Master the Conscious

Very few people ever consider mastering your consciousness a possibility, I have always disagreed. Its not the idea of being unachievable, its always been the path to doing so that has been difficult.

Even before my time in the US Navy, I have been attentive to detail, and not just in the tangible world. Often times, I enjoy sitting in silence contemplating.... whatever comes to mind. I dont consider myself alone here, I am sure many others do the same thing.

I am currently reading a book for weight loss, called "Burn the fat, feed the muscle" by Tom Venuto. Thats right, its spring time, and like many, I plan on losing weight. So whats the difference between "the many" and myself? I will succeed.

Probably the number one New Year's resolution is to lose weight, and within reason, obesity is an epidemic in America.

I haven't finished the book, in fact I have thumbed through some of the later chapters simply to judge its worth. However its after I started on the first chapter, that I really am intrigued.

Most any writing that talks about the mind and the wonders of how it works grabs my attention, this one just happened to be about weight loss. Even more than that though, is that it takes you to the path you need to walk down.

Everyone knows that little thing called "self-fulfilling prophecy", and we have all been haunted by it in some fashion, this book, this chapter, will help you get past it.

The first step, recognize, become aware of your thoughts. Tom compares our thoughts to advertising, and quotes psychologists who say we produce 60,000 thoughts a day. He later quotes Bob Proctor, who suggests altering a method for altering your negative thoughts, and making the positive.

I was once forced into training while working at a internet service provider. They had all their people working in call centers go to training, so we would learn what to say, and not to say. Word swapping, for example: instead of saying problem, call it an "issue".

While this training was years ago, I still remember the majority of it. Its exciting, in a weird, almost manipulative way. Your tricking the mind to think something, and in reference to "Burn the fat, feed the muscle" it is getting you to believe you can lose weight.

So once you can recognize these derogatory thoughts, you consciously stop them with another word or phrase, one that is positive. Simple really. "I am craving chocolate... STOP. I want some fruit." That kind of thing. Sounds silly huh?

All day long we hold a conversation with our selves, through our thoughts. The crazy things is that, you cant, not, think of something.

The book gives the following example: If I tell you to close your eyes, and not think about monkeys, you will have monkeys flying all over the place in your mind. Your mind cant help but think about monkeys, I mean, why not? Jungle Book anyone?

....I digress....

Use a keyword like "Next" or "Switch" during these situations, and instantly follow with a positive statement. Monkeys... Switch, Pandas! Pandas at the Zoo.

After practice, you will have less and less of the bad thoughts, as far as weight loss goes, you will be able to focus on achieving your goals. After all the only difference between a dream and a goal, is a plan.