Don’t think of the Yellow Elephant

If you are like me, you have been on a diet for most of your teen/adult life. This has meant restriction. This has meant someone else telling you what you should and shouldn’t eat. I just learned a really neat concept that connects a lot of dots for me.

What if I were to tell you, whatever you do, you can think of ANYTHING else…but do NOT under any circumstances think of the yellow elephant. You wouldn’t be able to think of anything else BUT the yellow elephant. Then I would continue and say, okay now I want you to think of anything else except a yellow elephant in the middle of a shopping mall. Your brain cannot help but think of a yellow elephant in the middle of a shopping mall, but why is that?

Our brains cannot process a negative. So even though we are telling our brains not to think of it, we can’t process the negative and then the focus becomes on whatever we weren’t supposed to be thinking of. This is taught in Neurolinguistic programming, an amazing technique that helps rewire your brain that I use in my coaching practice.

Do you see where I am going with this and how it relates to dieting?

So if we continuously are told what not to eat and have to follow strict guidelines… what do you think our brain is going to do? It cannot process the negative so we will only be thinking of the foods and eventually self sabotage because we cannot get those foods out of our head. It’s not you… diets just don’t work.

This is why it’s key to develop that inner knowledge of WHY we emotionally eat and tools to help. Without them, we are just putting a bandaid on the problem over and over again.

Want to work with me? We have one month until I open up my next 8 week tune in and the Collective Membership! If you want small group coaching then the 8 week Tune in course is for YOU, we meet once a week over zoom and deep dive in a structured program. If you want ongoing support over three months and want a self paced course called Building your Awareness that is included, come join me! We will have all things motivation, inspiration, tools and techniques!