Blog Post #3
Looking after your body is the foundation of self care. Your health is your greatest asset, so it's important to treat your body well with good food, regular exercise and plenty of rest.
Our relationship with our bodies can be complex. Sometimes when life is a blur of activity, we almost forget we even have one attached to our busy brains. Other times, we hyper-focus on them as a problem to be solved. I'm not fit enough. My hair is lurch. My skin doesn't glow.
How we feel about our physical selves is shaped by our experience and the messages we've absorbed throughout our lives.
Self care is a great way to nurture more respect for our bodies. While we may take it for granted or push it to its limits.
Please treat your body with kindness and care!
Move your body
Going to gym is intimidating. Exercise is a loaded term. It can sound like a duty.
Why not simply call it movement instead? Humans were made to move. It make you feel good, naturally boosts your metabolism, helps create and maintain muscles, and activates feel good serotonin and dopamine production.
Move your body the way you like to do
It's easy to obsess about the 'right' way to move when every gym advertisement and social media coach has bossy idea about what we should do. But the question is 'what do you want to do?'
If you move in a way that you enjoy, you'll be more likely to keep it up! Think about what suits your personality, schedule and fitness levels, or simply what sounds like fun.
I'm a lively person so I love Zumba!
Here are some ideas to get you started
Structured- Cross-fit, gym fitness classes, group personal training, park run
Goal oriented- Training for a 10k daily steps
Lively- Zumba class, tap dancing, ballet
Zen- Yoga, tai chi
Solo- running, walking with a music
Outdoorsy- hiking, swimming, surfing, gardening
Life is a juggle of conflicting demands and priorities and this will never change!
The good news is that you don't need a huge amount of time to exercise. Whether it's five minutes of dancing or an hour long power walk it all counts.
Go through your diary and block off non negotiable commitments. Now look at where you can steal some time back and reprioritise.
Try robot mode
Don't think; just do. If a voice in your head says, 'I don't want to', talk right back and say, 'we are doing it anyway!'. Put your shoes on and head out the door like a robot.
Honour the appointment you've made with yourself- you're worth the time and effort!
If exercise feels like just another thing on the to- do list, it can be helpful to think about why you want to move . What's your motivation? Why is this important? A compelling reason can get you out the door on a tough day
According to the principle of NLP, there are two kind of motivations: away from and towards.
Away from motivation is when we want to get away from circumstances or feeling that are causing pain or discomfort.
Towards motivation moves us in a direction towards more of what we desire.
Away from reasons sound like:
I need to lose weight quickly, so I don't look so awful in photos.
I must fit into those skinny jeans.
Away from motivation can provide the first spark to make a change. But notice the negative energy of those words. When we focus all our attention on what we don't like, it can be harder to sustain our efforts. It bring up negative self-talk that we may call 'tough love' but often we're simply being mean to ourselves.
Towards motivation are positive and empowering:
It feel great to move outside in the fresh air.
Exercise is quality alone time and lets me recharge my batteries.
I'm ending this blog here, be sure to read my next blog.
I hope you are loving this self care blog series.
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