Lately, I’ve been having this discussion with my Rock Your Life members about how hard we can be on ourselves and that the reason so many of us hold ourselves back from success is because we fear we won’t be perfect, or we won’t be good enough.
YIKES!
With all the challenges we face already, how can we let ourselves be the main person who holds us back?
Today I’ve got a short, simple exercise in awesomeness you can do – won’t take long at all.
TODAY I want you to do 20 burpees….
(or squats or sun salutations or anything you want – I’ll be doing 20 burpees with you in the video) and dedicate each one to something about yourself you’re proud of, that you love about yourself or that you would like to be complimented on.
Because there is a LONG LIST of stuff – and you know it!
I’m reading this amazing book about brain health, and one of the reasons people suffer everything from depression to mood swings is because they’re not practicing positive thinking (and he talks about nutrition, exercise, and some other good stuff but our thoughts are like the brain soup and when it gets murky we suffer in all kinds of ways).
If you think about all the random thoughts that just pop up throughout the day that can make you unhappy, why not actively choose to think some good ones?
It’s easy. Just do it with me….and do some burpees too because integrating movement and thought always promotes extra positive ACTION…and we all know that action takers get things done!
Share it with a friend, and remember that the month of Love IS about who loves you – starting with yourself!
An excerpt from writing I did about the way I’ve held myself back…
Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s wrong to take pride in your appearance.
It’s not wrong to feel sexy, to feel beautiful, to want to work on your butt, your legs, your abs, to get stronger, to get faster, to work on any goal that matters to YOU – what IS wrong is someone telling you-you can’t feel beautiful because you don’t have a specific body type or because you weigh a certain amount or for any reason at all….
You know what’s messed up – the person who most often tells you that is YOU.
An important shift I had to make myself was in putting TOO much value on how I looked and thinking that was the basis of all I was worth.
I was always finding myself comparing my body to others and inside I was always feeling “less than.”
I had this idea of perfection that was about a half a foot taller, a longer torso, bigger boobs, less cellulite, a straighter nose, smaller feet – haha, the list was endless because the mind is an endless well of supposings that can go on in any direction we send our thoughts.
I was so focused on the outside.
You know I’ll stand up here and take photos of my body because I’m so proud of the work I have put in – this is my vision of myself and I’m really really happy for the balance I’ve created.
I WISH I could take a progress picture of the inner journey I’ve been on so you could appreciate and really see that if I hadn’t done the mental and emotional lifting, I wouldn’t be as proud of the byproduct of my hard work – my physical being – like I am now.
I have actually physically looked like this before, but I was never happy with myself.
I was always so critical of my body. I would have taken pictures like these and seen only flaws.
I’m proud of my physique now, but I’m proud of so much more.
Don’t be limited by someone else’s version of beauty or think that just because I post a picture of MY body that I’m saying “this is how to be beautiful.”
This is how to be beautiful FOR ME and it’s about so much more than what I can show you in a photo.
You are so incredibly beautiful and unique where you are right now.
Be the best version of yourself, whatever that means to you, and don’t hold yourself back from happiness because you think you’re less than.
I wish I could go back and tell my younger self how good she was, exactly as she was because no matter what goals she was working toward she never felt content. Don’t make that mistake.
For me, the act of training and feeding myself well created a kind of foundation for excellent habits that I was able to build from.
That’s why I created my online fitness community and all the programs I have written – because stepping up and doing the work is what creates the change – how you do one thing is how you do everything!
We talk about these topics (and more) in Rock Your Life, my online home workout studio and women’s fitness community!
Come join us and let us support you on your journey of fitness and health – with home workout challenges, workout classes, healthy recipes, and our private support group!
