Your Mind Is Stronger Than You know

Your mind is stronger than you know and your body is capable of doing far more than you believe.

Your mind will keep you protected from what it believes will harm or hurt you, even if you are going to be perfectly safe.

Your mind will give you ‘reasons’ or ‘excuses’ as to why you can’t do something, as a way to keep you safe. Procrastination is another method the mind uses.

We believe anything we tell ourselves, be it positive or negative. The majority of the time, it is the negative we choose to listen to. We are the only ones that put limits on ourselves.

Have you ever gone to do something new and thought it looked too hard, so you just say, “I can’t do it”? My hand is up.

How do you know you can’t do something if you haven’t even tried?

 

A Great Example Of Having Your Mind And Body Put To The Test!

I recently had my mind and body put to the test. After having some lower back issues, I stopped doing barbell squats. Because of poor posture and incorrect technique, I’d increased the back pain, so I just stopped doing them. I hadn’t done any barbell squats for over 18 months.

Training with Coach Jan recently, and she got me back under the bar. Focussing on technique without any load, and then with a light load. The correct technique felt weird, even the breathing was weird. So many things to think of while doing that one squat. But there were no issues with the lower back, in fact, the only thing it hurt, was my brain!

Trying to remember everything and complete the exercise correctly.

 

Once I mastered the technique without load, Coach Jan added some weight. My mind instantly went to “I can’t do this” and yet I knew deep down it had nothing to do with the weight and everything to do with my mind. I had several attempts to lift the bar from the rack and each time I bailed saying “I can’t do it’.

How Do You Work Through The Procrastination?

To prove it was all in my head, I tried lifting the bar from the rack using my incorrect technique; success. Thus, proving I can lift the weight and it is the new technique and my mind, (thinking it is keeping me safe) preventing me from lifting. I little bit of self-talk, letting Coach Jan know what was going on in my mind, followed by some encouragement from Coach Jan and I successfully lifted the bar and completed a set of squats. High 5 to Coach Jan!

Next time you find yourself saying “I can’t do that” but you haven’t even tried, ask yourself these questions:

• Why can’t I do it?
• Do I even want to do it?
• What am I afraid/scared of? (eg; what if I really can’t do it, people will see me fail, I’ll look silly, etc)
• How can I embrace this moment and give it my all?
• You won’t know if you CAN do it if you don’t even try.

You’ve got this and we got you!

Natalie Clarke P.T & P.D.C