Monday, November 3, 2003
Fitness, like all healthy things, begins with an idea, a vision in one’s mind of how things can be different – better. It is fueled by an emotion, a desire for change and is implemented by respectful communication between the body, mind and emotions. The quality and clarity of the mental image, the intensity of the emotional drive, and the self-esteem and psychological wholeness of the individual determine the outcome of any fitness program.
In other words, fitness, like happiness, and even life itself is a holistic process, not an event. The pursuit of fitness can be, and has often been, a totally narcissistic endeavor, encouraged by a world obsessed with image madness. There is a belief that competition, mania and some brutal form of willpower can and will conquer all.
As a counselor and hypnotherapist, working with habits, addictions, relationships and life changes of every kind, I find that personal improvement driven by the old “no pain, no gain”, willpower philosophy (bullying oneself into shape for the sake of vanity or pride or plain old people-pleasing) ultimately fails to produce lasting health, fitness and self-esteem. A deeper level of wholeness must be addressed if one is to achieve and maintain fitness.
It is popular today to assert that diets don’t work. Don’t work for what purpose? Of course diets work for weight change, or people wouldn’t complain about gaining it back. What diets cannot do is change one’s subconscious feelings, beliefs and intense energies about oneself in a positive direction. Nor can a temporary diet alone create permanent eating habits.
What many weight loss plans do is encourage the war against the individual dieter’s self-esteem by keeping them from feeling gratitude for the perfect operations and processes of the human body. Many physical fitness programs are undertaken as a weapon against some aspect of the individual, either to indiscriminately hack off body weight, to hype up, speed up, or over-inflate muscles, or to generally eradicate one’s natural body structure in order to create a new image more in line with some advertising campaign. Ad campaigns are designed to keep people dissatisfied with themselves and reaching outward to acquire that magic product or plan to make them feel OK.
Such motivation for fitness is in opposition to the concept of gratitude for life itself and reverence for the human body, mind, spirit and the individuality of all people. Absent too are stewardship (which means taking responsibility for caretaking such magnificent gifts) and joy, the ecstasy of living in communion with body, mind and spirit. Fitness is a process, not an event. Staying in the process requires staying present in the joyful now. If your now is not joyful, is it because you are carrying around some negative trances from your past, or, is it because you are imagining some negative future?
Total fitness is a body in process that expresses beauty, peace, love, joy, health and wisdom. A fitness program that does not utilize this respectful approach to the magnificent gifts we all possess will ultimately fail to produce the experience of wholeness we are seeking. So, be gentle with yourself and listen to your internal signals. Gently energize yourself with activity and motivate yourself with new ideas, but never hurt or punish yourself for being you. Challenge your trances, but appreciate your inner essence. And, most of all, find a program or plan that is fun, or at least enjoyable, for you. (Notice I didn’t say easy)
The present time is filled with power and magic. If you maintain consciousness, free of trances in most of the moments, the power is yours, and a positive fitness outcome is assured and well worth the undertaking. Find a fitness activity or program you love and allow yourself to experience it often. Stay conscious in the now. Fitness will follow and maintenance will be automatic.
AFFIRMATION: Today I stay present and allow myself to love my perfect inner essence. I experience gratitude, stewardship and joy for the magnificent gifts I was given, body, mind, emotions and spirit.
Posted by Victoria @ 02:24 PM CST [Link]
Thought
for the Week