For me, exercise is like any habit that we get out of because ‘life’ gets in the way. But when will we make our positive habits our life? As a Hypnotherapist, NLP coach and with my previous 13 years career in learning and development industry as a senior manager across the Middle East and Far East, I have always been interested in the mind and behaviour. Working alongside 250 nationalities in Dubai I had my belief systems shaken and stirred in the most wonderful way, which opened my mind to other possibilities.
We can easily lose something but we can easily get it back too. I have found over the years that I’ve been in and out of exercise habits; the most difficult part being the decision to get back into it. Doing it is not actually that hard, especially when I’m we’re the zone, but the thought of it? Dreadful. Yet it’s only a thought. Therefore, knowing myself well and observing my patterns I decided to take a different approach to my habits and have applied it to all parts of my life in order to build a healthy and balanced life
I found that two things are essential for it to work; convenience and positive reinforcement. How many times have you found yourself berating yourself for either promising yourself you will go exercise and ‘failing’ to do it, or not doing enough? The bark is worse than the bite. When we decide to take a new habit up we take it to the nth degree. We never make the statement:
‘I would like to become healthy and balanced by taking one step a day and taking it easy on myself, with the appropriate amount of pressure that works for me as this will be the most impactful, long term’.
No we say:
‘I’m going to be so fit that no one will even believe me at first sight, and I’m going to do it in 3 weeks! First I’ll cut out all bad food and work my body like a dog!’.
This is why I don’t do ‘diets’ in the sense of the word when it’s used for the purpose of losing weight. In this instance I don’t even use the word. I still have wine, I still eat pizza and have a coffee here and there and this is what works for me. What works for you might be something different but it starts by getting to know yourself and having a balanced and logical conversation with yourself about this when you’re feeling calm and practical, not when you are in the middle of negative self talk when emotions are ruling your heart and mind. Balance is the key and a balanced mindset reflects the balanced approach to your overall health and well being and then nutritional choices fall under this automatically.
In Yoga we take the teaching from various Gurus and Buddha being one of the main ones would say that there is a cycle in everything that we do in life and peace comes when we can take ourselves out of that cycle. For example, we try to work towards being a selfless person so we give and give until we feel we are taken for granted and then we take back and take back. Then we feel guilty for being selfish and so we give and give again to overcompensate. We get stuck in this selfish-selfless cycle. There is only yourself who can determine what the balance is for you – by going within and taking time out to understand, observe and continually work on yourself in that path towards peace. It’s the same with attachment-non-attachment and working hard/ resting because the human experience is filled with duality; night and day, male and female and love and fear.
So when it comes to building back any kind of positive habit, it helps to first approach it with a positive mindset and balance. We always want the fastest results but long-term it’s not effective. If we can step back enough to see this and have patience we can achieve anything. So I took this method and applied to my running, another love of mine. I am not a fit runner, I’m not an athlete by any means and this is where my acknowledgement and realism takes the first priority in my expectations on myself. So how about start by setting yourself a realistic end result that is unique to you, taking into account your lifestyle.
Then…. it’s literally the first step; try the following:
Start by dressing yourself as a runner with the intention of going for a walk for to clear the mind and enjoy nature or for solution finding (keep in the back of your mind that if you decide to run then that’s a bonus)
Go out of the house (this bit is a must )
Start walking at a speed which increases your heart rate
Most likely your body will feel the endorphins and be tempted to take it to the next level. Try it. Even if you only take a few steps. Walk again if you’re not feeling it straight away. Try another couple of times before you reach home.
Even if you didn’t get far, psychologically you have been for a run. Tell yourself you are proud and that you achieved more than you expected and that you’re happy you achieved
Now you will be motivated to go again the next day. The reason for this is because you gave yourself positive reinforcement and you are more energetically ready, with new energy from the previous run. The muscles will be regaining their memory from previous exercise and enjoying the benefit of oxygen to the lungs, blood, tissues, cells and your mind will be aware that they do not get berated but they actually get rewarded
After this you can set your regularity of your routine because you have broken the seal!