I’m a walking cliché, but since the beginning of January, I’ve been working out. As many people do around the holidays, I had this immense desire to get leaner and stronger. I quit yoga and became a member at a barefoot fitness studio in my neighbourhood. For the past two months, I have been huffing and puffing away doing “barre fit” (I’m training like a dancer, yo!) and bootcamp-type classes that are as effective as they are painful so sh*t is getting done.
When I’m in the midst of yet another set of squats, lunges, or burpees, I’ll start displaying the classic signs of wanting to give up such as wincing, grunting, and moaning. When the instructor senses my or anyone else’s urge to stop and run screaming (because of fatigue, pain, or that doing it just plain sucks), she will exclaim, “Mind power! You’re stronger than you think!”
After the natural inclination to tell her what she can do with her “mind power” dissipates, the extra bit of energy and strength that I was convinced didn’t exist is found and I go on, damn it. And once again, I prove that yes indeed, I’m stronger than what my mind suggests. I am stronger than I think.
The mind has a great deal of power. The power of the mind is that your thoughts create. When you think you’re strong, you demonstrate that belief and therefore, you are strong. When you think you aren’t strong, you demonstrate that belief and therefore, you are not strong. The truth is you are strong but because of thinking you are not strong, that strength and energy that you do have left in the tank goes unused.
Think of your “mind power” as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Why do you tell yourself you aren’t strong when you indeed are? Great question. (And thank you for asking.) When it senses any sort of challenge, left to its own devices, the mind will naturally shift into it’s default fear-mode and produce a bunch of limiting thoughts in order to keep you small. The smaller you are, the safer you are. Thinking small leads to acting small.
If you let the mind’s power control you rather than you controlling it, you can easily end up convinced that you can’t handle what you’re facing.
The opposite of the mind being left to its own devices is mindfulness. When you are deliberate with your thoughts (forming thoughts with the purpose of helping you to create what you want) you are in control of and harnessing your mind’s power.
What can help you be more mindful about how limitless, expansive, and strong you truly are, is to look back and find your benchmarks – those times in your life when you dug deep and delivered the goods. Life has shown you time and time again that you are stronger than you think.
What past events can help you trust that you can and will rise?
You may or may not have had an opportunity to prove your physical strength, however throughout your life, you have met up with adversity and demonstrated your capacity to push through, get up again, and go the distance.
It’s natural to want to run screaming or collapse when that next set of burpees (literally or figuratively) comes along, but to be aware that what you can do and what your mind often suggests are two different things is where you will find strength.