It’s easy to say you should eat certain things at certain times or set yourself a challenging fitness regimen, but can you actually follow it through? It will probably depend on whether you can get your mind in the right place. I know I have to work hard to find the positivity and motivation that can be so important to health and wellbeing.
Mindset is the thing that drives you and helps you decide how you’re going to approach improving your health. If you start out thinking that your attempts are going to be futile, you’re not going to get the best out of your routine. One study even suggested that you could do the exact same amount of exercise as someone else, but if you did so with a negative attitude, the exercise wouldn’t be as effective (https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180410-how-your-mindset-determines-your-health).
Saying that a positive mindset is essential to health and wellbeing is one thing, but it’s not so easy to put it into practice. We’re surrounded by news and articles telling us that we’re failures at healthy living, eating all the wrong things and not exercising enough. Or we do see people going to the gym every day and eating only vegetables and start thinking we can never live up to their standards. It’s not easy to take care of yourself.
This is especially true because difficulty obtaining the right mindset can become a self-defeating cycle. It’s easier to be positive when you’re eating well, exercising properly and sleeping well. If you’re hungry or tired, it’s going to be a lot harder to focus. That, in turn, makes it harder to make the effort to cook a proper meal or go to the gym, thereby making you feel even worse.
For people with mental health issues such as depression, mindset can become even more important. Therapy will often attempt to help patients change how they think about their problems. Professional guidance can identify negative thought patterns and offer practical suggestions on how to redirect them. Some of these techniques can be useful even if you do not have a mental illness.
You need to be ready to catch yourself when you fall into those old patterns of negativity. Don’t talk yourself down, even in your own head, and don’t start making futile comparisons to other people. Avoid situations that you know make you feel worse. Concentrate on what you can control: your own diet and your own routine. Take pleasure in the small things.
It can be helpful to have other people to share your burdens with and ease the load. This may mean a therapist, or it may mean friends or community members who listen to you and create the kind of atmosphere where it is easier to be positive. Surround yourself the people and things that make you feel better.
Physical and mental health are both strongly linked to mindset, so its not something you can afford to ignore. Everyone experiences stresses that make their lives more difficult. Learning positive ways to deal with them can ease depression and anxiety, improve your performance when exercising, and ensure you make the most of every aspect of your life.
