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Physical metabolism is how our bodies convert what we eat and drink into energy.

Our mental metabolism is how we convert thought patterns into energy. If our thoughts are constantly negative and we are blindly leading with bad habits, we’re squandering our precious energy. On the other hand, if we recognize our strengths, lead with those, and work to build good habits and positive mindsets, we boost our positive energy.

That’s why it’s imperative we examine our thought habits and mental metabolism every day.

How can we improve our mental metabolism? The key is identifying, leveraging, and building on our strengths. This is a key part of spiritual fitness.

Reframe

Let’s explore an extraordinarily effective way to give up habitual negative thinking or negative self-talk through a powerful tool known as reframing. When we reframe a situation, we can quickly jump into a much more empowering mindset. This helps boost our mental metabolism so that our energy level rises in jubilation, self-assurance, and motivation.

If you have friends who help you become better, more evolved versions of yourself, consider yourself fortunate. While opening up to my friend Natasha, I told her how my obsession with perfectionism was getting in my way, making me feel less productive, overwhelmed, and stressed-out. It was sucking the joy out of things I enjoy doing. I had placed this label of perfectionist on myself and was embodying the negative qualities derived from the meaning of that word.

Natasha said, “You want to do well and strive for perfection because you care. That’s a good thing. What if you could release this label (and limitation) of referring to yourself as a perfectionist and embrace the fact that you have a great respect for mastery?”

Respect for mastery. What an incredible reframe! I remember shifting my perspective completely the moment Natasha uttered these three powerful words. I felt a major burden lift as I traded in my perfectionist label and all its negative connotations for my new and improved “respect for mastery” framework and the empowering meaning I took from that terminology. It’s incredible how different we can feel simply by referring to ourselves using different language.

For me, perfectionist creates heavy, negative, binding, constrictive feelings. Respect for mastery feels energizing, uplifting, strong, capable. When we can shed a limiting label, belief, or habit and strengthen ourselves by adopting a new and improved perspective, our sense of well-being can shift dramatically, that quickly. This is a high mental metabolism, and what’s awesome is that we aren’t at the mercy of our genetics to have access to this. We can speed up our mental metabolism and access our power with two simple words: “What if?”

Let’s say you feel stuck in some area of your life and find yourself saying, “This is so hard.” The statement “This is hard” feels disempowering, right? What if (see what I did there?) you instead asked yourself, What if this could be easy, fun, even pleasurable? What if I asked for help? What if I stopped trying to figure it all out by myself? What if this were an opportunity to grow? What if I could learn something new that could help me become more skilled and valuable in my job or relationship? What if this were actually a blessing? What if I could really have everything I desire? What if I could feel relaxed instead? What if this were actually true? What if…?

Do you see how much more empowering and freeing that feels? Asking ourselves What if…? changes our consciousness. I love how quickly it works and how we can access this empowered state anytime, anywhere, in our minds silently, out loud, or in our journals.

You can take it a step further and explore what your life would be like if all your “What if?” statements were the truth. (Hint: this can be your truth.) This conscious connection to your truth, which you can activate at any time, is what I refer to as connecting to our “full spirit.” Our full spirit is our truth, our light, our power, our connection to self and others, and the epicenter of love. I invite you to set aside time each day to boost your mental metabolism by sitting in the silence and sacredness of your full spirit.

Of course, “emotional gravity,” like fear and self-doubt, will inevitably creep up from time to time; that’s why we have to keep working out our spiritual muscles. Reframing a problem or challenge into an opportunity or solution is one of my all-time favorite ways to boost my mental metabolism!

Have fun and get creative with reframing and asking yourself, What if…?

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Excerpted from the book from The Full Spirit Workout. Copyright ©2021 by Kate Eckman. Printed with permission from New World Library.

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