Fitness in February
I have decided that 2021 will not be a lost year, so I have named it the year of ‘ME’. You might be reading this thinking “that sounds a little selfish” but remember we must be in a good place and at the top of our game to be able to give to others. We all need to prioritise our needs they are important. Self care is not selfish it’s a necessity. We need this time to recharge our soul.
With all this in mind I have named February – Fitness February. I guess the clue is in the name. This month I am going to concentrate on my overall fitness. I am not going to let lockdown determine my goals, health or mindset.
In my late teens and twenties I was very physically fit. I went to the gym 5 days a week and I swam and did yoga every day – yes, I know this is total over kill however stick with me. Just like not exercising over exercising can also have a negative impact on our body. That being said when I was 26 I had an accident and was unable to train and had to stop over night. I couldn’t walk never mind swim for several years. This impacted not only my physical health but also my mental health. This is when I realised I had not spent any time on my mental fitness and to be completely honest with you before this point I had never really thought about my mental health or spiritual growth at all.
My accident brought home to me the importance of taking care of myself. I was young and thought I was invincible and ran myself into the ground, physically, mentally and emotionally. So, we need to find the balance.
It isn’t easy to always have balance in our lives. Things happen and on the spin of a penny life has been turned upside down. This can be overwhelming, especially if you are like me and like plans and order and are very comfortable with things the way they are thank you very much. But we need to push ourselves and move out of our comfort zones to continue to grow. Like plants we sometimes need to change direction and follow the light.
For ease I am going to break Fitness February down into easy manageable sections, these being physical fitness, mental fitness and spiritual fitness. Each day I will be setting myself goals so that by the end of February my overall fitness is where I want it to be.
[Goal setting is an amazing tool and can be used for anything. Personally I like to make myself a picture board. It does take time at the beginning but once it’s done it is an amazing tool. You can look at it each day and it really helps you to visualise your goals. Then after I have done this I break each goal down into manageable pieces and create mini goals. This makes your overall goal much less daunting and you have a plan to follow, give it a try when you next have a target you want to reach.
Firstly lets talk about Physical Fitness.
For this section of my February Fitness challenge I am going to re-introduce physical exercise into my life. I know I will need to start slowly so I am also going to practice being kind to myself during this process and not put too much pressure on myself but still challenge myself. My go to exercise is usually swimming but with that plan out the window for the moment I have purchased a step machine. Over the year my plan is to gradually build up my steps and to introduce new and exciting exercises to keep me motivated. I am also a HUGE fan of routine. I have both a morning routine and a bedtime routine. Every so often I tweak these to fit in with my objectives. In February I will be introducing bedtime yoga to help me build up my physical flexibility and help tone but it will also have an impact on my spiritual and mental health too.
Mental Fitness
I am very lucky in that I have been able to turn my negative experience into a positive one. I could have chosen to stay stuck in the dark place I found myself in after my accident but I made the conscious decision that I didn’t want to live my life like that. Don’t get me wrong I was stuck in that place for a good few years but I am thankful that I finally reached the wall and I was able to pull myself over it because the other side is truly beautiful. The side I had been living on for roughly 4/5 years was dark, cold, scary, hopeless but when I made the decision and hopped over that wall what was waiting on the other side really was greener. I will be forever thankful for this journey. I have learnt many lessons on its long and windy path but those lessons have given me the tools I need to bring me balance both mentally and spiritually. I make a point of practicing mindfulness every Monday anyway with my Mindful Monday Challenges but I am going to incorporate them daily during February as a bit of an experiment and see how this impacts my mental fitness. This could be simply being present while making the evening meal or having some quiet time to do a body scanning exercise.
Finally, Spiritual Fitness.
Many of us pass through life without putting any effort into our spiritual growth, myself included. It wasn’t until I was in my late twenties I realised I needed to work on this to help myself heal. Even the non religious among us will agree we are all made up of energy. This inner energy whatever you want to call it, your spirit, your life force energy needs to be vibrating at a healthy frequency. So “how can we raise our vibration?” I hear you ask. Well fear not I have come up with a couple of exercises I will be using to do just that, so feel free to start introducing them into your life too. My all time favourite way to improve spiritual growth and fitness is through meditation. The benefits of meditation are numerous, it reduces stress and anxiety, helps you to control your thoughts, reduces pain, lowers blood pressure the list goes on. This being said we need to make sure we are practicing safely. We need to have the following to ensure our inner energy is protected.
- Water – a small bowl of water out when meditating will help to purify the atmosphere.
- Protected position – this is VERY important. We need to remember that when we meditate we open ourselves and our energy up.
- Music (this isn’t needed but I like to have music on when I meditate) – music will help you to relax. Also we are 60% water and music has an amazing effect on water. The positive vibrations from the music will physically change the water inside us.
Secondly I will be upping my gratitude game. I practice gratitude on a daily basis through using a gratitude journal. I have decided to practice gratitude throughout the day also, and when I am grateful for something I will acknowledge it at the time it takes place as well as in my journal of an evening. When we are in a state of gratitude our inner energy vibration changes to be inline with the vibration of gratitude….sounds complex but its not. Basically we feel good when we are filled with gratitude our inner energy likes the feeling and changes to vibrate at that frequency. If you would like to practice gratitude but are unsure where to start I post an affirmation every Thursday (Thankful Thursday) feel free to try it out and then once you feel more confident you will start using your own.
We must remember when starting any new activity be it physical, mental or spiritual start slowly and build up. Each day if we do a little more than the day before we are on the right path. Over the years I have figured out that to have balance in life we need three things; peace, love and harmony, everything else is a bonus. The key word here is NEED. We all have wants and these often make us lose sight of what we actually need. The basic maths here is peace + love = harmony, and when we are living harmoniously we have found our life’s balance.
I hope that you find peace, love and harmony this February and are able to continue your life living harmoniously. If you do have any questions then please feel free to get in touch with me
Peace, love and harmony
Reiki Rach