Our thoughts are powerful!
They are real, they are powerful - they are actual measureable units of energy. Thoughts are a biochemical electrical impulses; they are waves of energy that, as far as we can tell, penetrate all time and space.
Every single thought you have generates a physiological change in your body.
You are a product of all the thoughts you have had, feelings you have felt and actions you have taken, until now. And the thoughts you think today will determine your experiences tomorrow.
It is imperative that you learn to think and behave in a positive way, one that is in alignment with how you ultimately want to be, what you want to do and experience in life.
“ I admit - thoughts do influence the body” Albert Einstein
Negative thoughts are toxic, and they affect your body in a negative way. They weaken you, creating muscular tension, and a more acidic environment within the body. In this way they increase the likelihood of cancer since cancer cells thrive in an acidic environment. Positive thoughts, however, affect your body in a positive way. They make you feel more relaxed, centered and alert. They also stimulate the release of endorphins in your brain, reducing pain and increasing pleasure. Every single cell in your body is affected by every single thought you have. So you can see the importance and benefits of learning and practicing thinking in positive ways.
While we are all generally aware of our conscious thought it is important to become aware of our subconscious thoughts as well, since our subconscious mind is pretty much running the show. Many of us have a negative tape playing in our heads which is continually sending out negative messages. To create a more positive life-affirming outcome you must learn to reprogram your subconscious mind and transform these negative internal thoughts into healthy, life-affirming, positive ones. By looking closely at your beliefs and self-image, you can work on eliminating or limiting your negative ideas. Unfortunately, many of us have a fairly stubborn tendency to hold onto our old negative thoughts and self-images. It’s our comfort zone and we’ve become accustomed to our familiar concepts of reality. We tend to get stuck in these subconscious beliefs of inadequacy, fear and doubt. Most of these limiting thoughts and feelings stem from past incidences, beliefs, and experiences that we’ve internalized over the years and turned into our own personal truths. These negative concepts sabotage us and keep us from realizing our fullest growth potential unless and until we make a conscious decision to address them, release them and let them go.
To create change you must be willing to release your negative mental programming and step out of your comfort zone in order to make room for a positive, healthy self-image and belief system. This shift will allow you to more easily and effectively attract the experiences you want in your life.
Beliefs are just habitual thoughts and they can be changed through affirmations, positive self-talk, conscious behavior changes, and visualization techniques.
“ Our greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” William James Your self-image and your habits live in your subconscious mind; your subconscious mind functions in every cell of your body. This is the part of your mind that is connected to your higher self. The key is to tap into the vast power of your subconscious mind in order to use it to your advantage. We can actually make a conscious decision to change the content of our subconscious mind by ‘’checking in ‘’ with our higher selves daily. Finding some time to sit quietly without distractions will strengthen our connection to who we really are. Other techniques to connect to our subconscious mind include:
Meditation
Affirmations
Gratitude and appreciation
The use of positive focus techniques
We don’t always realize that the beliefs we hold, the thoughts we think, or the feelings we have can be toxic. I believe it is time to approach this territory. It’s time to realize the power of our beliefs about food and nutrition to impact our mind, our life, our physiology, our metabolism, our food choices, our health and our weight. Toxic beliefs are here, they circulate in the environment. We have absorbed them from culture, we inherit them from what we’ve learned growing up and we’ve adopted them from media. In many ways just being alive on planet earth - we’ve adopted them. Not your fault! One of the ways that you can begin to let go a belief that doesn’t work for you is to challenge it in a fierce way. This means using your mind and attention to regulate your thoughts. One of the most powerful toxic beliefs you may hold is that your “real life” will begin at some point in the future when you have your ideal weight, your ideal body, your ideal health or your ideal diet (or perhaps your ideal job, ideal home, ideal family, ideal friends etc.) and until then this is not the “real you” and only when you get to that ideal - then you will be happy, and things will be good. Here is the thing - your real life began when you were born and your real life begins everyday. This is it! Stop waiting for a future date when ‘’your real life can begin’’ based on your looks, your weight or your health, and instead affirm that this is in fact your life, right here, right now.
Start from where you are and acknowledge where you are. You need to accept where you are, as a way to get where you want to go. Often times the human mind gets conditioned to think I am going to get where I want to the more I avoid and distract myself from where I am right now. Our symptoms are here to be listened to, to be learned from, they have a higher lesson to teach us. When we learn the lessons, then the challenges, issues, unwanted habits and problems are free to leave. When we look outside ourselves for acceptance it never truly fills us; it is self-acceptance, and self -love that feed the soul. So, oddly enough, you have to begin your relationship with food and body now; begin your life anew, now, and that starts with accepting this body you have now and taking some time to hang with it and get to know it. To listen to it, to feel it as a way to call a ceasefire, to access where you are, to love what is so, then the system can relax and so you can begin the next step of your journey - the journey to get to where you want to go. The first step is the step of self-acceptance. "Here I am, this is me." Begin with what you have, as a way to create what you want. Your journey is unique to you; start with what you have, don’t compare yourself, don’t be in victim mode, it will pull you down. You choose your path; choose a path that has love, wakefulness, and consciousness. Comparison always brings misery and motivation of unkind words spoken to self; intense judgment of body parts puts us in survival physiology which signals the body to store weight, not build muscle and store fat. All of which contribute to a chronic low level stress response which then debilitates the body and inflames it. This attacks your weakest link causing you to step out of higher thought and putting your body into survival instinct comparison mode and fear. Choose a different life; this is about choosing your way of life; its choosing which way you want to point your compass. When you choose the direction that is in alignment with the highest expression of who you are then everything falls into place.
Jess’s nourishing wisdom I promise, you don’t have to starve, restrict or punish yourself in order to have a healthy body, a full life and a happy heart. If you struggle with food and body, my wish for you is to know that there is hope, you are not alone and your challenges are your greatest gifts. Let's put aside those habits from years of calorie counting, mirror shaming, self-sabotage and food guilt. Forget conflicting advice and feeling overwhelmed or confused about what to eat. Together we’ll explore a world beyond the old outdated strategies that keep you stuck. I offer a whole new way that truly delivers results and looks at people in a holistic and integrative way. I am committed to walking alongside you on your journey to true nourishment, radiant health and freedom with food and body. Learn:
Simple strategies for natural appetite regulation
Hidden contributors to weight gain
How to regulate mood through nourishing food
Powerful strategies for positive body image
How to let go of toxic dieting
Relaxation techniques that boost metabolism
Easy to practice tools to nourish body, mind, heart and soul.
Ginger Lemon Detox Drink
Ginger is a powerful detoxifier that helps to kick start your metabolism. Along with hydrating your body, this drink will help to stimulate bowel movements. On rising drink one large glass, but if you feel like more, go for it – Hydration is important.
Ingredients:
12-ounce spring or filtered water, at room temperature
Juice of ½ lemon
½ inch knob of fresh ginger root
Method: 1. Add lemon juice to the water 2. Finely grate the ginger on a chopping board, than squeeze the ginger pieces in your hand, letting the juice of the ginger drip through your fingers and into the glass of water. 3. Enjoy at room temperature upon rising for an amazing start to your day!
I am committed to walking alongside you on your journey to true nourishment, radiant health and freedom with food and body. Visit my website to learn the many ways you can work with me www.jessicahughes.ca Please feel free to forward this to anyone you feel would be interested.
Wishing you vibrant health XO Love & light - Jessica Hughes
Copyright © 2014 Jessica Hughes, All rights reserved. Conscious Thoughts Counselling Our mailing address is: Kelowna B.C.
