Mental Exercise

[Amanda Norris]

I've been following a running schedule to help me get from no running, up to being able to run for 30 minutes. This morning I went to the gym and jogged for 25 minutes. It was hard. But I noticed that the hardest part was in my mind. My body could easily handle the work. The difficulty was in keeping my mind telling my body to keep going.

This made me wonder if our minds behave similarly when we try to use the Law of Attraction. Lots of people complain about LoA not working for them. Maybe they're giving up to easily. Maybe it's more mental work than they think. My body was able to run for 25 minutes fairly easily. The big effort and struggle was in my mind. My mind wanted to give up and rest. I had to work mentally the whole time to keep going. I had to convince myself that I could do it, that it was possible. If I had any shadow of a doubt that I could accomplish my goal, I would have stopped. I had to constantly remind myself that I was capable of doing it. And I had to encourage myself that it was worth doing.

I think maybe some people don't realize how much mental effort may be required to use the LoA successfully. It might take constant affirmations that you are capable of achieving your goal, and that your goal is worth achieving. Even if it seems obvious that you would like to achieve your goal, how badly do you really want it? How much effort are you willing to invest in order to achieve it? You may not have to actually invest that effort, but you have to be willing to invest it. That way the universe knows you're actually serious, and will give you what you desire.

I don't know, this is just a theory. Let me know what you think.

[RT Wolf]

You're totally right about most things being in our head. Show me where fear and disappointment are in the real world outside our heads, you can't. But we are scared of such strange non-corporeal things like commitment or ridicule. Most people, including me, think wayyyy too much.

And I agree with you that mental discipline is a MUST in both regular life and in IM. I'd imagine that if you had absolute belief that you'd reach a goal, even if you did not believe in IM, you'd be able to get it.

[impaul99]

Absolutely, mental discipline and physical discipline are inter-related. If you give up easily mentally, than it doesn't matter how strong your body is. You will give up physically as well.

Give someone a complex mental problem to work on and see how quickly they give up trying. A person who can spend 1 hour working on it with intense focus is going to be much more easily trainable to run, for example, compared to someone who can't "command their mind" to focus on a complex problem for 2 minutes.

Persistance in mental thinking and physical effort typically mirror each other.

I think it all has to do with getting comfortable with persisting through temporary discomfort - whether it be mental or physical.

LoA requires intense mental shifts and belief pattern re-adjustments which can be very difficult to go through mentally. Something as simple as changing one global belief you've had for 20+ years can cause excruciating mental pain, having to re-evaluate everying in your life.

Most people would rather stay where they're at, because it's comfy, than to change their habits of thinking EVEN IF the changes are good for them.

If you haven't already, you might want to check out Nike's iPod plugin system that tracks your runs by putting a small sensor in your shoe and attachign it to your iPod Nano. You then download the data to their website so you can track your runs and setup friendly challenges with your friends or just set a goal for yourself to achieve. It's a cool motivating tool I used for running in the past.

[alexinspire]

What you post is simply great!

Lot's of people blame their body or other people for not being success as well. Out side can't change. But we can change the inner part and start from the mindset.

This really gives me freedom to get what I want by disappearing troubles and attraction.

[ahimel]

In my journal a while back, I was working through the idea of meditation - it seemed too simple to have all the benefits everyone claimed. But I decided I could see some benefit - it would be a nice thing to get my mind to actually think about what I wanted it to think about, instead of what it wanted to think about. It eventually became clear to me one night after driving home from a terrible meeting - replaying the conversations in my head wasn't helping anything at all, and I made up my mind not to do so... but it didn't work. My brain insisted on going back to all the insults and arguments, and I kept getting angrier and angrier. So I decided to take up meditation so I wouldn't have to do that anymore.

David Seah wrote a great article on arguments between his brain and body... we like to think our brains are in charge, but there's a lot of evidence against it.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Amanda Norris

I don't know, this is just a theory. Let me know what you think.

Ok, this is what I think.

Through practice, training etc, a person can cultivate endurance & persistence in specific activities. Those attributes of endurance and persistence, however, don't necessarily carry over into other activities.

Eg X may have a lot of endurance for running but not necessarily for solving complex maths equations. Y may have the endurance for solving complex maths equations, but not for running etc.

[mlbr23]

Persistence and discipline are qualities that can be cultivated in a person if she truly and deeply desires the end result that she is supposed to 'get' doing what she does.

But in terms of the mental discipline with respect to LOA that you are talking about, I find it to be true, but not in a quantitative sense - i.e. not by increasing the number of affirmations you write or chant or the length of time you meditate - but by increasing and intensifying the desire you have for your end goal