Kitabı oku: «Easy Way to Get And Stay Slim. Mindset For Weight Loss», sayfa 6

Just one last piece!

– Nobody sees or hears what she is doing. Zina sits down in front of the hamburger and looks at it. The hamburger looks back at her. Nietzsche wrote: “And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.”

So, the “abyss” is gazing into Zina. What is she thinking about at this moment?

– I’ll eat only half of the hamburger. It won’t change anything.

– Exactly!

Everybody knows: half of a hamburger can’t ruin your life.

She thinks: “No, I shouldn’t do it.”

Zina has so-called withdrawal syndrome. She takes half of the hamburger and thinks: “I’ll finish this piece – and stop eating.”

– Then she takes another hamburger, and then the third one…

– Wait a little, of course, it will happen, but a little later! ☺

Zina starts chewing hamburger and… How does it taste?

– Amazing…

– It is magnificent! Zina got a blackout. She is totally out of order. Now all her thoughts are about…

– Potato.

– Why about potato? Zina is like a vampire, who has tasted the blood and then attacks anyone to get more… ☺ She tried the hamburger, and now her mind moves to the plate or to the pot with eight hamburgers! “Oh my… I cooked them by myself! Maybe…”

Zina grabs another hamburger, thinking: “It is the last one!” She stuffs it into her mouth (as if someone rushes into the room in a minute and takes away all hamburgers) and starts to chew it ravenously!

At this moment, she has a blackout. Her mind shuts off.

As participants of our sessions say, Zina meets Mr. Eating Frenzy! Of course, together they could eat all eight hamburgers! ☺ If eight hamburgers are too much for her, then, when devouring the sixth hamburger and feeling it getting caught in her throat, Zina starts to curse herself.

– Silly idiot.

– Yes, I believe you! I think you are honest. You speak from your heart! What else did you say?

– Why have I eaten so much?

– You sound too intelligent: “Why have I eaten so much?”

Imagine a forty-year-old person who has just devoured eight hamburgers. She is alone in the kitchen. She has just ruined his diet. No doubt, the woman would use some bad words. One of participants from another group assumed: “Well, she said to herself: “Oh, what a spineless piggy I am!”

– Do you believe it? Do you think Zina would say this?

– Dummy, idiot!

– What other names would she call herself in such a case? Perhaps some domestic animals?

– Pig!

– Pig. Yes, it’s possible. Maybe some horned animal then?

– Cow.

– Cow!

– ☺

– All the other words she uses should be bleeped…

– ☺

– …cause I’m sure she kicked herself to the fullest. What does she feel? What emotions is she experiencing?

– She feels guilty.

– Precisely. Of course, she feels guilty. Is she hurt?

– She suffered for so long…

– Moment of weakness – and she ruined everything. ☺

– Yes! Is she angry?

– Yes.

– So, what does she feel finally?

– She feels sorry for herself.

– Of course. Self-pity. Zina knows how to comfort herself. Some sweets will help a lot! No, Galina, hamburger won’t work in this case. It’s hard to comfort yourself with a hamburger.

– ☺

– She raises her hand like this… and throws it down!

– Fine!

– Screw it!

– Life is ruined, all labor is for nothing. Everything is rotten. Zina opens fridge, buffet… As you remember, she bought lots of food recently, so her food reserves are huge! Zina eats one treat after another, comforting herself, searching for relief from negative emotions. Actually, she was going to eat some sweets.

– ☺

– Instead, she ate up… Much more than she planned. Reflexively. Sweets and chocolates jump into her mouth one after another! Zina opens her mouth, and they jump into it – hop-hop! The next moment she sits in her chair, cursing herself: “How could you…” She calls herself bad names: “Idiot, pig, cow, dummy…” She is angry and offended. And she blames herself again! It’s late evening, almost night. Her family is sleeping, and Zina is “washing dishes” in her “favorite” room.

– ☺

– Then she can’t eat anymore. Her stomach is full. Of course, she decides that…

– Again.

– It’s time to lose weight. ☺

– It’s time to lose weight.

– ☺

– Zina goes to her bedroom, thinking that all she needs for success is another diet, cause this one was “improper”. Besides, she feels guilty. She failed the diet! Zina blames herself. Therefore, she has to wash the guilt away. With blood or something! Zina feels that she has to be punished! She has to do something.

Do you have any ideas? What can wash the guilt away? What should she get?

– Punishment!

– Hunger!

– Yes, as an option!

