If you can think of a particular result you wish to achieve, find someone who has reached the highest level of that result.
The person that you are searching for to model, is not someone who has ‘only just passed’. What you are exploring the canvas for, is someone who’s reached the
pinnacle of excellence in the particular area you’re wanting to improve (or excel at). Modeling anyone below that level of excellence will not be worth your while, because you’ll only reach the same level of the person you’re modeling.
In the case of boosting body-image, it would be important to find someone who
represented an excellent example of the results you wish to obtain in your own
life such as, high self-esteem, high self-confidence, high body-image etc. And this would all reflect in their day to day lives, from their relationships with others (intimate or other), in the way they treat themselves in front of the mirror, their outlook towards food and exercise, how stable their mood is on a day to day basis and how generally happy they are. They will have a particular attitude towards
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life and their body that will be serving them positively, and this is where learning the following details come into play…
Beliefs and Values: The person’s beliefs and values are what shapes how they perceive the world around them. How they hear, see and feel (about) their body,
other people, spirituality, their place on the earth, work-life and much more. How they feel about all of this and more, is the foundation of what you want to
discover. In order to discover these qualities, you must ask questions such as,
“what do you believe is important in gaining results?”, “what do you believe your body is?” and “what does the mind-body connection mean to you?” From these
questions you will find some of their empowering and disempowering beliefs and
values – from here you can begin building from the ground up.
Strategy (Syntax): In this part of the process of gaining information, you want to enter into the conversation with a clean slate of mind. Meaning, throw away any
assumptions you have about how they think, or strategize things together in their mind, and open yourself up to a highly curious child-like state, where all things are possible. You’re searching for everything to do with their strategy, which
involves their Internal Representation which you can use as a guide to model their results. They may internally represent strategies in their mind that may include
sounds (they may hear a voice in their head, or hear a family member speaking to
them), images (they see themselves as a perfect form of the human body or a
bright lighted spiritual being) or feeling (they get a charge of energy in their
stomach that moves throughout their entire body).
Physiology: This is based around what is going on with their body, and what particular movements internally or externally are going on that they are aware of.
This could be everything from breathing tempo and heartbeat, to how they hold
their shoulders back, neck up and back straight.
Adopt these aspects yourself…
The key to this part is to begin using the model and notice how it feels for you. If you’re not getting the same results as the person you modelled, go back and find
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out what was missing and reinstall it again. There are always many unconscious
processes that can easily be missed or overlooked, so recreating the same
behavior in yourself can take several attempts, but eventually you will get the
results you are looking for. Just keep in mind that this process may take a little tweaking here and there until you get it working optimally.
So what can you begin to model? Because the purpose of this book is all about
boosting your body-image, find people who genuinely at the core feel really good
about themselves and start asking them questions about exercise, food and how
they perceive their bodies. Ask them what they think of clothes shopping, and
have them define their experience to you. Find out what they see, hear and feel
when they look into a mirror, and watch how they hold themselves in public and
when speaking to others. When they’re at the beach, what is their body language
like? Do they hold their arms and legs close to their sides, and try to keep
themselves compact (and small), or do they stretch out in a relaxed way and
really make an attempt to take up as much space around them as possible? Do
they wear makeup or not, and what is their impression of it, how do they feel
about it?
Those are some great basic places to start to develop a successful model that you can apply to your own life, and if you don’t know of anyone around you who has
reached the level of excellence in the way they feel about their body (and
themselves), then spread your wings and get out and meet some new people. If
that scares you too much, then perhaps start off by researching people who feel
good about their body and themselves. Read their books, find their YouTube
channels, watch their videos and follow them on Facebook. In fact, in my book
called How To Be Happy While Building The Body You Want I share my own
personal beliefs, values, philosophy and specific strategies I used to go from
having very poor body-image and low self-esteem where I would literally shake
when meeting new people (from being so nervous), to speaking publicly about
health, wellness and how I came to feeling truly happy and powerful about myself
(both inside and out).
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The possibilities are endless, but there’s one thing I do know, and that is… If you continue staying in the same place you are now and doing the same things,
chances are that nothing will change for you. So take a chance and decide that
there’s no better time than now to have the next big breakthrough of your life!
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