You may think the most important thing for your autoimmune health is your new workout routine or the foods in your Paleo Autoimmune Protocol elimination diet plan. The truth is, keeping an AIP Mindset to Reach Your Health Goals is equally as important to the success you have on your journey.
You see, lifestyle factors often get ignored or pushed aside when people first start the AIP, but it’s actually such an important piece of the puzzle. A piece that if left out, can make all the difference between how you feel and how long your symptoms linger around.
In order to make the changes to reach your new long term goals, you need your mindset in tune with those goals. Here are a few ways to master your mindset, get it on track, and line up your mind to your goals for long-term success with the AIP:
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Meditation
Meditation is one of the easiest ways to master your AIP Mindset to Reach Your Health Goals and manage them for the long term.
When you think of mediation, you may think of just sitting back and freeing your mind or being quiet. The truth is mediation can simply be focusing on one topic (like your health goals, or one motivating word, or even a mental “body scan”), and letting your mind roam over that topic.
You may be surprised with the outcome and thoughts that occur when you just focus on that one topic alone.
Your mind can be powerful in seeking out obstacles you have and working through them when given the chance to be quiet and focus. Set some time aside each day, when you will be the least busy, and stick to that time. Come back at this time for you daily and create a healthy habit for your autoimmune well-being!
Swap to a Growth Mindset
“Fear makes us defensive when we live in the fixed mindset – but it makes us adaptive in the growth mindset.” -Carol Dweck
When you first begin the AIP, your body is going to have to adjust to all of the positive changes you are making and sometimes that makes you not feel…well, not so great at first! It usually starts about 3 or 4 days in (give or take).
This is actually good news because it is a sign that your body is adjusting. So don’t let this deter you, instead come back to why you are here, why you started. What are you trying to overcome?
When I think about Mindset and the AIP, the first question that comes to mind is Why are you doing the AIP? There are of course a few variations of answers here but at its core we all have the exact same reason- because we want to heal, we want to feel better.
Fixed mindset
A “fixed” mindset is when you believe that your qualities are set in stone and cannot be changed. Spoiler alert…a “fixed” mindset won’t do you any good on the AIP or on a healing journey.
Growth Mindset
The second type of mindset is a “growth” mindset, which means you believe that your qualities or traits can be developed. This mindset thrives on challenges and sees failure as a jumping off point for growth and improvement which will lead to successes.
You believe that the cards that you were dealt do not determine your happiness or your health. With effort, practice, and perseverance there is no limit to how much your health and happiness can improve.
A growth mindset says confidently: “This will be hard, but I can do hard things and I will get better.”
While a fixed mindset falsely claims: “I won’t ever have success with this because it’s too hard for me.”
Another way of looking at this, through the AIP lens:
Growth Mindset = “I get to change my diet and lifestyle.”
VS
Fixed Mindset = “I have to change my diet and lifestyle.”
Choose a growth mindset over a fixed mindset and watch your long term goals soar! I teach this more in depth in one of my modules of my intensive 30 Day AIP Back to Basics DIY program – which you can learn more about here.
Positive Words
Positive wording is another method you can use to achieve an AIP Mindset to Reach Your Health Goals.
When you sit down and look at your journaling, when you speak aloud, or when you think quietly to yourself, hunt for and focus on any negative words or phrases you use regularly. Next, remove these words or phrases from your language.
Commit to not speaking these words, and replace them in your speech and journal with positive words – or make completely new journal entries!
Focus on when and why these negative words and phrases are used and make efforts to remove them and replace them with positive and affirming phrases.
It can take some time and patience to get used to positive wording. Be gentle with yourself. Choose to not “punish” yourself emotionally when these words do present themselves on occasion. No one is perfect, (mistakes are actually just lessons for us to grow from) and practice makes all the difference!
This will help your outlook and your mindset from going in a path that could lead to doubting yourself, low moods, feelings of defeat, or even emotional eating that sabotages your wellness progress. You’ve worked so hard already and deserve your own best self – so let’s swap negative words for positive ones and give yourself a fresh start.
Journaling and Review
Journaling is something that many people mention, but it’s one of the top tools that I recommend you use to adopt and AIP Mindset to Reach Your Health Goals for the long term.
This practice is often overlooked, and few people actually take the time to put journaling into practice in their daily health goals and lifestyles. But it’s not that difficult to do, and you truly don’t have to sit for hours journaling about every aspect of your life to get the job done!
Journaling can be something as simple as writing down your feelings or thoughts when you are stressed or upset. You don’t even have to have complete thoughts. Just jotting down what you are thinking or eating can help.
Go back a day or two later and review your journal entry. Look for things that are recurring and that cause obstacles in your daily life and health goals. Make it a point to work on these issues either by replacing them, removing them, or coming to terms with the issues that cause them.
Are there any recurring themes that you notice? Themes that are holding you back from your long-term goals? Take note of these recurring themes and then make it a point to work on them.
How can you support yourself or find further external support for the roadblocks to your version of a successful AIP journey? Write those down as well, then make a plan to work through them so you can overcome them and own your journey!
Use these Steps for and AIP Mindset to Reach Your Health Goals
These four steps can help you master your mindset easily and move to change your autoimmune health goals long term.
Remember, you can revisit these methods time and again, changing them slightly every now and then. This is because our goals change, our outlooks change, and the way we need to reach our goals changes.
You will need to adjust your methods with these changes, but you can use the same methods each time, coming back to them as your solid foundation pieces that keep your AIP lifestyle factors working for you and your health success!
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What lifestyle factors do you feel may be missing from your AIP journey?
What’s holding you back from AIP success? Leave me a comment below.
I’d love to chat with you!
XO,
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