Innercise is a book by John Assaraf about using mental exercises to achieve your goals. He shows the brain science of why these exercises work and how you can apply them in your own life.
How he came up with Innercises
He runs a real estate business and constantly struggles to make a sale even though he works so hard every day. He needs help approaching wealthy clients and needs help finding the confidence to close deals with them. He fought with self-esteem issues, and whatever he did, didn’t help his situation.
He met an old wealthy, successful businessman who taught him what he needed to do to fix his mindset. That’s where he started with his Innercise journey.
He taught him how to Innercise to improve his life. He would ask if he is interested in achieving his dreams or is committed to doing them.
The techniques that Alan Brown taught John Assaraf helped him create million-dollar companies, best-selling books, and be in movies and documentaries. He had lived the life of the Rich and the Famous and had a great family life.
What are Innercises?
Innercises are brain exercises designed to help change your habits, beliefs, and behavior. They help train your brain to think better choices and do actions that will lead to success.
They help strengthen your mindset and improve your emotional skills. This, in turn, enables you to overcome the obstacles stopping you from achieving your goals and desires.
The brain science behind Innercises
The innercises designed by John Asssaraf are proven by science. We have two brains, the conscious and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind is the one taking care of decision-making. In contrast, the unconscious mind does involuntary processes like managing blood pressure, heartbeat, emotions, habits, and behavior.
It’s hard to change depending on willpower, plans, or goal setting. We can set them, but a lot of times, we need to do them. You may consciously want to change your habits, like smoking, but your unconscious mind won’t let you do so, as your smoking habit is your saving grace whenever you’re stressed.
Innercises are designed to help align your unconscious mind with your goals and help you in achieving them.
The innercises laid out in this book address these seven areas:
1. Beliefs, perceptions
2. Focus and concentration
3. Gratitude
4. Overcoming fears, excuses, and stories
5. Self-esteem or self-worth
6. Stress reduction and relaxation
7. Habits
How to do Innercises
There are several innercises mentioned in the book, and you can be familiar with them, like visualization, affirmations, goal setting, and vision boards.
Innercises, just like physical exercise, are best done in the right amount. You don’t need to spend the whole day doing innercises. It would be best to do it in timed repetitions and redo it when your brain already incorporates some of it into its habits.
Innercise 1: Do six deep breaths to calm your neural circuits
Take six slow deep breaths through your nose and exhale through your mouth. As you breathe in, mentally say, “I breathe in calmness. I breathe out stress”. You can replace stress with things you want to let go of, like fear, anxiety, overwhelm, worry, sadness, urges, or compulsion.
When you’re under stress, the brain turns off some functionalities to meet stress demands. Taking six deep breaths helps calm your brain’s stress response, allowing you to react better to stressful situations.
Innercise 2: Mental rehearsal
Start by doing Innercise 1 above. Afterward, close your eyes and think of the desire you want to fulfill. Don’t worry about how big it is. Just think of something you want to get, no matter what.
Keep breathing slowly and while breathing, visualize your goal.
- What would it feel like to finally achieve your goal?
- What would it look like? Taste like? Smell like? Sound like? Involve all of your five senses.
- Do you see vibrant colors or scenes around you?
- Who are the people celebrating with you?
- Are there other details that will add flavor, joy, and happiness to this experience?
The more time you spend visualizing this goal with emotion, the more it engages the brain. It eventually finds a path to help you attain this goal.
Innercise 3: Dream your future
Write down a story of how you want your life to be. Make sure to read this twice a day. Write down how it would feel to achieve what you finally want.
You can write some of these things.
* I am so happy and grateful now that _____________________
* I am so thankful that I now have _____________
* I am so excited that I am now doing this ______
After writing this story:
- Read and see yourself already being, doing, and having these things in your life.
- See yourself happy and grateful that you finally have all of them.
- Involve all of your five senses.
In this imagination, think of the people who are with you. Think of what you’re doing. See yourself wearing the new clothes that this new you is wearing. Feel the feelings of having these beautiful experiences.
Don’t be frustrated if you don’t see how this is all possible. Keep practicing so you’ll be able to focus on these desires. Practice until this becomes second nature to you. Your subconscious mind will find ways to help them manifest for you.
Innercise 4: Changing Beliefs
Think of one of your limiting beliefs.
If you believe you must work hard to make money, think the opposite of that negative belief.
Write your new positive belief on the card and look at it daily. Look for things that prove this new belief and write it down on your card.
Innercise 5: Meditation
Take six deep breaths and think of calming places.
Start to become aware of what you’re feeling and thinking now. Ask yourself what you intend to do this time. Do you want to be worried, sad, or angry, or do you want o to be calm, relaxed, and at ease? After setting up your intention, think of a small step you can take toward that intention.
Innercise 6: Take Time Away From Stress
Set up three times personal downtime for your day. You will spend 3 to 5 minutes of this personal downtime.
Set the alarm to remind you of this time.
At the set of the alarm, stop what you are currently doing and take a moment to relax and breathe. Do this six times.
When your mind is clear, step away from your environment and take a moment to do a quick exercise like some light stretching and look out the window.
Go back to your task. This will give you more energy to do things.
My Opinion of This Book
John presented many ideas to help us overcome our self-limitations, like bad habits, fears, and lack of motivation. Aside from the six takeaways I have laid out in this blog post, you can apply several more techniques from the book. The only downside I see is the heavy promotions inside the book towards his expensive brain-a-thon course.
Putting this all together
These innercises can change your life only if you put the time to do them. Make sure to allot time to do these innercises daily, and you should see positive results soon. If you’re looking to manifest using just a list, check out my last post https://selfhelpjourneys.com/it-works-summary/