Chances are there’s an internal struggle going on inside you. Your experience has proven to you that there is more to optimal weight and wellness than just diet and exercise alone . . . yet there is so much information out there on diet and exercise that you keep going back to that as the solution. And while there is a part of you that knows happiness contributes to overall wellness . . . part of you wonders if when it comes to your weight, it’s not just a bunch of woo-woo. Compared to diet and exercise, how much of a difference can your emotions really make to the number on the scale? I get it. I struggled with that for a long time. But what if science is backing up the impact of positive emotions—such as happiness and gratitude—on your weight and wellness? Here’s what a recent study on positive psychology found: “An important fact that has emerged in the last few years is that happiness is causal and brings many more benefits than just feeling good. Happy people are healthier, more successful, and more socially engaged, and the causal direction runs both ways.” Bottom line: being happy makes you healthier. Here’s the thing. Most women who struggle with their weight believe they will be happier when they lose the weight. The truth is, getting happier will help you release the weight. There are many reasons for this. One is that being happy literally impacts your body’s physical processes down to the cellular level, ultimately making it easier to release—and maintain—your weight. Another is that when you are happy, you make different choices and have different motivations. For instance, from this more positive place, eating healthy is something you want to do instead of something you have to make yourself do. Moving your body is […]
Indulge in This to Get the Body You Want
Today I give thanks for my toothbrush. Does that seem weird? When you express gratitude, do you have any limitations? Do you think it’s OK to give thanks for being alive, family and friends, and maybe your house, but not for mundane things like your toothbrush or toilet paper? I can guarantee that if you went without either for a week, you would absolutely have a new appreciation for your toothbrush and toilet paper! Just think for a moment about what these mundane items contribute to your wellness. What about your body? What limitations do you set for what you can appreciate about your magnificent physical home? I expect that you can appreciate that you are alive and that your heart is beating in and out. But how much do you appreciate: Your thighs? Your stomach? Your anus? Did that last one make you spit out your coffee? Pay attention if you believe that it is not OK to appreciate the “icky” parts of your body, or if you feel shocked, or like this is somehow inappropriate to read over breakfast. This is your amazing and magnificent body we are talking about! Every single part of you is valued by Source (God, the Universe, All-That-Is—whatever works for you.) What makes you think any part of you deserves less than total and absolute appreciation? Here’s the thing—if you are judging it, you can’t also be appreciating it. Criticism and appreciation are on opposite sides of the energetic coin. And yes, both are impacting your weight and wellness—whether you are conscious of it or not! When you are in a state of appreciation, it boosts your body’s ability to heal down to the cellular level. “Light,” […]
Tip the Scale with this Simple Tool
Do you often feel guilty after eating, or deprived if you can’t eat something you want? Are you frustrated trying to get dressed in the morning because you don’t feel like your clothes look good on you? When you look in the mirror, are you ashamed of all your physical flaws? Negative thoughts and emotions like these are at the root of how you are unknowingly sabotaging your ability to lose—and maintain—your weight. You are being predominately Problem Focused. Your focusing on what’s wrong with you, your clothes, your food—about everything—triggers the body’s stress response, releasing cortisol, adrenaline, and other chemical reactions that literally cannibalize your body at the cellar level. (This is science, not woo woo!) This wouldn’t be a problem if you just felt bad occasionally. If you are caught in the rebound weight-gain cycle, your body is the physical evidence that you probably spend most of your time being Problem Focused. I want to be clear that sometimes, you need to be Problem Focused. You have to know what the problem is before you can then look for the solution. But you then have to become Solution Focused. Being Problem Focused and Solution Focused are like 2 sides of a coin. When you are focused on the problem, you literally cannot see the solutions, even if they are right in front of you. The more you are Problem Focused, the more everything begins to look like a problem or crisis. As a result, your body is in a continual stressed state. Here’s some tough love. You are hurting you. This chronic emotional and physical stress response is breaking down your immune system, straining your heart, and impacting your muscles. Over time, this […]
My Wishes For You
Today I want to say, “Thank You!” Thank you for reading, commenting, and allowing me to be your partner in creating the body you want. Thank you for your friendship, support, and love. Thank you for sharing who you are, and allowing me to share who I am. I honor and appreciate each of you more than you can possibly imagine. You are at the top of my list of appreciation! No matter what holiday you celebrate or beliefs you hold, I want to wish you and yours a day filled with hope, contentment, excitement, happiness, appreciation, joy, and most importantly, love. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Much love and appreciation, Hanna Goss
Five Tips for Practicing Appreciation
If all you did was just look for things to appreciate you would live a joyous, spectacular life. If there was nothing else that you ever came to understand other than just look for things to appreciate, it’s the only tool you would ever need to predominantly hook you up with who you really are. That’s all you’d need. — Abraham-Hicks I’ve had a number of clients recently who wanted to start meditating, but didn’t know where to begin. They know they want the benefits of clearing their mind, tapping into positive anabolic energy that benefits their bodies down to the cellular level, and connecting with All-That-Is (God, the Universe, Source, Higher Coach—whatever works for you). But they struggle with their thoughts, finding the time, and having a peaceful moment to call their own. What if you could get all the benefits of meditation, but you could practice it anywhere? What if you could get so good at it that you could do it standing in line at the grocery store, waiting for your dentist appointment or cable repairman, taking a shower, or traveling on an airplane? What if practicing it could literally help you create the body you want? This miraculous tool? Practicing appreciation. While many people think that gratitude and appreciation are the same thing, appreciation is actually higher on the positive anabolic energy scale. This is because gratitude often is still linked to the problem. For instance, you might be grateful for a really difficult week because it taught you that you could deal with challenging emotions. While that’s an awesome way to begin shifting the negative catabolic energy and emotions you have been experiencing towards a more positive anabolic state, it’s still […]
Thankful for You!
