Most of us can identify how we’d like to feel (strong, healthy, energized, not crazy!), I want you to lower your expectations.
I know you’re probably an overachiever and when you say you want to feel comfortable in your body you immediately sign up for bootcamp or a half marathon. When you want balance, you insist you will start mediating for 30 minutes a day and do a cleanse. You want to eat more vegetables so you replace a few meals with smoothies and make a new recipe board on Pinterest of all the new things you’ll try. And then at some point life happens and even though you were feeling good, you can't maintain these healthy habits people keep blogging about.
I applaud your ambition, but like I said:
Have you tried baby steps instead of leaping to the finish line?
I’ve been there, with the best of intentions and inspiration, I can see my new life filled with vegetables, super zen meditations, hours of yoga, feeling energized, balanced and strong. I rarely lasted more than 3 days because those outcomes are unrealistic if you’ve never sat still to feel your breath for 1 minute, you only eat carrot sticks, and you have small children. I tried to leap a million times, it never stuck until I gave myself a break and made it easier.
On a scale of 1-10, if I was at a 5, I usually expected to jump to a 10. In 7 days or less.
But here's the thing, if you want to get from a 5 to a 10, (or even just to 8 - 8 is great), you have to go to 6 first. Trust me. It’s less of a jolt. Jolts may sound novel and exciting, but they’re not sustainable. They lose ground fast.
So the first step is recognizing your “goal” is too high. Or maybe you just need to identify some of the stops on the way to the big goal. Lower your expectations a bit (I know some of you are cringing, stay with me). Dial it back to something you can easily achieve, here are 5 goals I hear a lot about and some easy first steps to getting there:
1. You want to feel more balanced, so you experiment with a simple breathing exercise when you wake up in the morning or do a legs-up-the-wall pose when you transition from work to home or day to evening.
2. You want to feel healthy, so you make yourself breakfast in the morning or you go for a walk during lunch break or after dinner or call me for a free consult.
3. You might want to feel more comfortable in your body, so you find better fitting clothes or practice some gentle yoga poses at home so you can feel all the parts of your body.
4. You want to feel more energized, so maybe you do 5 push-ups (or start with 1) or go to bed 15 minutes earlier.
5. You want to feel confident in the kitchen so perhaps you sign up for a cooking class to learn some new things about putting meals together or preparing vegetables so they don’t taste terrible.
It’s not gigantic changes and it’s not ALL at once. Pick a place to start, I recommend where you’re at, put one foot in front of the other and don’t worry about 10 hours, 10 days or 10 years from now. Just now.
How are you applying baby steps in getting where you want to go? I'd love to hear.
xo,
Nikki
P.S. A few private coaching spots will be available beginning in June if you'd like support and guidance along this path to self-acceptance, growth and wellness. If you want to talk about coaching (no pressure), schedule a consult this month.