Exercise …Fun?
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Reframing is when you create a shift in consciousness to see things in a whole new way. This video at the bottom illustrates the point beautifully.
What happens when you have a choice such as this one in the video, to take the stairs or to take the escalator to go up? Without consciously being aware of it, your mind makes a decision that could be based on many things. Perhaps it’s your time, your level of energy, the shoes you are wearing, your determination to stay fit, or any number of things.
What if you could see all your day-to-day habits in a whole new way… from an entirely different point of view? You can look at any given situation more than one way.
What is your perspective about exercise? Is it work? Is it punishment for over-indulging in food that added too much fat around your belly? Is it something necessary but you absolutely hate doing? Do you have a limiting perspective that is only negative about exercise?
A limiting perspective about something usually fuels your excuses for not taking action. Those thoughts sabotage you! For example, the most common excuse for not exercising is not having enough time. What if you reframed that to: “I make the time for anything I am committed to.” Here is another common limiting belief: “I am too old to change. I just don’t have the energy I used to have… when you get to be my age, there is just no going back!” Reframe: “It’s never too late to make a change. The more consistently I exercise, and eat healthy, the more energetic I become, and I feel younger too!”
How is that limiting perspective about exercise working for you? What if exercise were fun? Would you make the time for it? Can you think of anything enjoyable about your exercise? The results it gives you perhaps?
If you can change your perspective from a negative experience to a more empowering one, you can change your action and emotional state about it. Your perspective about anything directly produces its outcome.
Your mind and body are part of the same system and affect each other. The way you think about something will have a direct impact on the result you will create. If your mind is not aligned with what you want your body to do (you want to exercise but are making every excuse not to) find out more about coaching.
LOVE IT! That looks like SO MUCH FUN I wanna grab a flight to Sweden and try it for myself!
Thanks Lauren for the cool video and the lesson — that’s why you are THE ultimate fitness and nutrition coach!
Lou
Point taken…I would have switched too. Thanks for always making me think!
Hi Lauren,
Thanks for sharing the video. Great idea that many of us as adults forget that we all like to have fun. I remember when one of my sons was young and I gave him a chore to do, he always turned it into a game.
Regards,
Harriet
LOL Harriet… I used to make chores into games to get my kids to cooperate!
What a fun study/video!
Your fun approach to changing things up, challenging yourself are the best and worked for me!
Thanks for sharing that great video!
As a coach I encourage my clients to make everything they do to get healthy, especially exercise, fun and enjoyable. Changing your mindset about exercise can really make a difference in being able to stick with a program and gaining positive results.
At the beginning of summer, I decided to step up my exercise program by running in addition to walking. I really hated running. Every minute was torture. I noticed that I had thoughts such as “I can’t do this” and “I hate this so much” playing over and over again in my head as I ran. At first I could only run 1/4 of the way around a track. I experimented with changing those thoughts in my head. I repeated thoughts like “you are an athlete!” and “this is fun and feels so good” over and over again as I ran. I noticed something…I was able to run longer and longer until eventually I moved off the track and onto the road. And best of all, those thoughts played automatically and I not only did not hate running, Iooked forward to it. Now I’d rather run than walk. And this Saturday, I am running my first 5K. I don’t run fast, but that’s OK…one goal at a time!
Holly Amarandei, MS
Yummy Life Coaching
http://yummylifeblog.com
http://www.yummylifecoaching.com
Good luck on your 5K Holly! We’ll all be cheering for you!