Mental Strength with Autogenic Training

A Latin saying ‘mens sana in corpore sano’ translating to ‘a healthy mind in a healthy body’, is something that is undoubtedly important in the way that I´m approaching life, as well as the KetOntrack program.

I actually think that this translates vice versa. A healthy body helps establishing a healthy mind, where I noticed that in a lot of diets, people (including myself) are afraid of cutting sugar and carbs, whereby the effects believed to happen, are, that the mind demands sugar in order to function properly. Ok, by now I know this is big bullshit, but it is just an example of how our mind is able to control the body, as well as the body, and it´s pancreatic insulin, dictates the mind not to stop satisfying it´s demand.

Having practiced autogenic training for 33 years now, I am discovering that it can be very efficient in maintaining focus and even further, help in establishing a subconscious positive attitude, especially in enforcing an autosuggestion towards goals to be achieved, similar to Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Read further: http://nlpwiki.org/wiki and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogenic_training

Some interesting books you might want to have a look into in regards to using NLP to support your habitual change: NLP Practise & Hacking you.

I think which method is used to relax your mind and establish a certain focus around the goals we want to achieve with the KetOntrack program is less important, it can be Tai Chi, any form of meditation, potentially even praying. What I want to focus on in this article is autogenic training via fantasy travels, which has helped me in establishing a very efficient way in practicing it.

At first, I would suggest you get a fantasy travel to listen to, as it will be an easy introduction to advance in autogenic training. For example: On Spotify

To start, it is important that you really relax your body and all your muscles, you can sit on a chair, or couch, or pretty much any position that is comfortable. You can sit in the so-called tripod position, where you sit relaxed, the legs straight to the ground on your heels, the head dropped relaxed towards the chest and the hands, palm upwards, resting on the thighs, completely relaxing the arms.

Important
is that you really relax your muscles. You can say to yourself, my left arm is
heavy, repeating three times, you will feel it is really becoming heavy as it
relaxes, continue to say it as often as you like and feel the difference of the
left arm, compared to the right arm. Once you feel it is heavier than the right
arm, continue with the right arm. Do the same for both legs and finally, say to
yourself, my whole body is heavy, until you have reached a state of full
relaxation.

Breathe
deeply and calmly and try to think about nothing. Now knowing that it is close
to impossible to completely shut off your brain and think about literally
nothing, I have some tricks, but the fantasy travel will cover that usually.
(My approach is where I imagine that I am on a green grass open space with all
the thoughts flying around, which I lock away in a box and leave the box aside
for the moment).

I´d suggest
then to find a good fantasy travel, like the one suggested above, to continue
in this journey. This should be something you can individually relate to, and
there are loads of such fantasy travels on the internet.  Of course, over time you will be able to come
up with your own story and even be very efficient building a routine in varying
it.

My key take way is that when you are in an auto suggestive state, via autogenic training you will be able to teach your subconsciousness the fundamentals you would like to focus on. You can formulate them in a positive way, i.e. My body works perfectly fine without sugar intake, I´m focused on my KetOntrack targets and will achieve them at ease, my mind and body are prepared to adopt a healthier lifestyle, I will be able to increase and perform on the fitness targets I have set for myself, just to name a few in context of KetOntrack.com.

I have
found, after years of practice, that I can do an autogenic relaxation cycle in
a couple of minutes, at most 5 minutes, which helps tremendously to exercise it
on a day to day basis and helps in pretty much any daily situation to re-focus
and align perspective again.

Of course,
you should enjoy all good things that get your balance between mind and body
established, such as a visit to a Spa or Sauna, long walks in a silent forest
(Bathing in the Woods) or at the beach on the ocean. Autogenic training is just
one of them. I personally think it is important on a daily basis to work on
mental strength, regardless the method, to provide more possibilities to
achieve your personal and professional goals.

Let me know
if you find this article helpful and which method is helping you most to relax
and refocus your mind.

Cheers,

Cee Kay.