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Wellness Mindset- It is Everything.
Mindset is everything, we hear this a lot.
It's true.
Mindset truly can change your life. It changed mine in a profound and significant way. My outlook these days is generally positive. I have evolved in the past 6 years from a struggling mother 2 years postpartum to a confident and sometimes balanced woman, business owner, and wife.
If you would have told me then that I would have a small, but albeit successful personal training business, a healthy body of my dreams, a doting and thoughtful husband, and my anxiety and panic attacks were minimal, I would've laughed out loud.
I was filled with excuses, self-doubt, and negativity. My limiting beliefs on how a mother of TWO should behave and what a 40-year-old should look like held me back from so many things.
I'd tell you I couldn't because Punk was too little. I'd tell you no because I had to make dinner. I'd tell you impossible because I had to leave the house by 7 am! It would be completely unbelievable- not because I COULD NOT physically do it but because I couldn't imagine myself doing it. I set my own limits. My mindset was one of scarcity and negativity.
Once I changed the way I viewed my life, my life changed. I reached out for help, I knew that if I didn't, with time it would be harder to change. I am lucky to have supportive friends and family. I am thankful that I can help people in my personal training business,—albeit a modest number of folks — but mostly, I feel lucky and grateful. However long it took to get here.
What is this Mindset you speak of? Mindset Defined
Mindset is the lens through which you view yourself, other people, and the world.
The official definition of mindset is "your attitude and beliefs toward the world." It influences the way we think, act, and navigate our daily lives.
It’s directly influenced by what we believe, our outlook, and how we approach daily life.
Why does it matter?
Simply put, going into anything with a crappy attitude, you're going to get crappy results.
Period.
Mindset is important in your wellness and fitness journey because it leads us to respond to our feelings about movement, exercise, and nutrition. It helps us address our perceived failures, and how we collaborate with others (your coach, or group classes maybe?) and it also aids us to search for knowledge. We're changing because we want it, we like moving and as humans, we strive for learning and growth.
Mindset Theories; aka Nerd Stuff.
There are a few terms that I’m sure we’ve heard before, Growth Mindset, Fixed mindset, We’re sticking to these 2, as they relate to our wellness journey more than the others.
Here’s an interesting fact, they sit on a continuum. These mindsets move throughout a spectrum throughout our lives. Meaning, sometimes our mindset will be focused on growth, and other times, like maybe after a breakup, it will be fixed.
Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset
One thing that has been theorized by Carol Dweck, the expert on growth vs fixed mindset, is that mindset plays a role in your achievement or success (especially intelligence and learning).
A fixed mindset usually leads to a negative thought process that can affect your daily life, and reinforce negative thought patterns which can lead to anxiety and depression. Changing the "channel", changing the negative thought into a positive thought is one way to handle this defeating thought process. Growth mindsets serve us to think positively, to believe that we can learn new things, and failure can be viewed as an opportunity.
People with fixed mindsets believe that their personalities, behaviors, and intelligence are set in stone.
This way of thinking looks like this:
I am good or not
My abilities are predetermined by my failure
Failure shows me what I am not good at
Feedback is criticism
I stay in my comfort zone.
I am defensive.
Conversely, people with a growth mindset believe that change is possible with training, education, and belief in themselves.
This way of thinking looks like this:
I can learn anything new.
With each, failure I learn and get better.
I really like to try new things.
I think feedback is constructive and helpful
How can we make this mindset shift? Real-life sustainable mindset exercises.
I came to terms that I needed to change MY perspective in life to be able to handle the disorder that was taking over my life. I needed to shift my mindset to one of growth, abundance and unlearn years of feeling helpless and the limiting belief that only bad things happened to me.
I had to accept that I was not on a healthy path, trying to fit into a hole when I am a square peg. I had to shift my mindset to accept that being the skinniest version of me was not healthy. That's a lot of "had tos". How did I do it though?
Therapy
Therapy helped me. It continues to help me to this day. Therapy unravels the knots your brain has made through trauma, abuse, or even neglect. Support from a licensed counselor can also help you put things in perspective, organize your thoughts and help you see things in a different way. Sometimes this is all we really need. Sometimes we need more, like medication, your primary care physician can help you figure that out.
Therapy helped my mindset shift because I started to see that each lesson life taught me (losing my mother), gave me something incredible in return (my first daughter). That every meeting where feedback was provided wasn't a direct assault on my soul, nor was a man looking at me a battle of the wills.
Journaling
I feel like this was the game changer that has evolved with time. Just like my fitness routine and my mindset. It started off simply listing everything that went well, then it transitioned into a journal of gratitude. What it did was by shifting my mindset to one of gratefulness in the morning, it prepared me for a day of clarity. Journaling can be a tool for your wellness journey as you are writing it all down on paper, and "releasing" it.
Physical Activity
Remember that physical activity is different than exercise. Especially in terms of this blog post. By physical activity, I mean walking outside, riding a bike leisurely and yoga. Doing something you love that connects you with your body. We can discuss exercise in another post- that has majorly changed MY mindset, but we're just starting here- beginner tips for a wellness journey.
Find Your Values
I discuss values a lot, it's been what keeps me focused and grounded when I feel a little lost. If you need guidance,come grab my FREE 5 Words to Finding Your Why. Learning my values changed my mindset, helps me through some dark times, and also changed how I defined wellness.
Hope these tips help you get started in your health and fitness journey. Need a little guidance? Join my online/virtual coaching program Metamorphosis- Essentials, providing the support you need to get started.
Let's connect soon!
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References
https://learning-theories.com/mindset-theory-fixed-vs-growth-mindset-dweck.html#:~:text=Individuals%20with%20a%20fixed%20mindset,can%20be%20practiced%20or%20developed.
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