This is Easy . . .

I go to a gym where we have semi-private training sessions. There are never more than 6 people in a group. Yesterday, we had four people. The goal is to get your brain to use muscles it has forgotten about. Our trainer, Theresa Adams Ford, the owner of Fitness Level 10, was asking us to do something I had never done before. I tried it and failed, and immediately thought I can't do this, this is hard. I tried again and failed, tried again and failed. Theresa stopped us and told us to make it easy. She told us to say,  "this is easy" and then make it easy. I said "this is easy" out loud and thought to myself, "make it easy". I did it!!  What changed? My mindset. My brain engaged with the muscles because I allowed it to. I did it over and over again. In fact, I did it every time I tried!

In the book, The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, he talks about an experiment performed by some Japanese Researchers who blindfolded a group of students and told them that their right arms were being rubbed with a poison ivy plant. Afterward, all 13 of the students' arms reacted with the classic symptoms of poison ivy. Not surprising until you find out that the plant used for the study wasn't poison ivy at all.  Their beliefs were actually strong enough to create the biological effects of poison ivy, even though no such plant had touched them. Then, on the students' other arm, the researchers rubbed actual poison ivy, but told them it was a harmless plant. Even though all 13 students were highly allergic, only two of them broke out into the poison ivy rash.

Our mind is far more powerful than we can imagine. Take time in the morning to visualize what you have to accomplish today. Tell yourself it is easy. See the difference it makes.