Hunger. Long-time starvation, perhaps, even without drinking water. Dry starving, as they call it. I can’t believe that some people keep a diet without drinking any water.

Jogging!

“Well, what else can I do to myself?” Enema!

“Acupuncture, and forced vomiting, then I’ll join an equestrian club as a horse. Oh, I’ll make myself lose weight at any price!”

– Do you think we can help her?

– Yes, we can.

– Sketch the following diagram, please.

This is a classic pattern of an eating disorder.

It is very simple, but millions of people on the Earth follow it day by day, month by month, year by year. There are two circles in this diagram. The large circle is for physiological aspects, and the small circle is for psychological aspects.

Where should we start to help Zina?

– She needs desire.

– Right. She needs desire.

– Take away Hunger.

– Eugenia, you are right.

N.B.! Hunger is forbidden! We have to eat four-six times a day. Regular balanced meals.

Would we meet Mr. Eating-Frenzy in that case?

– No.

– Of course not.

Over-eating is a pathologic state. Extreme emotional narrowed state of consciousness, extreme emotional disturbance, if it is proven, is considered to be a mitigating circumstance for any crime, even murder. As we see, Zina accumulates hunger impulses and brings herself to the state when she is not able to control herself anymore. She just can’t stop eating!

When people were taken out of besieged Leningrad, and, outside the siege ring, they finally got access to food, they were told: “You shouldn’t eat a lot right away. Eat a little bit today, then a little more tomorrow. Increase your food portion day by day, and then, probably, you will survive.” What did they do? Some people sneaked into the storerooms at night. They even broke locks, gorged with food and died from intestinal obstruction. It’s impossible to stop a person from over-eating even under penalty of death if he falls into the eating frenzy. If we feed our Hunger with tasty, hearty, and rational food regularly, we won’t face eating-frenzy.

Praise and discountenance

Should we do something about our habit of criticizing ourselves?

– It should be forbidden!

– Of course. More than that – I advise you to start praising yourself! You fed yourself – “Good job!” You’ve done something good for yourself, treat yourself well – “What a good girl (or a boy)!”

Olga Vladimirovna Tsyganova, 28, economist, lost 110 lbs This story about Zina came into my mind again. I had a good laugh and then started to think about it. When I heard this fact of life, it was a shock for me. Why? It’s a simple description of my typical behavior, my actions. But I’ve never understood or realized it before.

Just like most of us, I blamed and scolded myself, called myself an idiot. Of course, I still call myself an idiot sometimes, but in other life situations. Now I praise and indulge myself much more often, and I advise everyone to do the same. Moreover, I allow all the other people around to pay me compliments and enjoy them so much! Why not? I deserved it. I am smart, slim, and beautiful.

Group session of psychologist

Artyom Andreyevich Ovechkin:

– Many people do not have a habit of praising themselves. It’s really bad because then they start to kick and blame themselves. It makes everything even worse. Mood, self-esteem, well-being, and efficiency – all these factors are getting lower.

Words like “idiot,” “pig,” “cow,” “screwhead,” “ham-handed,” “you are terrible” – come from childhood. Then a person grows up, but there are hours and hours of “audio records” in his head, in his memory. Parents and teachers scolded us when we were kids. Then a person grows up and starts to scold himself just like his parents and teachers did before. He spoils his life with this endless scolding without even knowing it. There is an old Chinese saying: “Call yourself a pig for ten times, and you will grunt.”

What if you call yourself a superstar ten times?

– You’ll shine and twinkle!

– That’s why we have to praise ourselves!

Olga Vladimirovna Tsyganova, 28, economist, lost 110 lbs. As they say: “Say good things about yourself often. The source will be forgotten, but the information will stay”. The others will see your good, positive side too.

Group session of psychologist

Artyom Andreyevich Ovechkin:

– So, self-scolding is forbidden.

That’s why we praise ourselves. I’ll give you at least a few reasons. Please tell me what we improve by praising ourselves regularly.

– Mood.

– Fine. What else?

– Self-esteem.

– Of course. When we are in a good mood and appreciate ourselves, how will it affect our lives? What will be improved?

– Relationship!

– Yes! Besides, we become more productive, both at work and at the creative activity. Wherever you look, there are only advantages.

But it’s so hard to make people praise themselves. I have to force them to do it. Most people do not have this good habit.

