Feeling Good in the New Year
Yes you can. I know it seems hard with all the COVID and political chaos going on. But think about it – isn’t the world, training days, work days, family days and relationship days better when you feel good? When you feel good, the world feels better and we are kinder, more considerate and fun-to-be-with people.
To help nudge you along this feel-good path, following are some tips and quick and easier exercises that will help fuel your body, mind and spirit – and those around you!
Focus on what is working
While it’s hard when you don’t feel good or having a bad day or workout, you are still surrounded by many blessings. Family that helps take care of you when you are sick, great beds to sleep in, that amazing copy of coffee in the morning, the hot shower that revived you, your body letting you know when enough is enough and even if forced, nudging you toward that needed day off. Focus on feel good thoughts and moments. They help mitigate what isn’t working, allowing you to progress and move on to better times.
Do a daily gratitude list
Start or end your day by writing down or reciting to yourself five things which you are grateful for. This is a simple and powerful tool that gets you focused on what is right, working and appreciated in your life. Take it one step further and express gratitude/appreciation (sincerely) to at least two people every day. It’s a wonderful way to start, enhance or end your day with a feel good mindset
Spend five minutes a day on feel good priorities
Start each day off right and spend five minutes on your feel good priorities – picture your day ahead and see it going as you’d like it be. Same with your workouts or runs. How do you want to feel and what can you do to make it feel that way? Our days and moments are much more likely to be successful – or at least better – when we focus on feel good feelings vs. thought patterns. So when your thoughts go awry, step back and ask yourself, what can I do to feel better or make this situation better? It literally takes 30-60 seconds to make the paradigm shift.
Hit the pause button
So your day or run/workout isn’t going as planned. It happens. It’s called life. In lieu of just trying to muddle through it or trying to wish it away, hit the pause button. Admit how you are feeling and then ask yourself, what can I do to feel better? This is a very fast paradigm shift that helps you get over a bad moment before it turns into a bad day (or run/workout).
Choose how you want to react
Remember, we can’t change what is happening externally but we can choose our reaction to it. If someone gets under your skin or you have a less than great run or workout, let it go and shift your focus on to what you can do to feel better. It can be as simple as slowing pace, eating or drinking something (if it’s a real energy issue vs. emotional/stress) or addressing the person/situation that you had a negative reaction to you shift from being a passenger to a driver.
Mental Strength: Focus on the last miles
A great mental strength tool for runs or workouts if they start to get hard, is to shift your focus to the last 2-3 miles of a longer race; i.e., if you’re on longer run or workout starts to feel hard around the last 2-3 miles, act like it’s the last 1-2 miles of a 10K for a 6 mile run, or mile 11 on a longer run or mile 24 on a marathon. Even if you’re not a runner, you can think about how hard it must feel and compare that to you are feeling on that given day. A) you are either going to say, wow, it would be great if I could feel this good at mile X or B) it’s supposed to be hard; it’s the last couple of miles and I don’t have to even run them as fast as I would be in a race! It really is mind over matter.
Dream. Believe. Achieve
#FeelingGoodIsOurPriority
