Your Magenta Monday Magic.
“Good health is not something we can buy. However, it can be an extremely valuable savings account.” -Anne Wilson Schaef
Getting to a place where you are ‘in good health’ doesn’t come from investing in just one area of yourself. Good health is holistic – it includes your mental, spiritual, and physical wellbeing.
You can almost liken navigating the challenges of mom midlife crisis to a three-legged stool – if you’re unwell in any one area, you end up faltering in the others... just like a stool falls over if we kick out one of the legs!
The good news? When you build strength in one area, it ends up positively affecting the others and before you know it, you’re building mental, spiritual, and physical health – holistic health.
This week I want to focus specifically on physical health – and on movement in particular.
When you move your body, it does more than just keep your muscles, joints, and bones in good shape. Movement also helps you shift the energy in your body that may have become stuck.
Many of us enter midlife with an opportunity to focus on reinventing ourselves after empty nest with renewed urgency. It’s no wonder: you’ve likely been raising a family, or focusing on your career, or running a household, (or all of the above). Unless you’ve made a concerted effort to stay active, your physical health may leave something to be desired.
The thing is – it’s never too late to change that!
I think about my sister in particular. When she got to her 55th birthday, she started thinking –
“Hey, I only have half of my life left, and I want to make the most of it.”
She had always worked full-time and never really carved out the time to exercise. The gym was just not for her – too much sweat and testosterone – and she never felt motivated by people shouting at her “you can do it!”
After remembering how much she enjoyed taking ballet classes when she was young, she decided to give Pilates classes a go. Like ballet, Pilates was quiet and introspective. It let her proceed at her own pace, plus it offered the added benefit of lying down! 😂
Soon after getting started she began to notice changes in her body, and she started feeling really great, which really fueled her desire to continue. Today, she attends classes 5 days a week and says she really misses it when she doesn’t go!
Staying committed to Pilates has helped her feel more solid and grounded in other areas of her life as well. She sees that in caring for her body, she is being kind to her entire self.
Our bodies want to move, and my sister feels good that she regularly and consistently honors that need.
She’s also noticed a halo effect as a result. Her increased awareness of her physical health has made her much more conscious of how she feels when she’s not eating well. She’s come to see how eating gluten makes her feel bloated. She’s realized that she feels really bad when she eats sugar – because she knows how unhealthy it is for her. She has naturally started drinking a lot more water, and she’s become more aware of her muscles’ need for protein – something that is particularly challenging because she is a vegetarian.
Moving her body more physically – building strength in that one area – has strengthened other areas. It’s not just her attention to good nutrition either – overall she tells me that she feels loved and nurtured because she feels good about taking care of herself.
I’m not saying Pilates is the answer for you. We’re all different! You have to find what motivates you.
What motivated my sister was getting older and wanting to have a long, healthy life ahead of her. She knew:
She wouldn’t do well in a traditional gym setting.
She needed an activity that was gentle and nurturing.
She wanted something that made her feel good about her progress.
I go to the gym almost every day – that wouldn’t work for my sister. Maybe you need an entirely different approach. The method you choose to improve your physical health doesn’t matter as much as tuning into what will work for you.
Think about your personal preferences. Think about what brings you joy. What did you like to play when you were a kid – what lit you up? Did you play tennis? Ride bikes? Do gymnastics? Swim?
Whatever it was that brought you joy back then, perhaps a similar activity will light a spark for you today in finding purpose as an empty nester. The key is finding some kind of physical movement that brings you joy.
Once you get started with physical movement, you’ll notice the positive effects will bleed into other areas of your life because health is holistic.
Before you know it, you’ll be turning your attention to your nutrition, as a natural extension of your growing self-awareness – your awareness of your body’s health.
Think about everything you’ll accomplish: by increasing your physical movement, you’ll be investing in your physical health. You’ll be nurturing yourself. You’ll be committing to self-compassion. You’ll be showing yourself, love. ♥
Monday Mindshift
It’s the 1° shift that makes the biggest difference over time.
Make that list of things you did when you were young that lit you up and start incorporating something similar into your days – bit by bit. Choosing something that brings you joy will help to keep you committed to your goal of becoming more physically active. You’re more likely to stick with it if it’s something you enjoy.
As you get started with upping your level of physical movement, make sure you’re approaching it with the right mindset. Don’t think about this as something you ‘have’ to do. Think about it as something you ‘get’ to do.
As you start moving more, you will feel better about yourself. Not only that but living a more active life will help you be better equipped to do more physical things like traveling, hiking, and walking with ease.
Think of every action you take to become more active as an investment in your health savings account.
If that’s not enough to keep you feeling motivated, remember what we said last week about motivation being a cart before the horse situation…. Doing the thing is what helps you to do the thing.
Don’t wait for your motivation to catch up. Just do it!
Living BRIGHTer is...
B - Be Brave
R - Cultivate Relationships
I - Live with Intention
G - Practice Gratitude
H - Prioritize Health
T - Live your Truth
What is Magenta?
The color magenta is one of universal harmony and emotional balance. It is spiritual yet practical, encouraging common sense and a balanced outlook on life. Magenta helps to create harmony and balance in every aspect of life; physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
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