Let’s write down our homework. Set aside one clean sheet for homework. It would help if you wrote down there all the homework. Now, write down your first task. Tomorrow morning you have to praise yourself at least five times until our meeting. You should especially praise yourself for self-nurturing. I fed myself regularly – well done, I took lunch to work – what a clever girl. I overslept and came late to work – it’s OK, at least I’ve got enough sleep. Well done!

– ☺

– The glass is half full, not half empty. A positive attitude is all we need!

Tomorrow I’ll ask whether you have praised yourself five times or not. A typical excuse I usually hear: “I don’t have time for it”. It’s irresponsible. Agree? How much time do you need to praise yourself? Five seconds. So, “no time” won’t work. I’ll ask you about praising tomorrow.

Recipe for success

Andrey Vasilyevich Trenogov, psychologist, psychiatrist:

I noticed that when I ask people to praise themselves at least three times, the next day, many people say that they did it only once or twice. When I began to ask them to praise themselves at least fifteen times, everything changed. Now it seems to be so simple to say something kind to yourself five times.

There is a good saying. Unfortunately, I have no idea who said it, but I’d like to share it with you: “It is better to aim for the stars and hit the top of the mountain than to aim for the mountain and hit the dirt.”

Another thing: it’s very important to write down all the praises. Just thinking about them is not enough.

A well-known personal growth expert Barrett Brown researched how the most successful people develop their personality. He identified three patterns that are common to all of them.

First, they meditated. Some people did yoga, the others – qigong, some used awareness practice or daily practice of prayer, and so on.

Secondly, they all kept a diary. They made daily records of their achievements, insights, asked themselves questions, and answered them.

Thirdly, everyone had a coach, mentor, or friend with whom they discussed how they were moving towards the goal.

Despite being very busy, they found time to do it.

It just so happens that most people use to scold themselves. If I gave you the task to scold yourself five times, then (as I often heard) there would be no difficulty. And the scolding would sound sincere, with appropriate intonations. When a person praises himself, the tone is not always entirely sincere. It is usually playful, sometimes even cynical. It is known that intonation affects us much stronger than words. Therefore, while doing this exercise, try to praise yourself sincerely, even for very modest achievements.

I have seen many times that even such simple exercise helped people to improve self-esteem. And it is self-esteem that determines our well-being, how we treat others, and how we operate in life. This exercise can be made more complicated. To do this, you need a person who won’t let you “escape”.

It can be a person who desires to lose weight, except for your relatives. They are not suitable for this role. You agree with this person that every evening for ten days you will talk by phone or e-mail each other listing ten points of your “achievements” – good things that you have done today. The key challenge is that you can’t say the same thing twice. So, you’ll get one hundred achievements for ten days! It usually becomes difficult after the twentieth point, but after the fortieth one, on the contrary, all the difficulties disappear.

In doing so, you immediately engage three vital areas: you will practice awareness and self-observation, keep a diary, and discuss it with a friend.

Group session of psychologist

Artyom Andreyevich Ovechkin:

– Do you think it’s possible to take all the negative emotions away from your life?

– No.

– Can we eliminate negative emotions relative to our eating behavior?

– Yes.

– Of course, there is no room for them. I feed myself regularly, praise and love myself, nurture myself. What do we get then instead of self-pity?

– Pride!

– Even better than that. Mila, what do you think?

– Self-respect.

– What else? Any ideas?

– Love to yourself.

– Recently, this word has become a bit overworked. It is written almost on every fence, in every book, newspaper and magazine. They all persuade you that you need to love yourself, and then everything will be fine. But nobody says how to do it.

How do you love your kids? You take care of them. Loving yourself in practical terms is about taking care of yourself. Self-nurturing suggests that you should spend some resources for yourself. What recourses? Time, money and energy.

Building a new body

– I don’t mean that you should love yourself like it was proposed in a well-known cartoon about school for devilkin: “Hey, devilkin! The Thirteenth! You have to love yourself, only yourself! Love yourself, don’t think about others, and you’ll succeed!” It’s not what I mean! ☺ I want to say that you have to spend recourses not only for others but for yourself too. You have to take care of yourself in full measure.

Look what we get in that case. Do we need any punishment?

– No.

– Of course not. There is no reason. On the contrary, it’s time to start enjoying your life. We’ll discuss it during the seminar.

“I need to lose weight.” How do you feel about the word “need”? Tayisia, what if I tell you: “You need to lose weight. You are obliged to do it!” Do you feel negative emotions? Rejection?

– Yes.

