Errrr, where’s my 6 pack?!
Yesterday I started a 6 week fitness challenge, I worked out and ate healthy, all day!
Ok so that’s definitely not how it works, which is a shame because I think I’d look good with a six pack but I was in the shower after my workout and started thinking about what I’d been doing and that it’s such incremental changes you don’t notice them day to day but with consistency in exercise and eating properly, the differences are huge.
(I took ‘before’ pics on Sunday night, that was fun, so I’m looking forward to the ‘afters’!)
This led me to thinking about when I’m asked why sometimes starting a meditation practice, or breathwork, or journaling, or working through and changing beliefs or any of the transformation tools or energy healing methods we use either don’t seem to make much difference to start with or can actually make you feel loads worse for a short time
And it’s really similar to physical exercise, we just don’t often think of it this way
Imagine each thing that you do to learn, heal, grow and transform as a particular muscle
When you work it the first time, it feels too hard, it’s heavy and difficult and you feel like you’re never going to get there, your body just doesn’t move that way
Just like how journaling feels clunky and, frankly, weird.
Meditation feels like you're pretending and it’s boring.
Tapping feels ridiculous, saying affirmations makes you feel crazy and a spot of self hypnosis, no thanks!
It gets better - I promise, but I’ve been there, like ‘you want me to do what?!’
And I know that it sometimes just feels pointless when you first start and like you're never going to get there (not that there’s anywhere to ‘get’ but you know what I mean)
Just like it feels like your muscles are never going to get stronger and your vision of your physical self seems a long way off, and to top it off, the next day - you can’t even move it hurts so much! But you know that as you put in the workouts and eat the right things, you get stronger bit by bit, and every workout counts.
So back to changing your mindset, you do some of the things, even though they feel uncomfortable, and you actually start to get into them a bit, but afterwards, you feel AWFUL. WAAAY worse than before, you’ve stirred up some stuff and dredged up some old emotions and uncovered some old beliefs and you’re straight back in that place you’ve been running from, staring things in the face you’ve hidden from for years, and it feels sh*t
It’s an easy time to start running again, hide again, pack all that crap back into its box and cram it back down where you don’t have to deal with it and pretend you’re ok but if you do that, you’ll never be able to change, you‘ll be carrying all this stuff around with you and not healing, or changing your beliefs and therefore your results.
The emotions that come up have to be felt and let go so you can move forward, you have to challenge beliefs that aren't serving you, forgive others and yourself, reconnect with yourself and do the things that have to be done.
If the things you do for your mindset are like muscles they get stronger the more you use them, you get better at using them and they can work for you. You develop the tools to handle things in better ways, you choose beliefs that are empowering and work for you instead of against and you begin to step into the version of yourself that has everything you desire.
So just like you don't work out once and wonder where your 6 pack is, you can’t do things for your mindset and beliefs once and wonder why you don’t feel much different, it’s the consistent actions over time that matter, making it a part of your routine - it also makes it less scary if you go off track because you can always choose again with the very next action, thought or choice
It’s also why keeping a general journal of your thoughts and feelings can be so helpful, it’s so important to celebrate the progress you’re making but often it’s easy to overlook how far you’ve come. I look back to myself 10 years ago and I’ve come further than I ever imagined was possible and even now I feel like I've only just started, even 5 years, 2 years, a year, 6 months ago I’m working through stuff constantly
Even though I’m nowhere near my current goals, I’m insanely grateful for who and where I am right now. I’m proud of myself, I love myself for what I’ve done, how I’ve grown and what I’ve learned.
It’s so important to take the time to look back and be grateful to yourself
Appreciate yourself for all you are and everything you have come through. Express gratitude to yourself for every time you choose a better thought, choose to do something which moves you forward and give yourself the recognition for where and who you are right now
And also, be grateful that journaling doesn’t make you look like a sweaty tomato!
Let me know which practice has been the most challenging for you?
So much LOVE
Kerri xxxxx
