Spring is here! It almost feels as it happened overnight. The flowers are blooming, birds are chirping and the temperature here in Melbourne is rising (slowly but surely).
Each season is special and has its own charm; however, spring offers something entirely unique: a complete revitalization of the world as we know it.
Today more than ever, I embrace spring; my body is ready for this new beginning. Last night I was able to complete my first ‘serious hard core’ workout routine. I have spent a long winter battling a sore back! This whole ‘being in pain’ experience has been very humbling and frustrating.
As we farewell winter, I take this time to share with you a few essential insights I gained during this ‘darker’ season:
Every experience, every ending is simply a new opportunity to grow. When we are facing adversity (physical or emotional) it’s hard to see beyond our problem. I found myself thinking about pain, talking about pain and just making lots of changes in my life to support this pain. No wonder it wasn’t going away!
Be patient and forgiving of yourself. Yes, it is not the end of the world if you can’t exercise for several weeks or months! You won’t lose all of what you’ve worked hard for. Patience is a hard one, especially when fitness is a big part of your life, but you have to listen to and respect your body. So many times I wanted to rush the process, to go back to the routine I was doing before I was injured, but I knew that wasn’t the smart thing to do. I learned to embrace where I was, appreciate the little things and to be thankful for the progress that I was making.
Seek out the support of your family, friends or therapist. Fight the urge to isolate yourself. The worst thing to do when we’re in a vulnerable state is to separate ourselves from our family and friends. Remember these wise words: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
Take active part in your healing. Be conscientious about your physical therapy. Follow the doctor’s advice closely. Don’t cut corners. Work as hard with your rehab as you did in your training. In addition, practice using healing imagery. If you’re recovering from a broken bone or separated shoulder, spend 5-10 minutes imagining that bone or shoulder beginning to heal. “See” in your mind’s eye a healthy supply of red blood cells surrounding that area and facilitating the mending process. I also discovered that from the moment I began to command and instruct my body to heal, I started to feel less helpless and more in control and much more positive.
Practice gratitude. Keeping a gratitude journal helped me a lot. Practicing gratitude sets the tone for you to start focusing on the good in your life as opposed to focusing on the things that are not going well. When you focus on the good you start creating new neural pathways in your brain, new connections to feeling good.
“When a flower doesn’t bloom you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”
THIS WEEK’S MIND TRAINING CHALLENGE
Spring is a time for renewal and change, so here’s a gentle but effective way to break out of your ‘comfort zone’:
Every evening for this week, write down one small task that you’ll do the following day, which will slightly stretch you out of your comfort zone; one that you haven’t done before.
Close your eyes, relax, and allow images of yourself doing that comfortably and confidently. As the images come to mind embrace the good feelings and say to yourself; ‘I’ll feel great when I’ve done that!”
The next day make a promise to yourself that you’ll complete the self-confidence task that you’d set for yourself.
Then, just do it! You’ll be amazed at how good it feels and how much your self-confidence will grow in a short amount of time.
Today is the day you start to reprogram your brain purely by choosing to have a different thought, purely by choosing to do something to stretch you out of your comfort zone.
For now, I invite you to complete the exercise for this week. Let me know about your progress.
