Mind and Body Check-in

What does it mean to have your mind and body in alignment? If you are like me, I often work on these two parts separately – meditations to open up mind space and then when it comes to my body, I drag myself through my ‘fitness’ routine of random walks with the dog or on my work lunch hours. I am all in for more self development courses, more deep readings on mindfulness, and emotional intelligence. Anything in this space I can’t get enough of. However I am one lazy girl when it comes to improving my physical well being as I often attributing my laziness to mental fatigue from my challenging career and family obligations. While these are all true, my default behaviour is to find endless reasons so I can avoid addressing the dreaded physical work.

_{It’s amazing how much our mind can stop us from doing what we know we need to do and instead it tricks us to come up with the most creative solutions to avoid the hard work.}

Excuses

We all do it, we avoid the things we least like or find overwhelming. But excuses not only delay your personal growth, they also block access to that sublime flow when things are feeling connected and you are feeling grounded. Your mind and body are part of one entity, and that is the whole you. Taking care of one part really well will has limited benefits. In other words, all the work you have put into developing your mind has a short runway, when your body is weak, blobby and idle. Believe me, I’ve experienced this unhappy equilibrium for years.

Ironically while I learned to open and stabilize my mind, and no matter how many books I read, how many meditations I did daily there was this nagging little feeling that something was off. While I felt the benefits of a good meditation to focus on my day..it often wore off by midday as I ran out of steam and would get irritated at the first disagreement or problem in my day. Funnily enough, I knew exactly what it was I needed to do (which was to work out regularly so my body could also become stronger) BUT my brain just couldn’t get there. It’s amazing how much our mind can stop us from doing what we know we need to do and instead it tricks us to come up with the most creative solutions to avoid the hard work.

When it clicks…again and again

No one knows when things click for different people. ..or how often we click, do the work, stop and find ourselves ‘re-clicking’ again. Thus the reason for an industry full of quick fixes – from fad diets to supplements and outright starving ourselves. Like most other things in life, we lose patience and expect that our enlightenment should be followed by a quick time commitment to some process that will result in lightening speed results. And if we don’t get that quick result, we lay blame to our lack of self discipline and the cycle starts all over again until that next enlightened click. Exhausting isn’t it?

Stopping the cycle for me started happening just a few weeks ago and (knock on wood), I think I may be on to something. My aha! moment came when I realized while my mind was running like a fine-tuned athlete, my body was sitting like Jabba the hut. The work I was putting in and the results I was getting could not be sustained with a weak physical body. I also realized when your mind is strong, but your body is weak the actions become reactions. My thoughts and actions were not aligned and of course without that you cannot drive your purpose.

For those who are mind-fit but not physically fit

Just start – somewhere, anywhere..any activity that gets your body moving. But carve it out and be consistent. Little steps will lead to consistency, consistency will lead to routine, routine will lead to desire and desire will lead to wanting it everyday (imagine wanting and needing to work out everyday)! Below is a sample routine that has worked for me.

• Step 1 Prepare the night before – head on pillow, lights out at the same time every single night. Put your alarm in a different room and your workout clothes in that same room.
• Step 2 Wake up, put on your workout gear, head to your 20 minute meditation.
• Step 3 Right after your meditation do your 20 minutes physical activity – walk, weights, yoga, bike, mindfulness flow whatever you want! I change it with biking 3x a week, weights 2x and 1 yoga session on the weekend.
• Step 4 Start the rest of your day (and if you can sneak in another walk at lunch or after dinner, that’s and added bonus for both your body and mind)

Important – if you slip one day, that’s ok. If you slip two days, maybe it’s ok but ask yourself if you are now forming an excuse. If you slip 3 days – that’s definitely an excuse! Hold yourself accountable for that excuse, no one else will.