Can we summon up perfect health and wellbeing purely by wanting it? Some claim yes, calling on the Law of Attraction as popularised by the bestselling book The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne. I just don’t think it’s quite that simple. I’m sorry, but your body won’t miraculously become healthy and the pounds won’t melt away just because you wish they would.
However, I do believe that our mindset, the way we think, and certainly the way we behave, can affect our bodies – for better or worse. The field of positive psychology has proved that having a positive outlook can improve our health and, indeed, every aspect of our lives.
But why? The key seems to lie in the reticular activating system (RAS), a bundle of nerves in the brainstem that acts like a mental filter system. The RAS decides what is important information and what can be dumped as unnecessary trash. It also acts as a kind of algorithm, filtering the world so we see what we want to see.
So, it’s not a huge leap to a belief that we can potentially train the RAS by setting positive, healthy intentions. By focusing our conscious thoughts on what we want we can set up our internal subconscious filter to put us on track for positive wellbeing.
Treasure mapping or vision boarding is a good place to start. Words can be misinterpreted by the subconscious (it’s why affirmations have to be carefully tailored) but images are a universal language. Your subconscious won’t understand a command such as ‘I want to lose weight’ but it will understand an image of a healthy body. Take a large A3 piece of paper and stick on images that encapsulate how you want to look and feel. Take it beyond pictures of supermodels and add in healthy food and activities. Build a road map of where you want to be but include some of the scenery of how you might get there.
Then ask the miracle question. Think of your health or wellbeing goal – how would you know if the miracle happened and you had achieved your goal? Create a precise mental movie. How would you feel? What would you hear, say, smell? What would your friends and family say; how would they know a miracle had actually happened?
Now think how you might get to that place. What could you do today that would start the process? What tiny habits or micro-rituals could you coax into your life? What people could you enlist on your team to help you reach your goal?
Next up, bombard your subconscious with healthy, specific affirmations – ‘I enjoy fresh healthy food’; ‘I love to exercise’; ‘I make choices that support my wonderful heart/ liver/lungs’… They might sound cheesy but they will help convince that supercomputer in your brainstem to ditch the sugar, to cut down on the booze or to sign up for a dance class rather than binging on boxsets.
Is it magic? No, but it’s pretty damn close.
Jane’s book Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living (Kyle Books, £14.99) is available now. Follow her on social media as @exmoorjane
Article by
Jane Alexander
Wellbeing journalist and author
Jane Alexander is a holistic health hero, a mind-body-spirit expert, a travel and wellbeing journalist and author of the book Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living (Kyle Books, £14.99) available now.
Discover more
Article by
Jane Alexander
Wellbeing journalist and author
Jane Alexander is a holistic health hero, a mind-body-spirit expert, a travel and wellbeing journalist and author of the book Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living (Kyle Books, £14.99) available now.
Discover more
By Jane Alexander
