Today seems like another good day to have a look for the latest tips and maybe, if time permits have a “root” through that fat file in your phone where the other “million” are stored. Maybe you have been super organised and have all the articles you have ever found interesting and potentially useful printed and beautifully filed ready for use!
Today you are deciding that your health and wellness are now your priority. Your thoughts expound, your mind races and you cannot wait to have the perfectly balanced, healthy well life that all the articles allude to.
You look around, laundry is piled up, the sink is full of dishes, the fridge is bare, the house is dirty and Pilates, the one class you treat yourself to is in 30 minutes. Are you thinking of completing all your domestic chores before you’re ready to include your health & wellness?
This new healthy lifestyle is going to take ages to perfect and you can’t remember where to start without re-reading every single article and your Pilates class is now in 20 minutes. Go to class or clean or read those articles or get the last bottle of your favourite soft drink out of the fridge, the last bag of hoop crisps out of the press and just sit down and take “5”? This is one guilty pleasure you know you’ll enjoy. You open your hoops and put one on the top of each finger. You have been doing that since you were a child and you like doing it. Everything else can wait!
Getting this health and wellness “thing” going shouldn’t surely feel this overwhelmingly difficult? You feel stressed about it already. How do you set up your life so that being healthy is planned into your life?
5 minutes “re-charged you”, energised you, and you enjoyed it. Maybe, just maybe, you simply need to take “5” , then take action, just do it and enjoy it?
What is your plan? A desire without a plan is just a dream. Yes, another thing you know already, another thing you read or heard somewhere! So, again you are getting distracted and away from solving your issues to hand. Lots to do, but what are you going to tackle first?
You now want to attend your Pilates class and prioritise your health and wellness. Good for you! No time like the present you are thinking. You check the clock and monitor like every second counts, if you go NOW you will make it. When you were having your guilty pleasure, time didn’t matter at all. Maybe there is a lesson in that? Having slipped into your workout gear earlier, it’s as though you subconsciously planned for success. You arrive at the class, the only one puffing and panting and just as you begin to procrastinate to self, you decide instead to take 5 deep breaths, focus, and enjoy. It works!
Feeling on top of your world after your class and a steamy shower, you take on all those house chores and clear the decks so to speak! While you multi-task, as always, so many ideas are popping into your head about getting your life in order that perhaps you should begin a list (the millionth list). You toy with the idea of yet another list, you consider it, and finally you decide all lists are now redundant. You are already living your new healthy, well, balanced life and it grew from feeling good. Maybe choosing your 5 minute energiser, whatever that may be is essential from time to time. Feeling good may help you make your health and wellness decisions with greater ease.
You bounce out of bed the following morning, delighted with your new found energy and “JOIE de VIVE”, you have found the joy.
You have lots to be grateful for! Maybe things are taking on a slightly altered perspective and maybe engineering health, wellness and balance into your life is more easily achieved today than yesterday, something you feel you can do. What a difference a day makes!
Baby steps, one decision at a time and one moment at a time. You breathe, feel grateful and joyful. Less than 15 hours ago, you were eating hoops off your fingers while you considered going to class or not and now here you are feeling like the world is your oyster. Stop questioning it, just go with it.
Go with the flow of life. Life isn’t always perfect, but life is life and you are solely responsible for the direction of yours. You may encounter many people throughout your journey who will try to redirect the course of your life. Your life and its’ direction belong to you, good, bad or indifferent. The choices you make moment by moment, both consciously and subconsciously direct the course of your life on a continuous basis.
Speaking metaphorically, your life is like a sail boat, you are best going with the wind on the given day, bearing in mind that to do otherwise will be difficult, particularly if you do not plan to tack or motor sail. To go with the flow, with a destination in mind is good enough. Enjoy the “sail”. To do otherwise will cost you. There is always a trade off. You may be able to force the boat to go where you want it to go and yes reach your destination of choice but you will have lost out on the joy of the sail. If motor sailing or power driven is your preferred choice, then you may consider a cruiser instead of a sail boat. Choose!
Have you got the correct ingredients to make your healthy well life? Speaking metaphorically once again, a philosopher at heart and forever the optimist, it is rather difficult to make the life of your choice without the correct ingredients. Do you have these ingredients in your life right now?
Information;
Knowledge;
Choice;
Ability;
Time;
A Plan;
Energy;
Enthusiasm;
Gratitude;
Positivity;
Ticked most if not all the boxes?
- Goodbye struggles, they serve you no purpose
- Welcome today, you have decided health and wellness begins right now
- Getting distracted by excuses is normal, you are only human
- Dress for success even when you don’t feel like it
- Taking “5” and doing one of your favourite things and feeling good is perfect
- One decision may change everything
- Everything is easier with a positive outlook
- Feeling gratitude is always good
- Finding the joy is a must
- Going with the flow is absolutely essential
Maybe you are inspired to take ownership of your life? Your life is your every day!
Making your health and wellness your priority in your daily life can be achieved by laying the foundations from which your healthy well life will grow. Finding your joy NOW is your first task! You DESERVE THE LIFE YOU DESIRE, choose it.
Author: Aisling Hayes
Recreation and Sport Management Student