You will agree with me when I say that your current health and fitness is a result of something you are doing (mix of positive, constructive steps leading to better health & dysfunctional habits leading to sub optimal health) or not doing (no action = no result). If you don't agree, then drop me a mail & let's get talking. I would like to hear you out.
Read on if you do agree.
While it is typical of us to focus on goals and things that we should start doing to improve our health and fitness, we seldom pay attention to what we are already doing that isn't serving us.
So, today I invite you to try out an exercise - An exercise of putting a spotlight on your "dysfunctional habits".
The Framework :
Take a sheet of paper and divide it into 4 Quadrants. Label each quadrant as under:
Quadrant 1 : Nutrition & Hydration
Quadrant 2 : Exercise & Activity
Quadrant 3 : Sleep, Rest & Recovery
Quadrant 4 : Stress Management
Now begin investigating your own habits under each of these areas that you think are coming in the way of you experiencing optimum level of health & fitness.
Spend time on each Quadrant. And begin jotting down whatever comes up. You will realise that some Quadrants fill up faster while certain others not so much. This will give you a clear idea as to which area contributing towards your health and fitness that you need to focus on.
When I did this exercise, I had things come up much later & I had to pull out my sheet to put in those new findings.
Once you complete all 4 quadrants, begin to ask yourself why you seem to indulge in those behaviors that you listed. Again create the same 4 quadrants & begin filling out the reasons you think you are doing or not doing certain things.
For example when I did this exercise, one thing that came up for me in the "Dysfunctional Habit Analysis" under Nutrition was that - I wasn't trying new vegetables or new whole grains. I typically stuck to the usual ones I preferred. While I did know that incorporating a wide variety of vegetables, fruits and whole grains into my diet will help improve my daily nutrient quotient, I wasn't putting it into practice.
And investigating the why revealed I was just in my comfort zone and didn't want to put the effort to try something new (as that would mean figuring out methods of preparation, recipes etc.).
Digging deep into the why of your behaviour can be mentally exhausting so give yourself time.
You don't have to do this exercise in one sitting. Take breaks if you like.
Why this exercise ?
Oftentimes we are oblivious of aspects of our behaviour that don't serve us. It's like we are on auto pilot. This exercise of acknowledging what's not working enables us to clearly find a correlation between our own actions & the results we have or have not got.
A beautiful story to further illustrate the point of doing this:
Recently I was listening to one of Thich Naht Hanh, the revered Buddhist monk's teachings and in that he narrated a lovely story that struck a chord with me. The story goes:
“There was a man who came to the Buddhist Monastery to practice Mindfulness. He spent a couple of months practicing in the company of other monks. One day, Thich Naht sent him to the market to buy some vegetables. At the market the man noticed that he was in a rush to finish shopping & was going about this business of buying vegetables in a very hasty manner. He became aware of this tendency. And suddenly it dawned on him, that this tendency was passed on to him by his mother who used to always be in a rush to get things done. So he stopped short & said, "hello mother, i see you. I know it's you there." The moment he did that, the nervous energy settled and he found he could slow down & go about buying vegetables in a calm & mindful manner."
In a similar way, the moment we awaken our awareness to some of our dysfunctional habits, their powerful hold on us diminishes and it becomes possible for us to break free from them.
And that's the entire point of this exercise.
Some of the things I experienced after doing this exercise were:
A. I became acutely aware of how I was conveniently ignoring some of the things I was doing/ not doing that wasn't serving me
B. Once the dysfunction got identified my conscious mind kept pointing it out so it became a tad difficult for me to continue indulging in the dysfunction unconsciously
C. I began to find the intrinsic motivation to begin making changes to patterns of behaviour not serving me on my journey
Some things to keep in mind:
A. The idea of doing this exercise is not to become perfect but to just become more conscious. It is to increase self awareness and take accountability for the outcomes we experience
B. The idea is also not to beat yourself up but investigate the why of the dysfunctional habit in a compassionate way. Many things come up such as past conditioning & environmental influences. Acknowledgement paves way for making a change
C. If you want to find ease in your health & fitness journey then it's important to be gentle with yourself. Change takes time. Only thing you need to do is intend to make a positive change and be open to failures on the path as progress is never, like NEVER linear (More on that in another post)
I hope you will give this framework a shot and attain key insights that will allow you to take more responsibility and control over your personal "Health and Fitness" journey.
I always lookup for your weekly article, and last two weeks I was stacking up your articles. Finally found some time to read, and as usual you never disappoint. Wonderfully written and well articulated; esp.the story of mindfulness. Keep writing!