Today is the American holiday of Thanksgiving. And one of the things I am most thankful for is . . . You! Thank you for being readers, commenters, clients, friends, and family. Thank you for your trust, time, energy, and support. Thank you for your friendship and love. These are gifts that I do not take for granted. Each of you means more to me than you can possibly imagine. I count you as a blessing in my life. May you and yours have a joy-filled day. With much love and appreciation, Hanna
Love Yourself, Love Your Body
Are you loving you—no matter what? Are you living as the person you intend to be? Do your actions line up with your desires for the body you want to create? Often the answer is “No.” For instance, you may want with all your heart to be fit and lean, but you consistently overeat or blow off exercise. I’m just as guilty of this as anyone else. For the past two weeks, I’ve overeaten or made less than stellar choices. While I am happy to say that the over-indulgences weren’t nearly what they would have been in the past, I still made the conscious choices to eat and drink more than is absolutely best for me. And I’ve been judging myself. So for the past couple of days, I’ve been focused on tapping into my self-love—which has truly been the key to my losing 34 pounds and keeping it off for more than 2 years. Here are three ways to begin loving you. Practice appreciation. You may have to begin with external things—like your pets or children. But when you get a solid feeling of appreciation going, turn that light on yourself. Appreciate who you are, what you are doing to move towards your wellness goals, and how hard your body is working on your behalf. Love your body in pieces. If you typically look in the mirror and are critical, you may have to start off small and work your way up. For instance, sit quietly and send love to your toes. Then let that feeling of love spread to the balls of your feet, to your arches, and into your heels. Slowly work your way up your body loving every specific part as […]
Tip the Scale with Appreciation
If all you did was just look for things to appreciate you would live a joyous, spectacular life. If there was nothing else that you ever came to understand other than just look for things to appreciate, it’s the only tool you would ever need to predominantly hook you up with who you really are. That’s all you’d need. –Abraham-Hicks Do you often feel deprived or guilty about the food you eat? Do you stand in front of the closet and distress about what to wear? Do you look in the mirror and criticize, or feel body shame? These negative thoughts and emotions are generating catabolic energy that is actually sabotaging your ability to lose—and maintain—your weight. Your negative thoughts—about yourself, your clothes, your food, about everything—trigger the stress response, releasing cortisol, adrenaline, and other chemicals that literally cannibalize your body at the cellar level. Examining problems and experiencing the resulting negative thoughts is fine occasionally, but for most people this is a chronic state of being. Everything begins to look like a problem or crisis. This chronic emotional and physical stress response is breaking down your immune system, straining your heart, and impacting your muscles. Over time, this catabolic energy can cause everything from painful trigger points in your shoulders, to inflammation, to heart attacks. And it significantly impacts your metabolism and other weight-related systems making it easier to gain and harder to release weight. This cumulative impact is the reason why it gets harder to release weight as you age. Lose the chronic negative thoughts and responses and you more easily lose the weight—and regain your wellness and well-being. But, if you have a long-time habit of focusing on the negative and feeling bad about it—particularly […]
Don’t You Love Your Body?
Do you suffer from body shame? Many women look in the mirror and see nothing but their flaws. They aren’t comfortable in their bodies, even with their partners in the privacy of their own bedrooms. They judge how they look way more harshly than anyone else. How likely is your body going to maintain its youth, vigor, wellness, and well-being if you abuse it with your thoughts and words? How well does a child flourish in such an environment? How healthy are your relationships when you do nothing but subject the other to constant criticism? Starving your body of nutrient rich-foods and undertaking minimal movement are just the symptoms of the mental and emotional treatment you are heaping on your body. How well are you going to treat something that you hate, loath, despise, or are ashamed of? As many teachers will tell you, the answer is to love your body. When you love your body, you want to take care of it. You appreciate it. And the positive, anabolic energy you provide it allows your body to rebuild, regenerate, and remain vital and alive. When you have experienced long-term body shame, however, trying to go immediately to loving your body feels like a big fat lie. It’s almost laughable. It feels so foreign; it’s just not a habit you can develop easily. Begin small. Start by finding one thing about your body you can appreciate. Maybe it’s your tongue. You taste foods well. You are articulate and able to communicate with it. Your tongue never lets you down. After a few days of appreciating your tongue—even for just 1 minute a day—then find something else about your body to appreciate. Perhaps your hard-working hands. […]
Guaranteed to Change Your Life
What if you knew your success was guaranteed? What if the entire Universe was on your side? What if your value to the world was assured? What if all that entailed was spending more time focused on what you want, who you want to be, what you want to do, and how you want to feel? That when you looked at a problem, you quickly shifted your thoughts to what you would like the outcome to be? That when you saw someone behaving badly, you focused on how you wanted people to behave? That you appreciated more things than you complained about? It seems like such a simple shift to make. Love more. Appreciate more. Laugh more. Relax more. But simple—and even preferable—doesn’t necessarily mean easy. People often fear that if they take their eyes off the problem for a moment, it will grow and get worse. So they stay ever vigilant and keep their attention fixed on the worst-case scenario. Or they may be weak in guiding their attention, and therefore believe they have no option but to look directly at what is right in front of them. Or they may be so bought into reacting to “reality” that they don’t even know there is anything else to look at. What if it was your attention and focus that was actually making the problem worse? What if by not choosing what you want to think about you are guaranteed to see more of all the things you don’t want? That all “reality” means is that you are seeing a reflection of what you are focused on? We are each responsible for the “reality” of our lives. If you expect—and choose—to see good things, you […]
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