If you’re like me, you’ve had hours/days/weeks/months/years where you just don’t believe yourself able to change.
The same negative patterns keep emerging, despite your best intentions.
You start to miss workout sessions, seek out junk food, stay up way too late, live in your stress, everything is an automatic (usually negative) reaction based solely on feelings.
Boy, do I get it. When this happens emotionally in the brain, my counselor calls it the Amygdala hijack.
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According to healthline,com,
“The amygdala is a collection of cells near the base of the brain. There are two, one in each hemisphere or side of the brain. This is where emotions are given meaning, remembered, and attached to associations and responses to them (emotional memories).
The amygdala is considered to be part of the brain’s limbic system. It’s key to how you process strong emotions like fear and pleasure.”
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When we react in fear, anxiety, and stress over and over again, we train our amygdala to grow in power. Soon, this fight-or-flight response begins to take over, or hijack, the frontal lobe, which is the thinking, reasoning, decision-making, and planning part of our brain.
When we live in fight-or-flight even a little bit, we’re often unable to make healthy, reasonable decisions. Getting out of this mode takes training, takes practice.
In fact, I like to think of positive exercise | nutrition | mindset actions as little Frontal Lobe flexes.Ordered burger sans fries. #flex
Got up and went to bed instead of passing out on the couch. #flex
Honored my satiety and didn’t reach for a second glass of wine. #flex
Chose the heavier MedBall for my Finisher this morning. #flex
Doubled my serving of veggies at dinner tonight. #flex
Put my phone down while kids were playing next to me. #flex
Did my third set despite wanting to end my gym session early. #flex
And just like flexing muscles with weights in the gym makes them stronger, each mindset flex strengthens that calm, rational, thinking part of our brain. Less reacting, more preparing. Less captive to feelings, more empowered to make healthy decisions, not only in that moment, but again and again.
At Valeo, we call these flexes “1% wins.”
And you know what? Big change is just a series of 1% wins.
So, don’t let yourself believe the lie that you’ll never change.
Do a quick #flex and prove to yourself that you just did.
Every rep counts.
What 1% win will you celebrate today?
Jess + Team Valeo