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Recharge Your Health
Obviously, the main place to start when wishing to recharge your life is with setting down what intentions you have before getting a practical action plan together.
But one component of that plan often overlooked is health.
How can you expect to find those much-needed extra reserves of energy and to excel with razor sharp focus if you don’t first prime that body for action? In short, you gotta get fit and raise those energy levels.
The "H" Word
I'm always amazed when asked to list the most important areas of life, some folks put areas like career, finance, relationships, etc, ahead of that all important "h" word - health!
It even, on occasion, misses the list altogether!! Yet without good health we simply don't function. Without being considerate and giving our body exactly what it needs to work at its optimum level how can we expect to get up and go anywhere?
Whatever plans we may have laid will be thwarted by lack of energy, because let's face it; what "oomph" we need normally is doubled at times of change.
Get Up And Go
But how can you implement health as an important area in your plans to recharge? Firstly by acknowledging that optimum health can exist, but doesn’t just "happen."
Let's face it, good health and limitless amounts of energy was something we enjoyed as teenagers, but now even though it's still possible to feel that same sense of vitality and stamina, nowadays it will usually be the result of a bit of a plan.
"Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of inertia."
Alexis Carrel
Question Time
- What plan for health do you have at the moment?
- Are you a member of a health club?
- Do you swim?
- What about nutrition?
- Do you eat your five portions of fruit and veg a day?
- Do you take supplements?
- What do you do to improve your work-life balance – meditate, practise yoga or tai chi?
And we haven’t even mentioned alternative approaches yet. Take a moment to write down your current physical shape.
Are You A 10 Out Of 10?
How would you rate your overall level of fitness (between 1 – 10, where 10 is tops)? Ask yourself:
- What physical exercise have you done during the last week?
- How many hours did you exercise for?
- How would you rate your current diet (1 -10)?
- When did you last eat your five portions of fruit and veg in one day?
- What feelings or thoughts do you attach when thinking about all of the above?
Change The Frame
Richard Bandler, one of the founders of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) suggests that what we associate to something is the defining factor to how we feel about it. For example, if I say "London," some of you might think "interesting, fun, beautiful," whereas others might think "dirty, busy, and dangerous." Yet you'd both be talking about the same place.
The difference would be your interpretation; how you frame London in your mind. So, if I were also to say the word "healthy lifestyle," some might think "vibrant, sexy, having the 'wow' factor," whilst others would associate "boring, restrictive, or no fun at all."
Raise Your Game
Looking back to the answers concerning your current levels of fitness, and how you answered and subsequently thought about you and your health, did you feel good, or not so good about it?
How would you feel if you raised your game on what you thought concerning health and fitness in the future?
If you were to start a new fitness regime, or recharge the one you already have, how would you feel about it. Or what would you have to feel about it in order to increase your desire to do it? What frame are you seeing now? Is it the "oh, my God" picture, or one saying "bring it on"?
If the former and the prospect of moving up a gear turns you off, ask yourself what you'd have to think in order to change that belief?
Could you include something along with it that you already like?
For example, if you don’t like the thought of running alone ("boring, lonely" might be your association), what about running with a friend? Imagine the chatter you could get up to.
Accentuate The Positive!
Or maybe you could join a health club and watch Eastenders whilst doing your 10km on the treadmill three times a week – as thousands already do.
The thing is, to give whatever you decide to do in life a chance of succeeding, you have to attach as many positive thoughts on to it as possible.
So, in the future when you think "running" you think "best friend, beautiful park, favourite TV soap," not to mention loads of "newfound energy and enthusiasm," which soon take over as the primary factors once we've got through the first couple of weeks.
Think ditto for eating habits, sleeping, meditating, etc. Healthy equals sexy, fun, friends, interesting, energy - the list really does go on. Stodgy food would also however, equal "heavy, bloated, and lethargic" – and I'm sure you don't wish to feel anymore of that.
"Each one of us has a fire in our heart for something. It's our goal in life to find it and to keep it lit"
Mary Lou Retton
A B=C
So, why is the subject of health so important, especially when you want to recharge our life? Simply, because to succeed and find that new burst of enthusiasm and energy for life you have to begin with good foundations.
The thing that will get us out of bed in the morning is a good night's sleep. What gives us energy for the day is optimum nutrition. Yet it's having a healthy body that will allow both to happen.
You don't have to be Olympian, just upgrade a few notches from where you are now and believe me; you will feel the difference within a few days. And with that new burst of energy you will see that re-charging the rest of you life is absolutely 100% possible!
