It’s the New Year and…
You like many Canadians might be struggling to keep your mood up and your goals on track. Statistics show only 9% of Canadians stick to their New Years Resolutions. What are we doing wrong?
The key is to approach this from a different perspective and there is only one true way to make anything stick. Your mind needs to decide first and then the body will follow.
I want to share with you 3 simple mindset shifts to create lasting positive habits for a new better feeling you. Setting goals and intentions are needed but upgrading your mindset is what makes healthy habits stick.
3 Mindset Up-grades for a healthy lifestyle:
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Re-prioritizing Self – “I am a Priority”
- Many of us do not believe we are a priority, and until that belief changes it is almost impossible to create self-care habits that stick.
- Upgrade your belief system by telling yourself over and over again “I am a Priority”.
- “No time” is no longer an excuse – because you have changed what you prioritize and it is never about time, it is simply about what we prioritize.
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Do what feels good
- Use your feelings as a motivator – everyone wants to feel better so use your feelings as a motivator.
- Ask yourself: How will this morning walk make me feel?
- Make a list of all the healthy habits that make you feel better e.g.: hiking outside, skating, clean eating, yoga, meditation, reading, journaling, etc.
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Mindset shift – moving from “I have to” to “I get to”
- Upgrading the mind to “I get to” i.e. – I get to work out, I get to go for a walk, I get to take a yoga class. This will create a shift in your body, and you will feel a level of appreciation rather than another thing on the To-Do list
- Gratitude and appreciation shifts our attitude and our energy. It is a wonderful self-healing emotion, and we can learn to feel more of it. Using “I get to”, helps you to feel this energy more.
The end result is lasting change that becomes a lifestyle rather than a temporary goal or the viscous cycle of healthy vs unhealthy choices. Once it become a lifestyle you don’t even need new years resolutions. You might need a little reset after holiday indulgence but that is easy to achieve.
To really integrate lifestyle changes around food, It is time to start changing your relationship around your own personal health. It must always be a priority no matter what, and your personal health should never be something you negotiate.
When you adopt an ‘I am a priority’ mentality you will always be working towards your own personal alignment with each choice you make throughout the day and your own personal alignment is always about what will FEEL the best for you.
The beautiful thing about this is we allow ourselves to indulge and enjoy, like over the holidays but with a mindful approach.
What is a mindful approach around eating?
A mindful approach is that I am really going to enjoy my food with no guilt or shame. (Which are the lowest energies for us to feel) A mindful approach is I am going to enjoy this delicious piece of chocolate cake with appreciation and joy. The energy of how you eat is just as important as what you eat. When we eat with guilt, we make our food worse for our health.
Infuse each bite with love an appreciation. Not only will you enjoy it more, but it is easy to self-regulate because you have adopted a healthy lifestyle you might only want one piece of cake and you will still regularly work out and move your body because ultimately it feels better.
In Conclusion…
Don’t beat yourself up around your choices or if you haven’t been able to stick to some new goals.
Remember a couple of key things:
- You can hit the reset button at any moment.
- Don’t give up on your health
- Upgrade your mindset around a healthy lifestyle being top priority
- Enjoy food with appreciation and no guilt and you will be able self-regulate with ease.
You have all the power within you to make changes, just know you are a priority first.
For more information and techniques on how to do this, pick-up a copy of my best-selling book ‘Me First’ HERE.