It’s a Mindset: In Order to Get Fit, You Must THINK of Yourself as Fit by for Natural Society
GNN Note – All good things come from God – including our thoughts. Anything that is negative is from the devil. So, negative thoughts are born from something the devil put in our life. /END
If you know you’re not as physically active as you should be, stop thinking about it and start doing something about it. People who view themselves as lazy compared to others are more likely to die at a younger age, even if their actual activity levels were the same. [1]
That means people who thought they were less active than their peers likely weren’t reaping the full benefits of exercise, all because of their negative attitude.
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Lead author Octavia Zahrt, a Stanford PhD student in organizational behavior, says she knows firsthand how negative self-talk and toxic comparisons can make a solid effort seem lazy.
She explained:
“I am from Germany, and back there I felt really good about my activity level. I biked to work, and went to the gym maybe once a week.”
Zahrt says that when she moved to California, she was suddenly “surrounded by people who exercise all the time. Compared to them I felt really inactive, and I developed what I know now was a really negative mindset about my physical activity.”
The ‘Side Effects’ of Negative Attitudes
That feeling of inadequacy led Zahrt and her faculty adviser, Alia Crum, PhD, to study the possible effects of such an attitude on long-term health. The duo analyzed data from more than 61,000 adults who were surveyed between 1990 and 2006 followed until 2011.
The participants were asked about their activity levels, and some were given accelerometers to wear so they could track their real-time activity for a week. All of the volunteers were also asked, “Would you say that you are physically more active, less active, or about as active as other persons your age?”
