“Exercise. Eat right. Move more. Don’t snack.” Sure, we’ve all heard these things a million times when we’re trying to get healthy, lose weight or feel better. And sure, they make perfect sense. But when you’re feeling bad about yourself, or keep the same negative thoughts keep looping in your brain or you’re surrounded by negative people, getting motivated to actually do these things can be nearly impossible.
Change Starts with Positive Thinking
These 12 tips will help you get on the path to healthy living today!
- Let go of grudges: Resentment serves no purpose other than to absorb happiness. Clear up minor grievances. If resolution is impossible, walk away. When anger bubbles up, invading your thoughts, distract yourself. Write a grocery list or scrub your floors. Vent bitterness constructively.
- Toot your own horn: No one likes a braggart, but your accomplishments deserve merit and validation. Be your own cheerleader. Wave your own pom-poms for a while. Success generates incentive to achieve more and better things.
- Be grateful: Record at least one good thing in a daily ‘blessings’ journal that happened that day, even if it was just drinking a perfectly brewed coffee. Then, when life seems overwhelming, go back and read your entries.
- Laugh: There’s a reason they say laughter is the best medicine. Laughing’s fun but it also releases endorphins so you feel more energized. And that’s just what the doctor ordered to help you get out the door and walk a trail, take a class or just soak up nature.
- Avoid Debbie Downers: Surround yourself with positive people. If your social circle includes a whiner who constantly wallows in self-pity or finds something wrong with nearly every situation, step away. You’ll feel emotionally drained and that in no way will motivate you to better health.
- Encourage yourself: “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” There’s a reason this quote from the movie “The Help” resonated with so many people. We all need to feel like we matter and the best way to feel that is to feel it within. It’s nice to hear it from someone else but nothing means more than actually feeling and believing it ourselves. Leave positive notes on your mirror, in your car, wherever you’ll see it every day. It works!
- Volunteer: It’s true what they say, when you volunteer to help someone or some cause, you actually benefit more than the person you’ve helped. It gives us such gratification to know that we’ve helped someone. If you’re feeling down, you may not think you have the strength to help others but if you start with baby steps, you’ll find you’ll want to do more and more. And with each step, you’ll feel better and better.
- Expect the best: Don’t create negative, self-fulfilling prophecies. Can you imagine if the Olympic athlete told herself she couldn’t do it just before she stepped on the mat and competed? Make a habit of telling yourself you CAN do and you WILL do it. Because you can!
- Relax: Your body and mind need tranquility sometimes. Meditate. Listen to calming music. Cuddle up with your cat and lose yourself in its purr. Quality, quiet downtime will help give you strength and mental preparedness to help you get out there and tackle what needs to be done to achieve better health.
- Don’t sweat the small stuff: And it’s all small stuff, right? Standing your ground for important issues is admirable but going ballistic over a smeared glass or a perceived insult not only raises your blood pressure but it puts you in a negative state of mind. If it won’t matter six months from now, let it go.
- Stop the negative loop: We all have them. Those same negative thoughts that play over and over in our heads when we’re not feeling great about ourselves. Some of us have even held onto these thoughts since we were kids. Not only are they destructive but they’re usually not true. We’re all worthy of love, health and happiness and it’s crucial to remind ourselves of that, every second of every day. So change the recording in your head and start being kind—and truthful—with yourself and you will start feeling better and more motivated to make good changes in your life!
- Be kind: Being kind is infectious and it takes so little to make someone happy, which in turn will make you happy! So do something nice for someone every day. Whether it’s just a compliment or you buy a stranger a cup of coffee. Kindness strengthens self-worth and that’s exactly what we need to obtain better health.
Our OB/GYNs Can Help
Being proactive is important when it comes to taking good care of your health. That’s why we highly recommend making an appointment with one of our OB/GYNs. Call us today to schedule an exam at 770.720.7733 or simply schedule an appointment online.
