Make healthy living a certainty in these uncertain times
It seems like we are getting a bonus winter this year. We have just had an election with no conclusion and the awful Coronavirus is threatening. It is easy to get swept away in a cluster of uncertainty and paralysis. The danger with all this uncertainty is that you might be putting essential or necessary decisions/actions on hold.
Then fast forward three or four months from now, you could find yourself frustrated with the progression of your life and goals. That in turn might add regret onto how you are feeling making things worse. This is how all the little things, combining together, might leave us feeling low. As the saying goes ‘another stick to beat ourselves with’.
We all thrive on a bit of forward momentum and completion so our daily ‘plate spinning’ is more manageable. And the word manageable is very important because that is completely relative to where you are right now in your life.
If we are feeling strong, energised and optimistic then external factors inside and outside our control are easier to manage. We become resilient.
So how can we improve our resilience? I’ll share two ways to do this, for mind and body, and they both come back to the importance of healthy living. Firstly live the majority of your life in the present. If you spend a greater percentage of your thoughts looking back or worrying forward you will never feel grounded.
Resilience needs a foundation to grow from. You might have to drop some of those spinning plates to achieve this. Listen carefully to your thoughts and figure out if you are mostly present.
Healthy living gives you energy. We can do very little without energy (you are burning energy just reading this article). No matter what life throws at you, your bounce-back ability is quicker when you are energised. Resilience needs those extra energy reserves to assist us through challenges. Build your energy with quality exercise, quality nutrition and quality sleep. A 10 per cent improvement in these three key areas could be life changing. Aim for one per cent to begin with.
When it comes to exercise it is important that your exercise has a goal to keep you motivated. Why not sign up for a road race to keep you on track? There are many out there, including walking or running the Wicklow Gaol Break half marathon or 10k in Wicklow town on Sunday, March 22.
The only thing certain in life is change. Healthy living, resilience and goal setting will give you the energy you need to navigate your way around those known and unknown inevitable challenges we will all face. Eoin Ryan is a Wellness Coach and organiser of the Wicklow half marathon and 10k