Life is hard.
We have our good days and our bad days.
Consider a change from negative thinking to help you function/perform better in your awesome life.
1. Accept where you are now and be happy about it.
It's easy to spend much of your life thinking that you would be happier if or when......
Despite life moving forward, it can seem that no matter what you receive, earn or achieve in life, you have a way of postponing happiness because whatever you have now, could be better and could make you happier.
Or so you think.
Life is filled with challenges and life is hard. You can either be frustrated, angry, anxious or overwhelmed by this fact or you can be happy anyway.
If you are constantly comparing yourself to an old you or to someone else, consider what you would need to sacrifice, give up, change or restrict in order to achieve what you feel will make you happy. Change your perspective on life as to what truly makes you happy. Why are you not happy now and why is it that you feel you can only be happy when you achieve or conquer a goal?
Whether you like it or not, this is your life.
Don't waste your life journey by waiting for the "right" time to be happy.
Continue to dream big and to be willing to work hard for what you want in life but never let the process of achieving something make you feel inadequate, unhappy or frustrated.
2. Stop your negative thoughts.
We think every day.
We have happy, productive and exciting thoughts and negative, worrisome, anxious and pessimistic thoughts.
It's not critical that you have happy thoughts every day but instead, choose to do something positive with your thoughts, particularly the negative ones.
Try to not take yourself so seriously or be so perfect with everything task in your life Be okay with failing and redefine what it means to have a "good" day, workout or meal.
Sometimes thoughts make sense and sometimes we don't know why we are thinking what we are thinking. When thoughts get out of hand and turn into a mental snowball, it's important to immediately stop the thought process, relax and try to dismiss the thought(s).
Create a more positive mindset by bringing positive, fulfilling and peaceful thoughts to your workouts, job, family/kids, body and diet and stop the negative thinking before it gets out of hand.
3. Quiet the mind
I often tell my coaching athletes to stay present during their workouts. This means ignoring/forgetting about all the many to-do's and struggles in life and simply enjoy the 30, 60, 90 or few hours that you give yourself each day to train your body.
Focus on the present moment.
Don't let your brain multi-task when you are training.
Staying present during workouts is extremely important but it's not easy to jump in the pool, get on the bike or start running and assume that every stress in your life will magically disappear.
Give yourself 2-5 minutes before your workout to meditate. If this word makes you feel uncomfortable, consider giving up 5 minutes of your busy life for silence, before you stress your body and mind.
Giving yourself a few moments of peace can make you feel less irritable, angry and overwhelmed with your daily life responsibilities but this strategy is very effective for athletes before workouts.
This is not visualization or mental strength building exercise but instead, a practice of emptying your mind as much as possible in a very quiet environment. Whenever a thought, like groceries, a work assignment, laundry, travel or dirty dishes or an argument with your significant other gets inside your head, let that thought pass and forget about it.
By training yourself to quiet your mind before you need it the most, you will find yourself more focused, attentive and most of all, more happy and relaxed.
It's normal to have negative or unhappy thoughts but a problem occurs when you think that negative thoughts could be true. When you begin to believe that you are not good enough, you are not lean enough, you are not fit enough or any other thought that makes you feel like you are just going through the motions of life, it's important to take a step back to understand where this thinking is coming from.
Although mental skill training and confidence coaching are effective strategies to improve your happiness and confidence, it's important to reach out to a clinical psychologist who can help you understand your thoughts (relating to athletics/family/career/body image/food) if you find that your thoughts don't make sense and they affect your daily activities and quality of life.
Lastly, don't let social media make you believe that everyone except you has a perfect life and everyone seems so happy all the time.
There are many ways to capture your positive moments in life.
Some choose to share experiences on social media and others are doing amazing things but life a less documented life.
By changing negative thinking, you may find that you actually have more than you think you have in life.
And that's something to be happy about.
We have our good days and our bad days.
Consider a change from negative thinking to help you function/perform better in your awesome life.
1. Accept where you are now and be happy about it.
It's easy to spend much of your life thinking that you would be happier if or when......
Despite life moving forward, it can seem that no matter what you receive, earn or achieve in life, you have a way of postponing happiness because whatever you have now, could be better and could make you happier.
Or so you think.
Life is filled with challenges and life is hard. You can either be frustrated, angry, anxious or overwhelmed by this fact or you can be happy anyway.
If you are constantly comparing yourself to an old you or to someone else, consider what you would need to sacrifice, give up, change or restrict in order to achieve what you feel will make you happy. Change your perspective on life as to what truly makes you happy. Why are you not happy now and why is it that you feel you can only be happy when you achieve or conquer a goal?
Whether you like it or not, this is your life.
Don't waste your life journey by waiting for the "right" time to be happy.
Continue to dream big and to be willing to work hard for what you want in life but never let the process of achieving something make you feel inadequate, unhappy or frustrated.
2. Stop your negative thoughts.
We think every day.
We have happy, productive and exciting thoughts and negative, worrisome, anxious and pessimistic thoughts.
It's not critical that you have happy thoughts every day but instead, choose to do something positive with your thoughts, particularly the negative ones.
Try to not take yourself so seriously or be so perfect with everything task in your life Be okay with failing and redefine what it means to have a "good" day, workout or meal.
Sometimes thoughts make sense and sometimes we don't know why we are thinking what we are thinking. When thoughts get out of hand and turn into a mental snowball, it's important to immediately stop the thought process, relax and try to dismiss the thought(s).
Create a more positive mindset by bringing positive, fulfilling and peaceful thoughts to your workouts, job, family/kids, body and diet and stop the negative thinking before it gets out of hand.
3. Quiet the mind
I often tell my coaching athletes to stay present during their workouts. This means ignoring/forgetting about all the many to-do's and struggles in life and simply enjoy the 30, 60, 90 or few hours that you give yourself each day to train your body.
Focus on the present moment.
Don't let your brain multi-task when you are training.
Staying present during workouts is extremely important but it's not easy to jump in the pool, get on the bike or start running and assume that every stress in your life will magically disappear.
Give yourself 2-5 minutes before your workout to meditate. If this word makes you feel uncomfortable, consider giving up 5 minutes of your busy life for silence, before you stress your body and mind.
Giving yourself a few moments of peace can make you feel less irritable, angry and overwhelmed with your daily life responsibilities but this strategy is very effective for athletes before workouts.
This is not visualization or mental strength building exercise but instead, a practice of emptying your mind as much as possible in a very quiet environment. Whenever a thought, like groceries, a work assignment, laundry, travel or dirty dishes or an argument with your significant other gets inside your head, let that thought pass and forget about it.
By training yourself to quiet your mind before you need it the most, you will find yourself more focused, attentive and most of all, more happy and relaxed.
It's normal to have negative or unhappy thoughts but a problem occurs when you think that negative thoughts could be true. When you begin to believe that you are not good enough, you are not lean enough, you are not fit enough or any other thought that makes you feel like you are just going through the motions of life, it's important to take a step back to understand where this thinking is coming from.
Although mental skill training and confidence coaching are effective strategies to improve your happiness and confidence, it's important to reach out to a clinical psychologist who can help you understand your thoughts (relating to athletics/family/career/body image/food) if you find that your thoughts don't make sense and they affect your daily activities and quality of life.
Lastly, don't let social media make you believe that everyone except you has a perfect life and everyone seems so happy all the time.
There are many ways to capture your positive moments in life.
Some choose to share experiences on social media and others are doing amazing things but life a less documented life.
By changing negative thinking, you may find that you actually have more than you think you have in life.
And that's something to be happy about.