– You want to do the exact opposite! We had enough of these “need” and “must” since we were kids. People feel negative about it on a subconscious level. What other words would never cause negative feelings?

– Want! ☺

– Of course, it’s “want”! Remember the situation in your life when you really wanted something. Did you need to be persuaded?

– No.

– No. You were ready to do it against all the odds. Perhaps someone even tried to slow you down a bit: “Hey, where are you going?” You replied: “No, I have to hurry up. I want it!”

I want you to have a burning desire to get slim! “Here I am! Slim superstar walking along the beach! I walk with kids wearing a very tight dress in summer, and they say: “Mom, you are so beautiful!”

– I want to get slim!

– I want to get slim! I want a new body. And I will create it! I regularly feed, praise, and love myself. I spend time and money on myself. I enjoy my life and get slim! Your train turns to a new railway! Is it achievable?

– Yes.

– Yes, this can be easily achieved! Especially when we consider the process step by step. It’s easy to understand how to do it. All we need is to retrain ourselves.

On average, it takes twenty-one days to form new habits.

During the next four days, you’ll start to adopt new habits that will help you to get slim. Then you’ll maintain them. In a month, we’ll meet again, check how it is going, refine some issues. Everything will be great!

N.B.! At first, you work for a certain time to form and fix the good habits. Then these habits work to make your life healthy, happy, and successful.

I would like to emphasize that Zina, the woman we talked about, lives inside each of you. Zina, let’s continue to call her Zina, it’s a sub-personality that lives in the head of every person. She is a part of your personality. Some psychologists call it “Sly Fat”.

The main aim of Zina or Mr. Eating-Frenzy is to keep everything in your life as it is. They oppose any changes to make your body fatter and fatter, and to increase the amount of fat in your mind, as they say.

What does it mean – “fat in mind”? It means that you doubt yourself, you do not believe in yourself, do not feed yourself regularly, scold yourself too often, dramatize any unpleasant situation, overthink every event, starve, eat all sorts of junk food when your hunger is seeking for healthy food, and so on.

Zina adores it! She will appear in your head from time to time and say: “Come on, Snezhana, it’s impossible to eat four or six times a day and get slim! It’s nonsense! Let’s get out of it!”

“He says you can eat meat, fish, poultry, seafood, pasta, and potatoes. No, please, do not eat pasta! Let’s get some cake after work instead! What?! He banned a cake – our only joy?”

“Remember how we used to do before? Someone hurt you, you go home and see a bakery. You enter inside, eat one pie, another pie. Oops! No tears, no offense. You are fine again! But he wants to take away our precious! Let’s get out of it! You cannot live like this”.

She will talk about it! Auntie Zina in your head will repeat it again and again. As for Victor, he has Uncle Joe or another subpersonality instead of Zina.

– ☺

– Your task is to “turn off the microphone” immediately as soon as Auntie Zina starts speaking. That’s enough! You are done with her talks! You have been listening to her for years.

– Yes!

– I will tell you about the lifestyle of a slim person tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. When you tell me your opinion, I’ll be able to understand who’s talking to me: “OK, that’s Anna… And Auntie Zina grabs the microphone and starts to complain, berate and justify herself!”

“I am slim” – it sounds like music for my soul!

– How to become slim?

To achieve your goal, you have to understand one crucial thing.

What makes a person slim? His body or his mind?

– His mind.

– Of course. Have you met some people without any excess weight who keep saying that they are fat?

– Certainly.

– Some people are overweight, but they say: “I am fine, I am slim enough.” So, in many respects, it’s a matter of perception.

For example, an overweight person draws a house, a tree, and a person.

They call it projective techniques. What do psychologists try to understand, analyzing such pictures?

– Problems.

– Problems of the person, his character, and his mental state. An overweight person usually draws a person like this: big head, small body, sticks instead of arms, and legs. Why?

– The body is not important to him.

– Moreover, a body is almost absent in the picture. If we cherish and appreciate something in our life, do we pay attention to it?

– Sure.

– This picture demonstrates that the person doesn’t pay attention to his body. Over the years of counseling, I met many people who hate their fat bodies. They even become aggressive against their bodies.

A person sits in front of a psychologist, crying, shaking his tummy with his hands. He says: “Look at my leg! It’s disgusting!”

His mind lives a life of its own. It has nothing to do with the fat body as if it was not his decision to make it fat and maintain this condition. The lousy body has only itself to blame.

– And some circumstances.

