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Tips to Help Love Yourself on Valentine’s Day

Do what is natural:

Why is it so hard to lose weight in the winter? The winter season is all about nourishing, restoring, and going inward, and it is unnatural to try to force your body into losing weight when it is normal to have extra weight this time of year. It is also natural to be in a more dream-like state — sitting by the fire instead of taking action on all of your goals. You want to sleep more and go to the gym less. 

Don’t worry, you are not a slacker. You are normal and following the natural rhythms of nature!

You wouldn’t find a bear coming out of his den and going to the gym. The bear is restoring his energy for the spring fun to come.

 So, don’t get bummed out if you don’t turn into superwoman by Valentine’s Day by shedding pounds, working out constantly, and making big leaps forward. 

I think this whole weight loss and gym craze is a bit psycho. As always, you absolutely want to keep your body moving, but it should be gentle and at a low heart rate, especially in winter. You may want to do more yoga, Qigong, or Tai chi; you may want to meditate or read. 

The key is to learn to listen to your body and follow the rhythms of nature; they will guide you.

Tips to help you LOVE YOURSELF on Valentines:

1) First of all, you are good enough just as you are. You are already AMAZING!

Repeat after me: I am enough. There is enough. I am amazing, wonderful, and lovable just as I am. Now that you have said this you can now relax and explore what is percolating from the depths of your soul. (Not something that society has told you that you need to improve.)

2) Change your perspective.

Wayne Dyer says: “When you change the way you look at things the things you look at change!” So a simple change of perspective can make all the difference

Why not change “I NEED to lose weight” to:

  • I want more lightness in my life
  • I want to feel vibrant and alive
  • I want to build my energy and vitality

Why not change “I NEED to get organized” to:

  • Everything is in perfect order and has divine timing
  • Everything always works out for me

My favorite mantra from my former life coach Helen Green is: “All I NEED is within me now.” I love that mantra, and when you say it, your whole body relaxes. If you can change your perspective on why you want this lifestyle change and go about it from a place of feeling good rather than not feeling good enough or lack, then you won’t automatically set yourself up for failure. Your body hears your every word and thought, so give it some positive prompting instead of freaking it out by telling it to lose 10 pounds in a week. If you tell your body that you are OK and you are just making some minor adjustments to the overall lifestyle plan, then the change you wish to see will happen without effort and almost automatically. Don’t proclaim war on your body or your mind!

3) Make it realistic and EASY!!

If you start a program at the gym or a diet that is too hardcore, you are setting yourself up for failure. So make it easy on yourself and let your body come back into balance naturally by starting off slow! Don’t know where to start? Come try THE QUEST PROGRAM where we have 5-10 live movement classes each week. 

4) Create a buddy system

You are more likely to get up and run, go to the gym, follow a healthy eating plan, or train if you have a buddy to do it with. Just having a friend will make it more fun, and you can help each other when you start to lose the excitement.

5) Take baby steps

Take your program one day at a time. If you slip up, don’t throw the whole plan out the window. Ideally, you want to train your body and mind to trust your words by implementing the actions to support your resolution. For instance, I wanted to improve my swimming when I was a triathlete, so I had to get up each day and go to the masters work out. If I had just blown it off each day then my body would have thought I was joking. You want to do things each day that support your life purpose and your resolution dream, but they must fit into your already packed lifestyle. And remember, these goals can be anything so don’t be too rigid. Let new ideas come in and the miracles happen. If it is a step in the right direction or even leaning in the direction of your dream, it counts.

6) Create bite-sized jobs that you can accomplish

This goes along with the baby step part but the whole idea is to allow and coax yourself into feeling good about yourself. When I was racing, I would keep a training log and each night I would write down my training. More importantly, however, was that I would write down everything I did well that day. Sometimes it was as simple as tying my shoes well. These little successes really help the subconscious mind believe that you are a success and that success is possible.

Here are some easy, stress free, feel good tips that you can put into action RIGHT NOW:

  • If you don’t have time to meditate for 20 minutes twice a day, try one minute meditations throughout the day and use whatever is in front of you as your practice.
  • If you don’t have time to go to workout three times a week, just go out for a walk to the mailbox. Most importantly, just try to get outside everyday.
  • If you don’t have time to stretch or do yoga for an hour every day, just find three simple exercises that you can do to move your spine and breath. Do them every day. 
  • Instead of cutting out all junk food, allow yourself one day a week to have your favorite treat. Make it special, not a punishment.
  • Instead of doing any of this, just go out, have fun, and enjoy life!

Finally, I want to leave you with my favorite saying of all time by Thich Nhat Hanh, which will help you LOVE yourself a bit more in the Love month!

“Go Slowly… Breathe and Smile”

My translation of this is as follows:

  • Go Slowly… Take it bit by bit. It is a healthy, long lasting lifestyle that will create the vitality you want.
  • Breathe… The breath or “inspire” or inspiration is learning to listen to what motivates, excites and inspires you. It is hard to MAKE yourself MAKE the changes but it is easy if it is inspired action because you will want to do it. Rumi says: “Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.” Love is like a magnet, which sets everything in motion. It is much easier to swim downstream than swim upstream, so find what inspires you and go with the flow!
  • Smile… This really sums it all up. Just smile! It actually opens the central channel of your body and allows grace to align you with what you are naturally. You are the God Spark of all that is beautiful, magical, and wonderful. When you smile, you “Align with that Divine” part of yourself, which is this internal giggle of delight that is just so happy to be alive. Remember, “angels fly because they take themselves lightly” so don’t take it so serious and lighten up the fast and easy way: smiling. My motto is: If it is not fun. Just don’t do it!

Speaking of fun and smiling… WHAT ABOUT A THAW OUT RETREAT!? There is one spot left on our Hawaii Relaxation Retreat (Feb. 21-27th). Click here to find out more!