What promotes our efforts to look and feel good and what undercuts our efforts? What are these dream destroyers that undercut our real goal of improving ourselves or maintaining our recent past improvements? Is it our attitudes or our outlook on change?
One deterrent is perfectionism, the other is fear. These two traits can then work together to make things seem even more challenging and seemingly impossible.
If we assume that that we all like to look good and feel good and want to do the things to make those things happen, are we equally as willing, to commit to DO the things to make ourselves look good and feel good?
Doing those things, really simple little changes of habits are not laborious, just simple, but need to be consistent in daily life.
When pondering change, refer back to the fear and perfectionism blocks if need be and don’t be afraid of challenging those fears. Various people have various fears. We are all unique and we all have our own set of fears that may or may not relate to perfectionism. Some old ways in which we were individually raised may have an influence on challenging our progress for the future.
Can you pinpoint a fear that springs to mind that may be hampering your progress? Does this sound like you could give a second thought to this with pen and paper to really connect with your inner self?
For example, “I am afraid I don’t have enough time or money or both.” Is that really a fear or really an excuse for lack of commitment?
“I am afraid if I start to make a few changes for a period of time, I will let life get in the way and give up because of various interruptions and be back to where I started or even worse than before I started.”
Let’s get beyond the fear after recognizing it for what it is and “crowd out” this negativity with more with more positive reasons we can honor ourselves by being loyal to our real inner self.
IF, we, surround ourselves with people who take care of themselves, in a happy positive way, and they are energetic and look good and feel good, well, then we should keep hanging around those people morel Pretty simple sounding, right?
What if people don’t intentionally try to set out disrupting your progress, but their agenda or habits are different from the ones you are trying to adopt?
Next, know your numbers. You can start with a tape measure if you like. Your waist, your arms your legs if you want to monitor improvement. Looking good also means looking a little deeper than just beauty that appears to the casual observer. Real beauty begins within!
Check with your doctor or a professional source for learning all your numbers. Weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, hormone levels, including thyroid, and other barometers for health are just a few.
There are even tests you can order online to see what nutritional ingredients you may need that are not being utilized by your gut. Your gut is your primary “brain.” When your gut brain is suffering from malabsorption, your other brain cannot give the signals for the various systems in the body to nurture, heal and process. When you don’t absorb your nutrition properly, inflammation of some sort begins to set up residency and your liver and other organs take on more responsibility to try and compensate.
Every-“body” is unique and at various times our body needs different types of food. Take the time to pause and reflect on different food influences and how we feel short and long term.
There are many herbal and food based detoxing methods that are designed to monitor what feels good and then makes you look good.
Make a simple daily routine that includes:
- More water
- More movement
- More oxygen
- More knowledge of your numbers
Replace your fear and self-sabatoging mindset with little changes for a few weeks and then start getting more in-depth approaches for Look Good/Feel Good beautiful wellness.
By the way, remember I mentioned to find out what toxins are influencing your wellness journey? That includes people as I mentioned earlier, but foods off the plate can be even more important to monitoring your wellness journey.
Foods that are not on your plate, include relationships, social life, joy, spirituality, creativity, finances, giving back to your community or world in some way, career, home environment, and even home cooking.
We have briefly touched on health and exercise and relationships. Relationships also include’ the one you have with yourself. Being your own best loyal and loving friend is initially the baseline to beginning any change or improvement to the Feel Good/Look Good approach. This healthy relationship with yourself is at the top of the list for your success in anything.
These four “More” ingredients support you on such a basic level that implementing them as a baseline is the best start to beginning your journey. You are on your way to being your own health coach.
Follow what the people who are living healthy balanced lives are doing and minimize the influence those others have. This is really hard when the most disruptive people may be your most beloved loved ones, friends or family.
In the meantime, just start small, that way your changes will get stronger the longer you continue them. Put a few small changes that can last a lifetime that will serve you well as you go along. These small habits are life enforcing.