– Yes. It just happened, the body gained four pounds again.

As they say: “My weight has become heavier.” Of course, the body is growing bigger and bigger on its own.

– ☺

– “What? You’ve gained another ten pounds, my lousy body? I’m done. I’ll stick the needles into you and stuff you with medicines. Gained twenty pounds? OK, I’ll take you to a surgeon, and he will cut off pieces from you!”

– It’s no good.

– But the head considers it to be a great solution. There is no harmony. Head and body live separately from each other. They have a relationship similar to relationship of whom?

– Enemies.

– Enemies or who else? Head constantly berates body, browbeats it…

– Boss and subordinate.

– Precisely, boss and subordinate. Besides, the head is a very sophisticated boss. Smart. Well-educated. As for the body, it’s the worst subordinate you’ve ever met. A stupid, defective person. A walking disaster.

Then this type of relationship transforms into the relationship of… Whom? What other types of relationship between head and body can you imagine? If it’s not “Boss vs subordinate”, then… Give me more constructive versions.

– Parents.

– A parent and a child. Yes. Mom loves her daughter even if she is not perfect, right?

– Yes.

– Agree? Even when her daughter is nasty, when she is coughing, when her hair is filthy. Mom still loves her child even when she returned home too late with a broken knee and cut finger, dirty from head to toe. Mom still loves her. Right?

– Of course.

– Mom loves her anyway.

Head loves its body too: “You have to lose some weight, and then I’ll take you to the beach.” Body: “I want to the beach now!”

– ☺

– “Have you seen yourself in the mirror? At first, you have to lose at least thirty pounds. Then you can go there.” Body: “I want to the swimming pool!” Head: “All people there look like Belvedere Apollo and Aphrodite. And when you jump into the water, it will overflow over the edge! Besides, you’ll have to experience five meters of shame from the pool to the changing room and back. No. No swimming pool for you!” Body: “I want it. And I want to be loved and cherished!” Head: “What are you talking about?! Drop forty pounds, massage, fitness, cosmetology, and then you’ll get some love! Maybe.” That’s how the conversation goes.

– ☺

– The person gets less pleasure and joy. The only source of comfort is excessive food. So, the body eats more and more!

Meanwhile, the head keeps saying: “Genes?! Forget it.

We’ll cut them off too.”

That’s how it goes.

As soon as we’ve got a “devoted mother and daughter” relationship or “a loving mother and son” relationship, and then the care that we were talking about before occurs.

Let’s do an exercise to move towards this desired model. Actually, we won’t do it. You will write it down and then do it at home. Please, use a blank sheet allocated for homework. You have to hole up tonight or tomorrow morning. I guess the bathroom is the best choice, as no one will bother you there, and there is a latch on the door.

– Take a tub…

– No!

– ☺

– Take your clothes off and look at your naked body. Those parts of the body that cause intense negative emotions or even some kind of rejection, resentment, these particular parts of your body need kind words and tender touches.

If it’s a leg, then touch your leg. If it’s your tummy, then touch your tummy. Touch them tenderly and say a few kind words: “My dear leg, we are recovering. There is a beautiful slim leg inside of you…”

You know that it is still there, right?

– ☺

– OK. Some people tell me: “I can’t tell my leg anything good.” There is a slim beautiful leg inside. You are slim people. But your beautiful bodies are hiding inside of you. Look, there are bones, muscles, internals, skin. You have everything you need for a harmonious life.

A certain amount of excess fat tissue conceals some parts of your slim body.

We will part with this extra fatty tissue step by step during our session. Soon your slim body that is hiding inside of you now will appear again!

Olga Vladimirovna Tsyganova, 28, economist, lost 110 lbs A funny story has just come into my mind. My mother always believed that I was pretty, but she said that I had no neck. In her opinion, my head ran straight into my shoulders. I disagreed:

“Look, Mom, here it is. I do have a neck!” Then, after the session, I got slimmer and slimmer. One day Mom told me: “Olga, I’ve just noticed that you have such a beautiful neck. You have to open it!”

I had been chunky since I was a child. I could only guess what was hiding under the accursed fat step by step, I got to know myself, I began to learn about myself and my body. I can’t say that I am absolutely pleased with the result, but when I look in the mirror, look at my “before” and “after” photos – I am still amazed at the changes that have occurred in me.

It’s a wonderful life.

