We tend to place so much focus on the physical when it comes to health and wellness: how we look, our appearance, what we wear, the foods we eat. What we think and say is also incredibly important.
How positive are your thoughts and words? Towards others? Towards yourself?
Living in the moment
Give everyone, including yourself, permission to be imperfect. Be kind as you go about your day; you never know what people are going through. Try not to hang onto things in the past that can’t be changed or spend too much time holding out for things in the future that may not eventuate.
Acknowledging your past and looking forward to future goals are still important, but finding balance here will help you live in the present. We often spend far too much time stressing about things that are out of our control, or letting our minds run away with all the ‘what if?’ scenarios we can dream up. This causes unnecessary stress and anxiety; life is chaotic enough without adding extras to it.
Easier said than done, right? Even if this is something you need to periodically remind yourself (like I do!), it’s good to keep revisiting this concept to help keep your thoughts in check.
Recognising when something needs to change
Mindset can have a huge effect on your health; you don’t need to be positive all the time, but it’s good to do some self-study every now and then to recognise when you’ve got yourself into a rut. I find I need to reassess every now and then otherwise I get bogged down being stressed out dealing with everyday life.
My background tendency towards striving to be an over achiever can be my worst enemy sometimes. This seriously starts affecting my motivation and can convert to negative self-talk when I’m not hitting the ‘targets’ I plan in life. Then that negativity begins to project outwards (I know this is starting to happen when I complain on a daily basis about how crappy my day has been when the husband comes home, as soon as he walks through the door – even if it wasn’t really that bad).
Often all that it takes for me to turn this around is to strip back the non-essential stuff from my life that’s adding stress to it, tell the main people in my life to their faces why I appreciate them on a daily basis (sounds cheesy but it feels good!), give myself permission to not have to give all areas of my life 100%, and to have some bloody good chocolate 😉
Image / NZ Real Health