I realized the main culprit in my battle with weight had always been my thinking and my habits. I needed to work on my self-esteem, self-acceptance, and happiness in my own skin. I thought losing weight would give me those qualities, but in reality, I had to develop them before I could lose the weight. From my ongoing research and practical NLP techniques, I have learned much about the unconscious mind and the importance of re-framing negative self talk. We all have patterns running inside our subconscious mind, which start at a very early age. We’re heavily influenced by our friends and family, as well as our environment. If you were repeatedly given chocolate as a child to make you stop crying, chances are you have a deep rooted anchor to chocolate, and associate it with making you feel better when you feel upset in your adult life. Generally the habits we form at an early age are beneficial to us because they protect us and make us unique, but some can be detrimental to our wellbeing and cause us to self sabotage (i.e emotional eating). Affirmations are a great way to send positive messages to your unconscious mind so that you start to think and behave in a nicer way towards yourself. (Remember my point about finding the qualities first before the weight loss takes place?) Going from negative self talk to self love doesn’t happen overnight. However, using these affirmations over time, I noticed my thinking changed. And that’s the first step. RELATED STORY: 11 Steps To Rebuild Your Relationship With Food