Happy New Year!
January 1st is often a time when people choose to make better choices regarding their health and wellbeing, and this year happens to be a Monday as well (another common “start my journey” day!) Personally, I believe there’s no time like the present if you want to make a difference but some people like to start on a specific day, and that’s fine.
Sadly, a lot of people fail soon after beginning their wellbeing journey. Why? Well, many reasons! One of those might be that you don’t have a specific goal. They just want to feel “healthier” and “better”, or maybe want to “lose weight” or “meditate more”. Now these goals are very vague, and therefore can make it quite difficult to know what to do to achieve them, let alone get there.
Then once you’ve decided on your goal – it can be so easy to stray from the habits you’re trying to create. Take, as an example, you want to eat healthier to maintain a healthy weight and eat more fruit and vegetables in order to benefit from the cast array of nutrients we need, which make us feel good.
You return to work after your Christmas break full of good intentions – and one of your colleagues offers you some of their leftover Christmas chocolate they have thoughtfully brought in. Not you know that in order to reach your health goals, you just need to decline chocolate and sweets, right? Only in that moment, when you can see and smell the chocolate right in front of you it isn’t so easy. There might be nothing more you want in those few seconds than to pop one of those delicious chocolates into your mouth and revel in the immediate sensation of the case bursting and feeling the taste of whatever filling is inside enveloping your senses.
BUT WAIT!
If you approach this more mindfully, and remember your “why”, and about the impact this and several other, potential future chocolates might have on our goal… well… they all add up. So, reluctantly, you politely decline. But really, what you have done is incredibly empowering. Because although you have said “no” to one small chocolate, you have said “yes” to making choices that reflect your specific goals and taken another step towards achieving them.
Also, this isn’t to say “don’t have chocolate!” because of course you can enjoy a planned treat as part of a healthy lifestyle; it’s these unexpected situations I’m focusing on here. In addition, the more times you take control and make informed decisions that reflect your goals and developing habits, the easier it will be come.
The point of this is – we know that in order to reach our goal, we have to sometimes feel like we’re being deprived. And we know it’s simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. It takes time to mindfully build up this habit and execute it regularly, but oh so worth it. So keep that in mind, and with a specific goal in mind, go forth and reach for it!
My own goals this year are to further develop mindfulness practice so that overall I feel calmer and in control of my responses, and to adhere long term to a healthier eating plan because I do NOT eat enough fruit and vegetables! I’m also going to incorporate some more movement into my day to day schedule.