Reading Time: 2 minutesWe all want to feel better.
I was talking with a friend recently about how she was doing and here’s what she told me: “People feel like $#!^ right now.”
Now, this may or may not be exactly your experience. However, the last several months have certainly taken their toll on many of us. How could they not? The kinds of interruptions we’ve all seen in our lives, the challenges we’ve all faced, are stressful, to say the least.
Do I feel as bad as my friend suggested? I definitely have my ups and my downs, but suffice to say, I’m not optimal. Heck, sometimes I can’t remember what the baseline for “feeling good” even is anymore anyway.
What I do know is that when the dragons come—when I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep, when I feel physically and mentally run down for no reason, or when I don’t know how much more chaos I can take—I have a magic potion I can take.
That magic potion is doing just a few small things that make me feel better. It’s taking a bit of control of my day and deciding for myself how it’s going to go. Forget the six-pack abs routine. Forget a perfectly paleo breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Forget even my daily 20 minutes of meditation.
If I can’t muster the energy to do a sweaty workout, I take a walk.
If shopping for and preparing perfectly compliant meals every day stresses me out, I commit to a few small things—no dessert, buying only one bottle of wine at a time.
If meditation is more stressful than it’s worth, I close my eyes and listen to relaxing music. Or I take some time out to read a book.
Because healthy is a mindset, an attitude. It’s leaning into feeling and making ourselves better no matter the circumstance. It’s not a prescription for what you have to do. It’s a willingness to find a place where we can improve and to take action.
Small actions create momentum. Don’t worry about what you can’t do. Consider what you want to do and start there. The magic potion is starting.
Join us in the WHole Life Challenge and we’ll continue to forge a path towards health and well-being together.
He graduated from UCLA with a BA in philosophy as well as a degree from the Southern California School of Culinary Arts, and feels food is one of the most important parts of a life - it can nourish, heal, and bring people together.
Michael believes health and well-being are as much a state of mind as they are a state of the body, and when it comes to fitness, food, and life in general, he thinks slow is much better than fast (most of the time). Stopping regularly to examine things is the surest way to put down roots and grow.
He knows he will never be done with his own work, and believes the best thing you can do for your well-being starts with loving and working from what you’ve got right now.
