inwardly some Self Pride. This is sometimes the first time that many have actually focussed on Self Love, which I think is paramount to a "healthy mind / healthy body".

To put that in perspective, we often guage or assess ourselves by "the stranger in the mirror" (meaning we don't actually see ourselves clearly) with a personal rating of Self Loathe. We will always notice what we don't like, when it comes to the physical presence that we have with our body. No well intentioned comment from a friend or family member will change what WE see unless WE start to believe and covet Self Love.

Then and only then, will we start to begin to make the shift to a healthier place in our heads of Self Belief leading to Self Love that hopefully will increase Self Respect.

Try these strategies with yourself or your friends - It's Your Body - It's Your Life !!