This question came to my mind while I was sitting on my balcony feeling the warmth of the sunshine on my skin, eating a delicious breakfast of fresh fruit I picked up yesterday from the local farmers market and thinking about my massage appointment I have later today with my good friend and amazing massage therapist Lara Viscovich of intune massage. For me there are quite a few things I do to keep my health in balance physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I thought I’d share some of these with you not to brag and say look at how perfect I am! Not at all! I'm certainly not perfect, I am a constant work in progress and its taken a good 20 years to develop these habits that are second nature for me and I can take them for granted.
This stuff can seem really simple but not easy and when I talk to my clients about these things and they implement them it can make an astounding difference in their lives and I am often amazed because I think I haven’t really passed on that much but obviously those small changes have had a huge impact. And I guess that's what I'm really getting at here is that it doesn't have to be massive change just small steps, changing 1 or 2 things at a time and over time this snowballs and before long one good habit breeds another and so on.
And what keeps us going with these new behaviours and habits I believe is that it makes us feel good. We feel the rewards and then it becomes important to us to continue to feel that way. I’ve said many times before that I don't believe will power and discipline are the answers to being healthy. They may give us a start but no one can maintain change for the long term on will power and discipline alone.
I believe the answer is much simpler in that if we just do things that make us feel good, and with that I mean feel good for a prolonged time. There are many habits and behaviours that make us feel good in the moment but they have very negative consequences and then we feel like crap afterwards such as that initial feel good of feeding an addiction whether it be alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, junk food, soft drinks, Netflix binging, staying up too late, not getting enough sleep, sleeping in too long, being a couch potato (I can include myself in all of these at different times in my life).
I really encourage you to write a list like this for yourself and take a look at all the things you are doing in your day and week to keep well and balanced. If any of the things on my list can help you too please take that on board.
So the feel good things I've worked out for myself that keep me well and balanced are:
Feeding my body nourishing foods.
Avoiding foods that cause me pain, bloating and upset bowels even if they taste great in the moment.
Taking my supplements consistently.
Doing yoga 3 x week.
Walking along the beach in the sunshine a few times a week.
Aiming to get some time in the sun most days.
Preparing my food and snacks in a cooler bag to take to work or when out and about for the day that way I'm not hit with either not eating at all for the day and having hangry attacks or eating things that aren’t good for me.
Preparing my food ahead for my long days when I haven't got the time to cook.
Getting a massage every month.
Having chiropractic adjustments every month.
Participating in activities that bring me joy such as african drumming and salsa dancing.
Connecting with friends for a walk or at a cafe a couple of times a week.
Having at least two holidays a year.
Spending time with my family regularly.
Continually studying and learning about what I'm most passionate about which is of course health.
The things I could do much better at are:
Watching too much Netflix.
Staying up too late.
Sleeping in too long.
Wasting too much time on Facebook.
Not meditating regularly enough.
Not working on my business enough.
As I said I am a work in progress!