I love this question that I periodically ask myself, as is it encourages me to have a light heart about habits I might need to change.
And my oh my – do I have a few of those!
Perhaps you can relate to my experience from my late teens/early twenties. I used to find that I’d wake up on a Saturday and Sunday feeling distinctly seedy from the night before having had far too much alcohol for my own good.
And it’s not that I didn’t know that at the time; I just made the decision to replay these golden moments time and time…and time again.
What changed for me was partly triggered by the enormous wakeup call I got at 21, when I was given just 3 years to live unless I took medication every day for the rest of my life. That became a superb opportunity to reevaluate what I was doing, and it also helped me realize that I’d had enough feeling crappy. I wanted to feel good.
So, I looked at the different areas of my life and assessed what I was doing and where there was room for improvement. There were plenty of these.
A pretty obvious one was to reduce the amount of alcohol I was guzzling.
Once I finally realised that alcohol didn’t work for me, I stopped drinking it. Interestingly, I especially appreciate now being able to hop out of bed at 5 or 5:30am – refreshed and ready to rumble!
Reassessing where we might be stuck on stupid can take us being open to fessing up with ourselves about what’s really working and what isn’t. A process many of my clients find valuable is to look at the big picture first, then start with just one thing to tweak. 1
For me – this has been a more-than-beneficial process and absolutely worth the time and energy.
If you had an area you’ve most love to improve in your life – what would it be?…your free time, your energy levels, your blood test results, your relationships, your productivity, your financial health?
Til I see you on this week’s #AliveWithFi, keep sharing your sunshine
1Once we get clear with ourselves, we can decide which habit we want to change, which can be invaluable because “knowing your weak places gives you insight for when and where to practice your new, healthier habit.” And knowing the ‘weak’ habit we want to improve can also give us clarity about what we want to create instead. “How to Bust a Bad Habit and Start a Good One” D. Erickson, (2017).
Fi Jamieson-Folland D.O., I.N.H.C., is The LifeStyle Aligner. She’s an experienced practitioner since 1992 in Europe, Asia and New Zealand as a qualified Osteopath, Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, speaker, educator, writer, certified raw vegan gluten-free chef, and Health Brand Ambassador.
