Making the Commitment

No more excuses. I am ready to take action and get back into a regular exercise routine – again. Sigh. Yes I have been through all of the steps of change (except completion) on this one several times.

Why can’t I/we keep up a simple routine of, well, anything that does not come easily to us? Of course there are a myriad of possible reasons and excuses, but at some point we need to care enough about ourselves to get to the bottom of our resistance and move forward. Or not. We are always at choice.

I am choosing to do this NOW. I am not overweight so some people have asked me why I want to exercise! It’s a no brainer for me. I want to be able to hike long distances in the mountains, now and for many years to come. I want my maintain a healthy heart and keep all my joints and muscles in shape. I want to be limber and strong. I want to keep the fluids moving in this body temple of mine. When I exercise my mood is better and I think and function at a higher level than when I am sedentary.

So what’s the deal? What is the resistance here – for me, and for you in whatever change of habit you are working on? I have changed many habits in my lifetime and feel very good about that. However, exercise has been a real challenge for me. There have been times I have done well with this for a few years at a time, but more often just for a few months, or even weeks.

I know that feeling good about ourselves can help to make lasting changes. Conversely, making changes can help us feel better about ourselves. We may need to accept some condition in our lives that we don’t like in order to move forward. For example, one of the things I used to like to do for exercise was African dance. I can no longer do that because it is too hard on my neck and knees. If something was really important in your life and you have lost it, allow yourself to grieve that loss so that you can free up your energy and move on.

You may need to ask yourself what is your payoff for not making the change. My payoff for not exercising is that I do not always have a lot of energy. That’s a plus?! Well it is a great excuse for not always getting everything done I think I should get done. Now I have to ask myself whose “should” am I talking about here? Making more realistic expectations of myself would alleviate the need for any excuses, which I am only making to myself anyway! So I say no to excuses to enable a yes to working out.

This is a painful subject. I feel it in my gut as I am writing. I feel like a failure. I am the deep self-care queen and I can’t get something as basic as exercise down? Okay, I’m backing off here and taking some deep breaths.

I do love and respect myself. I do take very good care of myself most of the time in many ways. I also live with my husband who is master of discipline. He exercises hard, meditates twice every day without fail and does not eat anything he thinks may be bad for him. So I’m remembering not to compare. Comparison is a killer of enthusiasm. I will remain compassionate with myself for the times I cannot do what I committed to doing. Stuff happens. I will simply keep going and remember that I am human, and not listen to any voice that is not speaking kindly.

I cannot do any form of exercise that takes discipline! I have to be having some kind of fun or I just won’t keep doing it. I love to hike in the mountains, but it’s not that easy to do where I’m currently living. I enjoy walking but only in good weather. Okay, I have an expensive Pilates Reformer and took about 2 years of private lessons. I have a Gabrielle Roth dance CD that is fun. I do get out in Nature fairly often for my sanity and refueling.

So I ask Divine Essence/Universe/God and my Spirit Guides for assistance. I have worked through known resistances, dug deeper for more, psyched up, planned… I’m ready to go. Starting this week I am going to do Pilates 3 times per week for at least 20 minutes. That is do-able and not too much to overwhelm me. I will be satisfied with that and will let it be enough. I will not push for more, yet. Gotta build that self-trust.

Doc Childre and Howard Martin of Heart Math said: “When we react to life from the head without joining forces with the heart, it can lead us into childish, inelegant behavior that we don’t respect in ourselves. If we get the head in sync with the heart first, we have the power of their teamwork working for us and we can make the changes we know we need to make.”??

Are you with me? Are you ready for change? Maybe you are still thinking about it, or figuring out how to make it work. That’s okay. Being honest with yourself you will act when you are ready – without self-sabotage. I will say one thing – if you are too busy to take care of yourself, you are too busy. So come out and play! I’d love to know if you are setting any new intentions for yourself. May the force be with us.

Next week I’m going to talk about satisfaction with our changes. This is important because we so often do not take the time to feel good about what we have accomplished, or think it’s not enough. That’s just not fun.