Self-sabotage comes in many forms. For some of us, it’s hitting snooze on our alarm when we had planned get up early to go to gym. For others, it’s coming down with a cold the week before a new job, or missing a connecting flight on your long-awaited holiday. But when it comes to mental blocks that keep us from reaching our health goals, there’s a few simple ways to break them down. Cassie Mendoza-Jones, naturopath, nutritionist, herbalist and founder of Elevate Vitality shares tips on how to achieve your weight loss goals and beat mental blocks with these expert tips and tricks.
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Acknowledge them, and surrender to them
The first step to breaking down and working through mental blocks is to work out where your blocks are coming up for you, and what they look like. Do you ‘forget’ to take a homemade lunch to work every Monday because you feel so hungover from the weekend that your only choice is greasy takeaway? Or maybe you simply find yourself in the habit of eating a small chocolate bar every day and feel ‘stuck’, unable to change.
Journal out your feelings and emotions each time you feel as if you’re holding yourself back and you will soon start to see a pattern. Like they say, admitting it is the first step. Now that you have a deeper awareness of what’s going on, notice each time that particular block comes up and don’t try to push it away. Fully embrace it, and feel safe in acknowledging its presence. Being aware of your emotions will create more awareness around your actions and reactions. This in turn will allow you to create space for making better choices when it comes to your health and wellbeing.
Mental block: you think you’ll fail because of past experiences
Energy flows where intention goes. If you set a new goal but go into it thinking you will fail, you’re not even giving yourself a chance to succeed. Prove yourself wrong. You can succeed. You can hit your health targets, you can elevate your vitality, improve your mood, reduce anxiety, lose weight, tone up or do anything else you set your mind to. Create realistic goals, set achievable time-frames, go in with a positive mindset, don’t wait for outside validation, and watch yourself blast through your mental blocks.
Mental block: you think you’ve lost motivation
Motivation is just a feeling, and it will come and go. Consistency, by its very definition, is always there. Aim for consistency, and don’t reply purely on your motivation. You’re human, and just like you won’t be completely happy or completely sad all day everyday, you’ll likely have days where you feel more motivated and days where you feel it wane. Consistency is key. It’s what you do most of the time that really counts.
Mental block: you think you have to be ‘all or nothing’
Let me tell you… you don’t! How clichéd to be ‘all or nothing’. How freeing would it feel to be able to decide for yourself how you’d like to react, instead of going by some blueprint you created for yourself months or years ago? Go back to step one – recognise how you’re feeling, surrender to the feelings, embrace all aspects of the process of creating change (this includes those icky feelings that come right before the juicy, beautiful ones). You don’t need to be all or nothing. You can eat half a piece of cake and stop there. You can work out 5 times a week and not 8. The best way to prove this theory is to let go a little. Then you’ll see that you can create your own rules.