Group session of psychologist

Artyom Andreyevich Ovechkin:

– Then say yourself: “My body is slim, it’s getting healthier every day. Nice tummy, perhaps you’ll be half an inch smaller in four days. I’ll follow all the recommendations!” And the body responds with gratitude. A woman told me recently: “I holed up, started to say something good to myself. I was touching myself kindly, saying good words to my body, and suddenly tears ran down my face… I guess I wept for half an hour.” I asked her: “What did you feel?” She replied: “I felt so sorry for myself! I had been treating myself like trash. And then I finally understood that I am good!”

You have to do these exercises. It will be interesting and useful. Tomorrow I will ask you about the results. I will not ask about the details. I will just ask whether you did it or not, whether you were able to say kind words to your body and touch it with love or not.

Your mind has to adopt the following statement: “I am a slim person.” This thought will spread below from here, from your head, and affect your life, your habits, and your body. And then you will finally become slim. I am not really a true artist, so don’t expect a masterpiece. (draws a slim body). A woman from another group told me recently: “I don’t want the body you’ve drawn.”

– ☺

– But to succeed, you really have to accept this thought: “I am slim.” Because if you still consider yourself a dummy, a pig, a cow, we’ll never succeed.

Now you know that your slim body is still with you, it’s inside of you. You are slim!

Everything you need is to adopt a way of thinking of a slim person, feed yourself regularly, praise yourself, and enjoy your life – as a slim person does.

We’ll talk about it later. Next.

– When you gain weight, you always think: “It’s OK. I am slim.” At least I used to think this way. But then I saw myself on video. Oh my, I considered myself slim.

– I know what you mean. It was a moment of self-awareness. You realized that your slim body had gone. The paradox is that in order to return your slim body, you need to call yourself slim!

Nikolay Ivanovich Kosenkov, member of Petrovskaya Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ph. D. of medical science

The consciousness of a human can operate only skeletal muscles. We cannot regulate the operation of smooth muscles, the release of hormones, and biologically active secrets.

Consequently, if any dominant occurs, that must be accompanied by a certain action, and the action requires the activation of skeletal and smooth muscles, hormone release, we can stop (if the dominant is undesirable) only our skeletal muscles. But it doesn’t stop the whole process, and the dominant stays unrealized for many months and years.

Any event or memory of the unfinished action activates the hormone system and contraction of the smooth muscles of vessels and internal organs.

As a result, we’ve got exacerbation of psychosomatic illness since a memory (even subconsciously) causes a biochemical explosion in the body, which requires the urgent intervention of the liver, pancreas, and heart into the processing of biochemical material.

But we can use the dominant mechanisms for “peaceful purposes” as well, by creating a “slim body” dominant in our mind and trying to accomplish it.

It’s one of the aims of our training – to create “I feel light – and I am light!” dominant.

Group session of psychologist

Artyom Andreyevich Ovechkin:

– You have to feel your slim body. It’s inside of you. It’s still here. Your slim body exists inside of you. Agree?

– It’s just covered with fat.

– Yes. It’s covered a bit (or a lot) by fat, but it still exists. If you consider yourself slim, then you’ll start to lose excess weight.

If you consider yourself fat, then you’ll continue to gain weight. You won’t be able to follow all the recommendations and to go all the way to the slim body if you berate yourself and consider yourself fat.

Your only way is to adopt the “I am slim” mindset.

Your slim is in your mind, in your head. Then it creates habits of a slim person and then – a slim body.

The next exercise.

Visualization of your slim body.

What are the aims of this exercise? The first is to relax, to relieve psycho-emotional and physical stress. The second aim is to imagine yourself slim. For example, you imagine a new car when you are going to buy it, right?

– Yes.

– Of course. You imagine how you get in this new car. You haven’t got it yet, but you’ve got its image in your mind: How you get in the car, its color, interior. For example, the seat is comfortable; it smells good. And the other things: lamps are on, and you grab the steering wheel. You imagine all the details, right?

When you, Victor, buy a new suit, or you, Olesya, buy a new dress, you imagine how it fits you before purchase, don’t you? You dream about a new dress, and you visualize, imagine it. It always works the same way. In order to acquire anything, even a slim body, we have to imagine it at first. Then it will be easier to acquire it!

Training of athletes includes elements of visualization. Sports psychologists and coaches set them up for success, encourage them to imagine that they beat the world record, that they are the first to reach the finish line or jump higher than others, score a goal, or stand on a pedestal, that tears of joy are running down their face, the national anthem is playing, the flag is flying.