Affirmations & Visualization: Creating Your Reality

I am realizing once again just how important the mind is when it comes to achieving ours goals. Visualizing the outcome and saying affirmations lets you mind believe and therefore achieve your goals.

Back in 1995 when I first began my weight loss journey I used affirmations. I am now just realizing how important that was.  At the time I knew nothing about training and nutrition. I didn’t use a trainer or nutritionist. I bought a few books like Getting Stronger by Bill Pearl and then just started to gradually make better choices with my diet. How was it I succeeded in something that so many others fail at? How was it I never gained the weight back? Could it have been my mind? I am beginning to really think so.

I wrote my affirmations on 3x5 cards and read them whenever I had a spare minute. I read them on the bus, on breaks at work and before bed. I carried them in my pocket or backpack at all times.

Important keys for Affirmations

1.    Affirmation should be said as if it has already happened

2.    Affirmations should be short

3.    Repeat the affirmations and just let it into your mind

Examples of my affirmations during my weight loss

“I am lean and strong”

“My body burns fat efficiently”

“I am successful”

“My body craves healthy foods and responds to exercise”

Once I had lost the weight I somehow stopped doing affirmations. I am not sure why. Maybe I was so consume with things that were going on I forgot the best way to solve them.

I did do some visualization and affirmations while I was prepping for 2009 jr Nationals. I even had some affirmations set in m phone for little reminders. I also visualized winning first place. I say myself receiving the trophy. I also visualized winning overall. I had never even placed first in bodybuilding but I did not think of that I just saw myself in the pose down and the presentation of the overall trophy to me.  As it turns out I did win the overall at the 2009 Jr Nationals and brought a physique head and shoulders better than any previous show.

I found this video to be extremely motivating during my prep for North Americans. Coach Flowers' "I Am a Champion" speech

Now I am in the off season working toward 2012 USAs and it is time to really focus on just how much our mind influences the outcome. I need to STOP saying I have a wide waist. I will now say “My waist is small and tight” I will be visualizing dry, full, shredded muscle. I will see myself posing with confidence as if I am already an IFBB Pro. I will extend the affirmations to help heal “My joints, tendons and ligaments are strong and healthy” “I am flexible” This year everything will be 100% my training, my nutrition and most important my mind. I will be my best at USAs!!

Some quotes on visualization and how important the mindset is.

“When I was very young, I visualized myself being and having what it was I wanted. Mentally I never had any doubts about it. The mind is really so incredible. Before I won my first Mr. Universe, I walked around the tournament like I owned it. The title was already mine. I had won it so many times in my mind that there was no doubt I would win it. Then, when I moved on to the movies, the same thing. I visualized myself being a successful actor and earning big money. I could feel and taste success. I just knew it would all happen.” Arnold Schwarzenegger

"I have been visualizing this show since the first time I hit the stage. My love for the sport never wavered and I know this is my destiny. I am here to show people that they can have anything they want if they put their minds to it and are relentless in their pursuit. This is not about being big, shredded, or ego. This is about the unlimited potential of the human will. I am doing everything in my power to achieve my goals and in the process am living life on my terms…are you?

The Time is NOW…"

Dusty Hanshaw

 “Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force: he who knows this is ready to become something higher and stronger than a mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations; he who does this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder of his mental powers.” James Allen, author of As a Man Thinketh

"The mind is everything. The mind creates the reality that you will see manifested in your life" (Greene, FLEX, May 2011).

"The muscle and the mind must become one. One without the other is zero"
- Lee Haney

 "I believe there is an inner power that makes winners or losers. And the winners are the ones who really listen to the truth of their hearts."
- Sylvester Stallone