Ugh, February - am I right or am I right?
The semester has barely started AND it isn’t even close to over yet, but you wish it was.
Damn the groundhog who said six more weeks of frozen hell.
There’s no new movies, no sports, and no green poking out of the ground yet.
If you haven’t felt motivated to do much of anything lately, you aren’t alone!
If your heart just isn’t in it anymore here are 5 ways to jumpstart your motivation, renew your discipline, and get excited about fitness again.
Remember that something is better than nothing!
Let me ask you a question:
If you HAD to pass a class or you wouldn’t graduate, and you had 10 exams in the class, each one worth 10% of your grade: would you skip submitting the ones you didn’t study for or would you go and answer what you could and take what you could get?
You’d submit what you could, right?
Physical activity is a numbers game! Just because you don’t have the time or energy for a full hour long workout and a trek to the gym doesn’t mean you can’t do anything. Do some mobility drills, a few bodyweight exercises, go for a walk. You’ll likely find that once you START moving you feel like you can add a little extra than what you’d expected. Doing this a few days a week adds up to be a massive amount of activity compared to skipping it all together.
Spend 5-10 minutes focusing on your breath or meditating
Science is showing us time and again that by adjusting our breath we can adjust our mind and our body.
Check out a meditation app like Headspace or Waking Up, and give it a shot for at least one time a day for a few days.
Remember, successful meditation isn’t an act of emptying your mind. Clear mind is like the sky, and thoughts are like clouds.
Just like a a non-judgemental observer of the clouds passing through the sky wouldn’t assert that the sky and the clouds are the same, so we as non-judgemental observers of our thoughts can acknowledge that thoughts come and go, notice them as they do, and understand that the clear mind underneath is our true nature – not whatever thought happens to be intruding at the time.
I have a little video of breathing drills designed for a 5-10 minute awareness session which you can watch below:
Talk to someone!
I am a big proponent of mental health care!
Sure the gym can be “like therapy” but it isn’t actually therapy.
There’s really no substitute for talking to a licensed professional! With more practitioners offering tele-health options it’s a no-brainer to start now!
If you’re in the Manhattan, KS area and uninsured the KSU Family Center offers affordable therapy options.
Psychology Today also offers a Find a Therapist Option HERE
Check in on the behavioral elements of your Sleep Routine, Nutrition habits, and physical activity habits.
Fatigue, stress, and seasonal changes can all wreck our sleep, nutrition, and desire to move. Now more than ever might be the time to spend some time assessing so you can get into some better habits! I’ve developed a series of worksheets you can download here: CLICK ME
Please go to “File” and “Save a copy” to work through them on your own.
Establishing a baseline and doing some reflecting on what you’re doing and what you’d like to prioritize can help you establish a routine and better health habits.