Some of the most basic are part of my first 4-week challenge. Get a friend to partner with, it’s more fun and effective. Change of routine can be challenging but taking this new lifestyle on in simple small ways will create lifetime survival habits.
What habits do balanced people who look good and feel good do?
Water, most of us need more per day to keep our bodies functioning smoothly, just like a car engine.
There are many sources of cleaner water rather than some tap water that can be questionable depending on your locale. There are varieties of water purifiers that remove the chlorine and harmful residual chemicals available as well as home delivery systems for drinking water in the marketplace that offer a variety of benefits. People often don’t think about the water our skin comes into contact with as being that important, but your skin can absorb up to 80% or more of the chemicals in water and any other topical product.
This is where the beauty part of health comes into more obvious play. Our skin is our largest organ and reflects how well we are processing our food and environmental toxins. Our liver processes everything we are exposed to and consume, and our skin reflects that by either glowing or looking grey, or discolored, and eventually can show up in one form of hyperpigmentation, often referred to by our ancestors as “liver spots.”
Making water beverage of choice for your day may mean getting creative with the clock. Keeping a container for your 8 glasses near your body is the easiest way to remember to drink up. Flavor your water with some fresh fruit and let it sit in the refrigerator for a change of pace. Do not add sugar or sweet additives. You can even add a drop of lemon essential oil, from an edible purely processed company now quite popular for restoring health is a convenient way to flavor water and increase vitamin C a bit. Vitamin C, by the way, is really helpful for skin.
There are other sources of water for flushing our toxins and digestion of our food and that are foods such as watermelon and cucumber. They contain a lot of water and fiber and help your body process everything that goes in it or on it.
Breath …adds the energy for processing your flow of life force for your body. In fact, the physical act of yoga really is about the intake and outflow of breath for continuous harmonic, mind, body and spirit flow.
Breathing by going deep inside your chest and into your core, and then holding for a bit, then expelling it slowly, all through your nose is a desired activity for releasing tension.
Even when you are angry, slowing down the breath and breathing deeper makes it impossible for the body to actually hold on to that tension that harms your body eventually over time.
Get some fresh air every day purposefully and appreciatively, for the simple act of having the body and the presence to give appreciation for your presence and your “present” to yourself and the world.
Give yourself a hug for the gift of your energy in the making of a beautiful healthy body, mind and spirit. You are here for a reason that is unique for you. Enjoy and appreciate the journey of finding out what that is and how you can support that journey.
Movement – also known as exercise sometimes. Involve the purposeful breathing when you go outside to give appreciation for this opportunity here on earth to find your journey. Sometimes that journey involves going to the gym. My favorite quote, “Some days you eat salads and go to the gym, some days you eat cupcakes and refuse to put on pants – it’s called BALANCE!”
Besides the gym there are many ways of getting your body engaged in doing physical activity. Find something you enjoy that rotates muscle groups with cardio in several ways to keep enthusiasm up. If you don’t enjoy it, you won’t maintain it.
Move your body in a positive attitude as if you already possessed the “look good/feel good” complete mind, body and spirit beautiful presentation of yourself to the world. Even if you are just beginning and have a way to go on your healthy journey, create that cellular memory now so your being accepts this as being right and good. Check your posture, take that breath purposefully before drinking that next glass of water, and smile with confidence that you are LOOKING GOOD and FEELING GOOD!
Do this several times a day, especially as you roll out of bed in the morning. Which reminds me of a gentle awakening exercise to loosen your body in order to be flexible in body and spirit for whatever comes your way each day.
This only takes a few seconds and if you have a pet you have your own in-house instructor!
Start out by giving yourself a hug. Then draw your knees up and hug your knees. Then roll side to side hugging yourself for taking the time to love yourself and start your day with a slow deep intake, pause, and slow exhale. Now gently roll to your side and raise yourself up with an inhale and repeat breathing for a few more seconds. Now, grab your first heart-supporting glass of water, maybe by your bedside, and thank your pet for setting such a good example of how to arise for the day.