Think of a time when you were in the market for a new car. The second you decided what type of car you wanted, you started seeing that same exact car everywhere.
This is because of the principle that states, “What you focus on gets bigger.” Or, in other words, when we are aware of the presence of something, our brains and our consciousness notice it more.
Our brains are wired to focus on what we actively think about on a regular basis. This is called confirmation bias — “the tendency to search for, interpret, favor and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values.”
It is the inclination of our brains to seek out information that supports our preexisting beliefs and even ignore information that contradicts those beliefs. This can be applied to health and wellness as well.
To explain it simply, whatever you put your attention on expands and becomes a bigger, more prominent part of your life. You see, the thoughts you feed your brain matter more than you may think.
If you frequently think, “I am unhealthy, overweight, weak or cannot commit to a healthy lifestyle,” your brain will start to find evidence in your daily life that supports those beliefs, and those things will become part of your reality more and more.
When you tell yourself that you cannot stick to a healthy lifestyle no matter how hard you try, for example, that is what you will see evidence of in your daily life.
You will notice more of the times you “fail” on your healthy habits rather than noticing all the times you succeed, or you may tend to gravitate toward conversations with others that are about how difficult it is to live in a healthy way, rather than conversations about how healthy living is fun and easy.
This concept of confirmation bias can also be seen in tracking your progress with your fitness journey. If you put all of your focus on the number on the scale, you may feel as though you are not making progress at all if the scale is not moving much.
However, there are so many more indicators of progress to consider (and that are actually more valuable) than the scale, such as mood, energy level, appetite, endurance, strength, quality of sleep and overall outlook on life.
But when we hyper-focus on the scale not moving, we may convince ourselves that we’re not making any progress at all. You may even convince yourself that you should quit altogether because
“
Our brains are wired to focus on what we actively think about on a regular basis. This is called confirmation bias — ‘the tendency to search for, interpret, favor and recall information in a way that supports one’s prior beliefs or values.’
” you’re just not meant for a healthy lifestyle. But if you can shift your focus to all of the other progress indicators, you can see that you are in fact making great progress.
Another thing that I see a lot working in the fitness industry is that most people have one thing (or several things) on their body that they hate. Whether it’s the fullness of your midsection, a bump on one side of your nose, the size of your calves or the jiggle on the back of your arms or the front of your thighs, most people have something they would change in an instant if they could.
We often feel like anytime someone is looking at us, they are noticing this area that we are hyper- focused on. We may even feel insecure about it and think others are judging us for it. But knowing now that what you focus on gets bigger, that also applies to those thoughts that you may have about these “problem” areas.
If you spend a lot of your time thinking about this area that makes you feel insecure or dislike your body altogether, you are hyper- focused on this, and therefore it seems bigger and more of an issue than it really is.
We don’t commonly look at others and point out the “flaws” that we see; so why do we do this to ourselves? The moral of the story here again is that when we focus on something, anything, it seems bigger because of our attention to it.
The good news? You can flip it and let confirmation bias work in your favor to improve your health and wellness.
What a lot of people don’t know or understand is that you can actively change the way you think and therefore shift what you focus on. If you often tell yourself that you’re not healthy, and that is what you see evidence of in your daily life, start telling yourself something different. Then allow this shift to help you improve your life.
For instance, you could start telling yourself that you are proud of yourself for any changes that you make toward improving your health and wellness — no matter how small. And then allow yourself to focus on things in your life that affirm that.
You can also fight back against confirmation bias by actively seeking out and considering differing points of view than your own. Challenge the beliefs that you have that keep you limited or that keep you in a state of feeling less-than.
And remind yourself as often as necessary that what you focus on gets bigger. So if you don’t like the way something makes you feel, you can shift your focus to something else.
Recognize the beliefs and biases you have and reflect on them; allow yourself to question those beliefs and why you may have those particular biases. This can have a hugely positive impact on your health and wellness and can lead you to feel happier and more optimistic overall.
Try it out. Bring something positive about your health and wellness to the forefront of your mind. Think about it for a few moments. Now, as you go forth into your day, pay attention to how your brain tries to show you evidence of it. I think you may be pleasantly surprised at how well this works.
What you place your focus on can affect every aspect of your life.
You get to determine if that is a good thing or not. But you can rest easy knowing that all it takes is redirecting your focus, and your health and life as a whole can improve dramatically.
