There is power in feeling good.

Think about how much you get done when you are excited, eager, and looking forward to something. Now think about how hard it is to make progress when you are dreading something, don’t want to do it, resent it, etc.

While you can move forward and get stuff done while you are feeling negative catabolic emotions, consciously shifting to positive anabolic thoughts before you begin a task is like putting on rocket boosters.

And not only is your power to get things done greater, but it’s easier and more fun.

Most of what makes day-to-day living “hard” are just your mental habits. You have  thoughts about how hard it is to get up and go to work that you have repeated for so long that you don’t even realize there’s another way to look at it. You have practiced dreading Mondays. You have developed a mental rut on many topics that are not serving you.

These are just some catabolic habits of thought you have going on. Thoughts are made of energy, not marble. They can be changed!

Why do you want to go to the trouble of creating positive, life-building anabolic mental habits, you might ask?

Because anabolic thoughts result in emotions that feel good. Those emotions make your heart sing. When you are feeling anabolic emotions, you know that things are always working out for you. When there’s a problem, you see the solution. You laugh more. You relax more. You are happy to be alive.

All you have to do is create some new mental habits.

And here’s a bonus. Creating anabolic mental habits makes creating healthy physical habits easier. So instead of hating to work out, you enjoy it. You love the taste of fresh vegetables. You easily make the decision to turn off the T.V. and go to bed so you will wake up rested and refreshed. It’s easy. It feels like the choice you want to make.

One way to create new mental habits is to tap into anabolic energy before you do something.

Here are some quick and easy ways to change the energy of your thinking and create new mental habits:

• Take 3 to 10 deep breaths
• Meditate, quiet your mind, pray, or center
• Take a nap
• Take a bath or hot shower
• Read some inspiring quotes
• Look at pictures of cute animals or things you love
• Look out a window and focus on a tree, bird, or other bit of nature
• Create a list of all the things you love or appreciate and read it
• Journal
• Light a candle and focus on the flickering flame for a few minutes
• Count your blessings
• Think of other explanations for the situation
• Think about how you want to feel, or how something you are working towards will make you feel
• Pet your dog or cat
• Let yourself believe that a solution is possible

These are things to do before you do your workout, before you make that phone call, before you write that email, before you do anything–especially anything that you have developed a negative pattern of thought about.

Often people will use the excuse that they don’t have time to practice anabolic thinking. Truly, you don’t have time not to! By taking a few minutes on the front end to shift your energy, you will more than make up with ease and efficiency, and have fewer problems resulting from your catabolic approach to clean up.

And the more you practice anabolic thoughts and energy, the easier and more fun your life becomes. And the more anabolic mental habits you create.

What is one thing you can begin to do regularly to shift your mental habits? What difference does that make in creating the body—and life—of your dreams?

Together we can do it!