Affirmations won’t work or have no impact if they are not well formed and don’t ‘feel’ true when you say them out loud. Your priority from now on is to listen to what you say and think. Start catching your thoughts and immediately rephrase them if you judge that they are not serving you. You will quickly become very good at it.

More likely, if you believe that being healthy is hard, then you are telling your brain and programming it to make it difficult for you. Every time you think about health, you are giving a reason for your brain to make it hard for you.

Have you ever heard yourself say: “No matter how hard I work or what I do, I can’t get healthy.” Have you ever thought that this belief, and its constant repetition in your head, might be the main reason that has kept you from getting healthy all these years?

When you rephrase an affirmation, you have to make sure that it feels right when you say it out loud. If the voice inside your head says: “Yeah, right, totally untrue”, then the affirmation is not well phrased. Find a way to change the affirmation until it sits well with you and that you feel that it is believable.

Some rephrasing examples:

As I am working on my diet, I am getting healthier every day.

I can feel progress with my health as I am working towards it.

I am in the process of getting healthy and fit.

I am on my way to my ideal weight. It’s working.

Here is another common limiting belief: “I don’t have Willpower”.

You can’t be buying every single junk food at the grocery store. You more likely walk past hundreds of unhealthy treats every time you shop. Somehow, you do have willpower for these. You do avoid a lot of unhealthy behaviours daily. You do have willpower for that. You get up in the morning, you show up to work, somehow. You have willpower for that too. It is inside you. You got it. You can apply it to anything you want. The problem is that for some specific foods, we have given ourselves permission to succumb. You have programmed yourself to be weak in the presence of the said temptation. Believing that certain foods like chocolate, pastries, chips, etc. have control over you is not serving you. You want to catch these thoughts and start rephrasing them right away, as soon as you become aware of them.

Repeat phrases like:

I have control over what I eat.

I nourish myself with healthy food.

I am willing to learn how it feels to have control over food.

I am in the process of choosing healthy food to nourish my body.

Here is another example of a limiting belief: “Being healthy is a lot of work”.

Firstly, what is more work? Being healthy or unhealthy? When I look at unhealthy people, I can’t help but appreciate how amazing it feels to have my health. I am so grateful for being able to run to the store quickly and come back with heavy bags, thinking nothing of it. I am so grateful that I get to do whatever I want and never have to cancel plans because I am not feeling great. My heart is strong, and my immune system is bullet-proofing me against a virus that everyone around me seems to catch but me.

The fruit and veggies and antioxidants that I abundantly nourish myself with making my skin glow and my hair shine so that I don’t have to spend a fortune or an enormous amount of time on make-up and hair products. I am thankful for not having to replace my favourite clothes every season because I outgrew them. I can wear whatever I want, and I am always sure it will fit me. When I go out to an event, I can choose my favourite dress, without worrying about being able to get into it. When I play with our grandson, I can run almost as fast as him and I can keep up with his active lifestyle. I can have a long day of presenting conferences for four to six hours of standing, and still, have energy at the end of the day for socializing. I think that being healthy makes everything so much easier. It is actually the reverse. Being unhealthy is a lot of work.

You can start rephrasing your belief with:

Being healthy is rewarding.

Being healthy is worth it.

Being healthy makes my life easy.

I am in the process of making being healthy easier.

I am willing to learn how it feels to think that being healthy is easy.

I am changing my normal so that being healthy becomes easy.

This was an excerpt from my book THINK Yourself® HEALTHY.