Tweet

Self-Coaching Tip: Move Your Body, Change Your Thoughts

Written by: Carolyn Wilson-Elliott

Article Overview: For a large part of my life, my Inner Critic often stopped me from learning or doing something new by saying, "I'm not smart enough to learn this." And then, it reminded me of all the subjects in school that I struggled with like math and science

Self-Coaching Tip: Move Your Body, Change Your Thoughts

For a large part of my life, my Inner Critic often stopped me from learning or doing something new by saying, "I'm not smart enough to learn this." And then, it reminded me of all the subjects in school that I struggled with like math and science. I literally re-lived the pain and embarrassment and confusion of various math and science classes throughout my school years each time I tried to learn something new. Here was a belief about myself that was not supporting me.

I was convinced that my brain was just ‘too slow’ to understand new ideas. But, my story about ‘being slow’ was only a part of the picture. When I applied self-coaching to look at the whole picture, I discovered a few surprises. Remember, self-coaching includes looking at your body, emotion and thought patterns. Here’s what the whole picture looked like:

•Story/ Thoughts: I’m too slow to learn new ideas.

•Emotions: pain, embarrassment & confusion

•Body: quick, jerky and clumsy movements

For me, being stupid meant being slow. My body movements, however, were anything but slow. My breathing was fast and shallow. My movements (walking, talking, picking things up) were too fast and uncoordinated.

Somewhere along the line, my body, in a constant state of stress, had forgotten the pattern of slowing down. So, I used contrasting movement to learn how to re-gain control of my body. I began by speeding up my breathing and movements and then contrasted that with slower breathing and movements. When I noticed I was racing across the room, I slowed my walking to a crawl before resuming a more normal pace. When I became aware that I was talking very fast, I took a breath and forced myself to speak more slowly. When I recognized that I was racing through housework, I stopped and did it in slow motion for a moment. When I resumed the housework, my movements were more coordinated and graceful.

It only took a few days before I began noticing the difference in my thoughts and reactions to situations. First, my Inner Critic quieted down enough so I couldremember that some subjects in school were very easy for me. English, French, andHistory classes were so much fun for me that they didn’t seem like work. When I came into contact with other people, my thoughts were calmer and I could access many different options in a situation. My responses became more appropriate for the situations and people were being kind, rather than attacking me.

By changing my body movements, I easily and permanently changed my belief about myself. I no longer think of myself as stupid. The thoughts you think about your self are just patterns. They are held in place by emotional and body patterns. And the body pattern is the most predominant pattern. By changing your body’s pattern, by moving it differently, you can change very deep-seated beliefs that no longer serve you.

Related Articles
  POOF! Health Issues Gone
  Phenomenological Perspective: That which you believe will become your reality.
  Finding Meaningful Work Starts With Self Awareness
  Act In Spite of Your Mood
  Your First Thoughts Each Day Will Determine Your Sales Results at Year’s End

Article Tags: body movements, carolyn wilsonelliot, inner critic, quantum spirit international, riskfree selfcoaching program



Related Forum Posts
Re: American Idol meets venture capital seeks innovative technol - That's a very facsinating concept. Has anyone else checked out the Hatchery website? Thoughts?
New Women Entrepreneurs to Profile - Thanks Mikki! We've got Madam C.J. Walker on the list as well as Anita Roddick (The Body Shop), Mary Kay Ash, and Ruth Handler (Mattel). I'm not too familiar with the Debbie Fields story - what do you know about it? Sheldon, Are you connected with these two companies? What can you tell me about them?
Body Farm? - [quote:10go0a4k]Dr Bill Bass of the University of Tennessee Body Farm.[/quote:10go0a4k] I'm almost afraid to ask what this is?
Re: Management Processes? - Great question Aaron. Like you and Kevin have indicated, we can get a lot done by creating a management process. I like to: Prioritize what I need to do in order of importance. Pick the top priority item. Brainstorm possible tasks. Pick a task and complete it. Move on to the next task. I find this helps break things down into manageable pieces. It also helps just to take small actions. [Link removed by forum admin]
Canadian Entrepreneurs - Hi Evan, I think you should profile Anita from the Body Shop. Is she Canadian? It would be nice to get a Canadian perspective for all of us who are starting businesses in Canada. Do you find th stories of the entrepreneurs vary depending on country? Thanks for all these great stories - it helps inspire us! Jessica


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The five pillars of internet marketing strategy

Leading from Authenticity is a Beautiful Thing

How To Improve Your CTA (Call To Action)

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.