As a health and wellness professional my social media feed is filled with pictures and videos of other fitness professionals showing off their bodies and their workouts. I have struggled with accepting that this is really helping anyone. I know for sure that seeing those images and videos causes me to be critical of my own body and workouts. Most importantly, I think that it is completely toxic to the very people that we should be helping.
Stop Judging Your Body
So here is what I want to tell you. It doesn’t matter. It plainly doesn’t matter. You don’t need to lose those 10-15 pounds and stop judging your body so harshly. Here is what does matter. If you are completely sedentary and your doctor has told you that your body is showing signs of a health concern then yes you need to lose that weight. But there are tons of people that do not fall into that boat and are super harsh on their bodies. This is doing more harm than good. You are setting yourself up for failure. This process is never ending. You need to welcome health and wellness into your life for its entirety. Stop focusing on how much you weigh and instead focus on how you feel. A large part of that is self-acceptance. No, I’m not saying that you need to accept that you feel crappy or out of shape. No, what I’m saying is that you need to accept that you are HUMAN. A human that is juggling many things and the story you tell yourself of who you are is immensely powerful.
Health & Wellness is a Journey
This is what I want you to take away from this blog. Being healthy and being active is a journey. A journey with its ups and downs. One day you will feel fit & strong and the next week you may feel overweight & sluggish. I read one of the best quotes recently from renowned yoga instructor, Kathryn Budig, in which she said that during her meditation she constantly tells herself that she is perfect and she is not her body. How real is that? Try that for a second. Right now say to yourself “I am perfect….and I am not my body.” That is such a powerful message. Think about how you judge your body or how you judge how much you exercise.
Health and wellness is a journey. A journey. That means that as a human who is taking part in this journey that you will have imperfect moments. But that is real.
So what do you do? You accept that you are this wonderfully resilient human being on a journey of health and wellness. You let go of critical thoughts and accept those imperfect moments as a time for growth. Tell yourself another story. One that is kind to yourself and confidently knows that you will get there.
Wishing you the best in this health and wellness journey.
Brush Park