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3 Important Mindset Shifts On a Health and Wellness Journey
Today, a great number of us these days are becoming more and more deeply invested in the pursuit of a greater overall sense of “wellness” in our lives.
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“Wellness”, in a holistic framework, is a term which encompasses multiple different dimensions of our individual life experiences.
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It’s not simply a matter of being in good physical health – although it certainly includes that, as well. Nor is it merely a matter of maintaining good social connections, or living in an intentional manner ~ although it certainly encompasses those things, too.
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Many of us on this journey – particularly in highly developed nations – find ourselves caught in a strange paradox. On the one hand, we live in the most prosperous era and environments that have ever existed in the world, in terms of material affluence and comfort.
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And yet, in spite of the objectively luxurious standards of our lives along numerous measures, many people report feeling more stressed, alienated, depressed, and dissatisfied with life than they have for generations.
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Embarking on a health and wellness journey means embarking on a personal quest to try and correct the imbalances that might exist in our lives. This also encompasses a need to re-establish a sense of happiness, meaning, and peak health ~ all in one.
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In the pursuit of this quest, it’s obviously and fundamentally necessary for us to make certain mindset shifts…Mind shifts which may be at odds with the way in which we have hitherto been conducting ourselves and our lives.
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Below are 3 mindset shifts to make, or consider making, when embarking on a health and wellness journey.
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1. Think about things in terms of a lifetime commitment, not a quick “sprint”
All too often, questions of health and wellness are framed in terms of short-term plans and endeavours, miracle supplements, and races to the metaphorical finish line.
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This leads to a certain form of short-term thinking and planning that does not lend itself well to the development of a sustainable and potent sense of well-being over time. Rather, it keeps us running in place, losing or difficulty in sustaining motivation, backsliding, and repeating the process over and over.
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Diets and weight loss, for example, are notorious for this. In the pursuit of our goal weight we will typically adopt deeply unsustainable, and likely deeply unhealthy and restrictive eating plans for the purpose of crash-dieting down as fast as possible. In the quick-quick game, we often abandon or forget with glee any consistent fitness routines!
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But, then, when it comes time to rejoin society and treat food as a feature of everyday life once more, we fall into our old habits, regain the weight, and experience all the frustration that goes along with that.
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The correct way to treat a wellness journey, is in terms of a lifetime commitment, not a short-term race.
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This applies even to certain medical procedures. Reversal vasectomy procedures exist, for example, but the reversals don’t always work, and people who undergo the procedure are typically advised to consider it permanent, for all intents and purposes.
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By the same token, any modifications you make to your diet should be the kinds of things that you can keep up throughout your life, without feeling chronically deprived and irritated.
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Instead of trying to subsist on a diet of wheatgrass smoothies and nothing else, you should focus on more balanced and sustainable approaches. This can include making a commitment to cook your main meals each day from scratch, using REAL whole food ingredients, while keeping processed foods out of the kitchen and limiting them to rare and special occasions only.
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Likewise, your fitness plan shouldn’t be a super-intense gauntlet that you run for a couple of months. It should be an integrated mode of living where you actually enjoy maintaining a higher baseline level of physical activity, day after day.
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Remember that you are making decisions now that will impact your whole life – and that the quest you’re on is a lifelong one.
2. Begin by trying to instil a habit, first – the smaller the better
Many ambitious health and fitness plans essentially “fail to launch,” in large part because we rush into them, gung-ho, and try to force ourselves to endure them through sheer grit and discipline.
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Grit and discipline are certainly important traits to develop in life, but if everything you do seems like an unbearable chore, you’re not doing a good job of living in a way that is likely to enhance your overall sense of wellness.
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Instead, focus on instilling positive habits, first and foremost. And, when you first begin introducing those habits to your life, start as small as possible.
Among other things, that could mean doing one sit-up a day, or one walking “lap” of your living room, and calling that your “fitness routine.”
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The important thing, at first, is that you solidify the habit of acting out a certain desirable routine in and of itself. The more you go through the motions – no matter how ridiculously small they may feel – the more those habit patterns will establish and solidify themselves within you.
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Then, you can begin increasing the intensity and ambition of your habits, slowly and carefully, and will likely find that they “stick” in a way they never did before.
3. Understand the importance of doing things in a holistic way – everything you do matters
Holistic health is an approach to overall health that encompasses all the multiple facets of a person’s life, mindset, personality, and more.
Whereas conventional medical treatments typically focus on identifying one particular issue in the body, and addressing it surgery or medication, a holistic approach to health emphasises the importance of balance and intentional living, in all areas.
The compartmentalised approach to health can certainly save your life and be a wondrous thing. But it’s an emergency “fix” and shouldn’t be used as your fundamental basis for pursuing wellness in life, in general.
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The important thing to realise about holistic health, and intentionality, is that everything you do matters on an essential level. If you’re in the pursuit of overall wellness, your diet matters, your exercise routine matters, the quality of your life goals matter, the depth of your social connections matter, and on, and on.
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When embarking on a health and wellness journey, you need to be constantly on the lookout for imbalances and weak spots in various dimensions of your life – and then you need to work to address them as often, and as soon as possible.
