"Self-suggestion makes you master of yourself." – W. Clement Stone
Autosuggestion is one of the foundational tools for all fitness goal setting and goal setting in general. It's simply self-suggestion, a method by which the conscious mind communicates directly with the subconscious mind. The subconscious takes orders from the conscious mind without question and acts upon those orders through repeated statements or affirmations. These orders are not just limited to one sense but can come from any of the five and are more powerful the more senses you use.
In order to train the subconscious mind to change you must, on a daily basis, suggest to it the health or fitness goal you want to obtain. Not just on a daily basis but throughout the day repeating and reaffirming the goal you're seeking. However, repetition alone will have no impact. The conscious mind acts as a filter to the subconscious mind. The only way to get past this filter is through the use of autosuggestion mixed with strong emotion or feeling. The more feeling and emotion you can put into these commands to the subconscious, the faster and more powerfully the subconscious will act to bring about your goals.
In the previous three articles based on thoughts, desire, and faith, you were instructed to read aloud your written statement of your desire for better fitness at least twice a day, already seeing yourself as if you had already accomplished those goals. By affirming your goals daily, you communicated your desires directly to the subconscious, in absolute faith. Through repetition of this procedure you create habits favorable to the attainment of your fitness goals. And when you create a habit, an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary, then the hard part is over; the action becomes automatic.
If you learned to play a musical instrument in school, you couldn't play it the first time you picked it up just because you wanted to play it. It was hard at first, forcing yourself to practice everyday, starting as a beginner who couldn't read a note of music. That is until your practice became habit. Then you no longer thought about practicing, you just did it out of habit until one day you could play that instrument fairly well and perhaps even more than one instrument.
In more than one study and in actual practice with athletes, they were broken into two groups. The first group physically practiced 100% of the time. The second group practiced 50% of the time and the other 50% visualized in their head practicing perfectly. In almost all cases the second group performed as well or better than the first group who practiced 100% of the time.
Think about it. One group of athletes physically practiced 50% less yet had the same or better results than the other group who physically practiced 100% of the time.
That is the power of autosuggestion. A power anyone can harness to their benefit.
The next article in this series will focus on specialized knowledge.
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Written By: Jeff Baker
