For weight loss motivation, put your focus back on you.
Health and wellness mean self-care and self-love. Part of the Breakthrough M2 weight loss program is learning to redirect your mental energy inward, by placing your attention on your own needs.
Recently, a client asked to sit down with me because she really wanted to start the diet again, but she just didn’t have the motivation. She told me, lately, her family life had been a little crazy, and her job was very stressful. More and more, she found herself craving things, giving in to those cravings, and not really caring. Meanwhile, she’d put on a few pounds, and wanted to take off more from the last time she did the program.
Focusing Outwards
Over the past six months, I have been putting quite a few things in place personally. I have been more and more consistent with my morning routine – walking, “I am’s statements,” “I’m doing’s,” journaling and meditation. Just a few weeks ago, the “Healing with Horses” event happened. It was not stressful, but I had a lot of mental energy going out to make sure everything happened the way it should. I also just started my MasterPeace Mentoring group. This has been terrific, but has required a lot of planning and creating. Meanwhile, on the home front, every Wednesday night, the eight adults in our immediate family get together and discuss our book of the month, our weekly goals, and occasional struggles when we didn’t meet our previous weeks’ goals. This is my forte, so I’ve kind of been the leader of the homegroup, which comes with responsibility and thought about what to do next, who might be struggling, and why.
Interestingly enough, my morning routine has been cut short at times over the past three weeks. I have not been as consistent with walking, I’ve been skipping my “I am statements” here and there, and I haven’t been setting my intentions (“I’m doings”) daily like I was. I also noticed I have not felt like doing these things, either. It was taking more mental energy to convince myself to get up and go or sit and write.
Your energy goes where you place your attention
This mental struggle for motivation really bothered me, because that is not something I have struggled with for a while. I had to ask myself why this might be happening. Then I started reading Dr. Joe Dispenza’s “Becoming Supernatural,” and it all made sense!
This is a very easy concept: Wherever you place your attention is where your energy goes. So, think about that for a minute. I get up in the morning, and my thoughts are going outward to: my eight different family members, my seven group members’ journeys with Heather and me, the MasterPeace curriculum, my business, and the horse event. I’m sure there is more, but we can leave it at that.
Where was my focus from the minute I woke up? It was outside of me. It was all my energy leaving in an outward direction, focused on other people and other things. So how did this affect me? Because I did not completely stop my morning routine all together, I was not noticing the slow deflation of “me energy.” But as the weeks went by, I was slowly losing steam to do things for me. My motivation was lacking, and it was harder and harder for me to love myself, to take care of me.
Don’t slack on your Inner Game
As soon as I realized how this was affecting me, I immediately took a walk (even though it was night time, not my usual morning walk). I listened to my voice recordings of affirmations, and decided to start my morning routine again full-on!
As soon as you start focusing on your needs, and put your attention back on you, energy is redirected in an inward direction! It really is that easy. Part of our program of “weight loss and transformation” includes working on the “Inner Game,” and that is what has to be done if you want to lose the weight and keep it off. You cannot slack on yourself.
The easiest and most efficient way to direct energy back toward you is to sit and meditate. My life has changed dramatically since I started doing this, and I cannot encourage you enough to start a daily practice of meditation. When I first started this, I did guided meditations on YouTube, and now, 9 months later, I can sit still, with no earbuds in, and meditate without my mind wandering too much at all. I do this for 20 minutes, twice a day, and I’ll never stop! Focus on you, and you will never run out of energy, motivation, and love.
very inspiring and just what I need to hear. I like to walk and keep giving myself excuses to not walk. i’ll start on my day 1!
Thank You Valerie! There is nothing like multi-tasking 🙂