P90X3: Mindset. Your New Body is Thoughts Away

Do you think the toughest part of P90X will be the workouts?  No doubt, they are difficult and challenging.  Would a better diet help?  Yes.  If you were in better shape right now, would the workouts be less difficult?  Yes.  If both of these things were present, would that guaranty your success?  No.  The one thing that will guarantee your success is your MINDSET.  No matter what your physical state of being is, if you are not mentally ready to do this, it will be nearly impossible to succeed.  That statement is not meant to apply only to P90X or P90X3.  It applies to your life.  What you do, in P90X-3, is going to change the way you view everything.

Your body is more energy than it is mass.  Think about that for a minute.  Your body's cells, at the atomic level, are made up of this tiny solid nucleus, surrounded by energy that bonds it to the other atoms.  The space between two atoms is far greater than the size of the atoms.  That energy is a part of this massive neural network in your body that is tied to your brain.  When your brain feels great, it affects all aspects of your body.  Also, when your brain feels awful, you feel that too.  Your brain reacts to whatever you feed it.  Feed it negative stimuli constantly, and your whole body is affected.  Feed it positive stimuli, the inverse.

Also, we do react to the world we live in.  We don't live in some jar, disconnected from external stimuli, and with the luxury and ability to just be a being in peaceful bliss.  That is true.  But, how you process that external stimuli to your brain, that IS in your control and that is your MINDSET.  You can paint almost anything in your life as positive or negative.  That's your choice.

Are you telling me that all I have to do is think positive thoughts to feel better?  Yes.  There is actually some evidence that it can affect physical healing and how your body deals with ailments, but even if you don't buy into that completely, processing in a positive manner will improve how you feel.

This may shock you, but your brain does not know the difference between thought and reality.  Locked away inside your body, your brain reacts to what is fed into it.  Whether you see something "real", or a picture of that same thing, your brain reacts to it the same way.  The same goes for any thoughts you have.  Your brain processes the thoughts you feed it.  Based on those thoughts, your brain then interacts with the neural net in your body and releases various hormones, etc.  Your physical response will react to the thoughts you fed your brain.

This is wonderful!!  How the heck does this relate to P90X??

The physical challenges ahead of you will be greatly assisted by your MINDSET.  If you picture yourself as thinner, in better shape, athletic...your mind will do everything in it's power to get your body there.  You have to do the work, but the physical work you are performing is assisted by the brain and how it programs the energy in your body.  How you view food, how you view exercise, how you process 'pain' and 'soreness'...all of that will dictate your rate of success.  If you constantly are telling yourself, "I want clean food.  Fruit, water, salad, nuts, vegetables.  I am hungry for that," then you will be shocked how your body will condition itself to satisfy that desire.  If you tell yourself, "The soreness and aches don't matter," you will be shocked how your body responds and allows a few more minutes of work, giving you an edge.  If you keep seeing yourself as a thinner person, and really focus on that, your brain will help to deliver that result.

MINDSET.  Find five positive affirmations.  Even if you don't feel them right now, especially if you don't feel them right now, write them down.  How do you want to be and feel ninety days from now?  Make those five short statements something you repeat to yourself over and over.  Make one about diet, make one about exercising, make one about how you want to look, make one about how you feel about yourself, and make one about removing something toxic from your life.  As you are going through your day, begin to see yourself in this way.  Repeat it over and over.  As you do all of the reps of the exercises, tell yourself these things over and over again.  It WILL become you.

Did you ever make up a story and then retell it so many times that you have a hard time distinguishing the reality from the made up?  That's because you told the story so many times that your brain stopped being able to tell the difference between "reality" and what you fed it.  You can tell your brain a different story.

What will your story be?  Write it today, five sentences, and begin making it your story.  Your brain won't know the difference.  And, in 90 days, you will see what that did for you.