Health and wellness is SO MUCH more than just hitting the gym. It takes discipline, time and motivation. Many people think it stops there.
“Well, if I just dedicate some time to workout then I’ll get back in shape!”
Unfortunately, life isn’t always that simple. We have feelings, emotions and bad days. Then bad days turn into bad weeks that turn into bad years.
Being active becomes a thing of the past, and don’t even get me started on eating healthy!
What’s healthy?
And then, all of the sudden, here we are staring into the mirror wondering how the hell we got to this place.
Sound familiar?
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These moments happen to all of us at one time or another.
The determining factor, however, is whether or not we decide to be honest with ourselves. Not only honest about how we got to this awful place, but honest about WHY we got to this awful place and WHY we want to get out.
True transformation works from the inside out.
Once we dig into ourselves and stop making light of/ignoring the painful things that got us to the place we so horribly want to leave, the rest starts falling into place and the true healing begins.
{What you see on the outside often reflects on how you feel on the inside.}
Why am I such an advocate for self awareness and discipline?
To keep it short-
I lost my mother at the age of 23
It was just her and I when I was growing up, so it was an extremely traumatic loss for me. After she had passed the stress of true adulthood overtook my mind and then my body. I was too stressed out to focus on anything but the negative emotions running through my mind.
I lived in a very ‘why me’ sort of way without even knowing it.
Let’s pause here for a second…….Did you catch that?
I didn’t even know I was living this way. I was so caught up in everyday life that I had completely and utterly lost touch with myself. I had no idea who I was, what I wanted to be or what the hell I was even doing day in and day out. I just did it.
Before I knew it, I was uncomfortable in my own skin.
I despised the way I looked and felt.
I had a dead end job and no real sense of purpose.
And one magical day, I hated my life enough to change EVERYTHING.
I realized that I could go to bed unhappy for as long as I wanted, but nothing would ever change if I didn’t take some sort of action.
So I started making time for myself and consistently hit the gym.
I started meditating and consistently eating healthy.
I finally allowed myself to grieve and move on.
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I hate to be the one to break it to you- but at the end of the day, nobody really cares about what you have on your plate, because everyone has their own plate to handle.
This might take a minute to sink in and fully accept, but this is the most empowering thing you could understand.
Think about it- how many people complained to you today? Can you change their situation?
…Exactly, you can’t!
It doesn’t mean we don’t care about one another. Of course we do!
It just means that each of us are in control of our own destiny. No matter how awful your situation might be at this exact moment you’re the one who got you here, and now you have to get yourself out. One step at a time.
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If you take the time to just pause, and slow down from time to time, you might learn a little bit about yourself.
You’ll learn your strengths, your weaknesses, what you like and don’t like. Why you choose to eat instead of allowing yourself to feel.
Emotions you’ve been burying will start to surface, and you will have the opportunity to allow yourself to feel them and let them pass instead of carrying them around with you.
I don’t care how old you are, how ‘out of shape’ you are, how overwhelmingly messy your life might be. Ignoring yourself and your problems won’t change anything.
Take control of your life again. Learn new things about yourself and the world around you. Turn off the news. Slow down a little bit. Hold yourself accountable. Be disciplined. Eat for fuel, not feelings. Work out. Be consistent.
Just love yourself and be GRATEFUL for the life you’ve been given.
Only then will you see a true transformation.
I will leave you with this question..
What choice will you make today to improve your life tomorrow?
Coach Ari
