Recently I was looking to update my morning routine. I really wanted to exercise at least 15 minutes each morning. Probably not enough, but something is better than nothing. And I wanted to be able to give myself a dose of super confidence each morning, give myself a power surge to attract new clients based solely on the attitude that emanates from my spirit. Last month we talked about the inner critic and the empowering advocate as two little elves sitting on your shoulders whispering into your ears shaping how positive or negative your attitude is. Well, I wanted to give my empowering advocate a super dose of sugar water so that anyone I talked to couldn’t help but get a sugar high as well. But my morning time is limited. I’ve got places to go and people to see. So I combined them. Duh! I can exercise and speak my affirmations at the same time. And wouldn’t that anchor them into my muscle memory? Wouldn’t that utilize another channel into my unconscious mind? Doesn’t Tony Robbins do that? Well, with my dance and Meditation Training, why didn’t that occur to me before? See the picture of my brain burst?

For a few weeks now I’ve been saying affirmations while doing my exercises and I love it. Affirmations, if that term is new for you, are those things we say to ourselves that help us create the future. If we imagine ourselves with the goal completed, we’re putting ourselves into the mindset of already being there, which turns on the light and eases us right into the new level of proficiency or achievement.  Of course, you have to believe yourself, and after a while you will. And they work best if you say them out loud. They are more reinforcing when you say them and hear yourself saying them. But they are even more powerful when you move to them. When I do my exercises while saying how powerful I am or how I will get paid today, I feel like a cheerleader cheering myself on. When I do arm exercises, I feel like I’m punching and accenting each arm movement with the emphasis on the accented syllable of the word. When I do yoga sun salutations (a series of movements and postures that have you reaching, bending, stretching, and breathing) I have linked certain movements to certain words. For instance I’ve linked ‘wealth of experience’ to the opening of my arms. I think of “my unique talents’ when my legs are moving backwards because my legs enable me to dance. I come away feeling exhilarated and really excited and supercharged. I encourage you to write out about 10 affirmations, things you want to make happen, ways in which you really want to believe in yourself. Establish a few exercises that are repetitive. Now do your exercises while you say each of your affirmations aloud a few times.

I could go into a lot of brain and body research that explains that the mind is just not in the brain, that we can retrain new pathways in the brain, how enacting nonverbal facial and body habits can reshape your mental attitude and a whole lot of other stuff. The bottom line is that all that verbiage isn’t necessary. This works. That’s the bottom line.

Now instead of putting off my exercises, easily sloughing them off when any little thing comes up or dreading getting started, I’m eager to do them. I know I’ll feel great when I’m done. It’s self sustaining and self reinforcing. I’m feeling successful, victorious and triumphant these days. How about you? Give it a try!!