Saturday was world mental health day…

…looking after your mind is just as important as looking after your body. I honestly believe that to be truly healthy, you can’t have one without the other.

Today, in honour of it being Monday (traditionally the most hated day of the week), we’re going to focus on your mind.  If you’re someone who has struggled to lose weight/ get fit in the past then it will almost definitely be your mind that’s holding you back.

Self sabotage, feeling like a failure, hating your body…they all come from a very negative place that creates a downward spiral. Start to love your body and you’ll find it so much easier to treat it with the love it deserves. 

Of course it isn’t easy. Especially if you’re used to being self critical.

Just like weight loss and fitness- It doesn’t happen overnight. There’s no magic button that will suddenly change your mindset and make you love yourself.  It’s little by little. One little act of love, followed by another and another.

On that note, today we’re going to focus on things that make our minds and souls happy. Work on improving your mental health and your body will follow:

1. Be grateful

This is such a big one. Once you start feeling grateful for things in your life, you’ll start to spot more. And it’s a lovely feeling to feel lucky.

Too often we spend our time looking that the things we want or haven’t got…when in fact we need to focus on what we do have.

Whether you believe in the law of attraction or not (if you haven’t heard of it, google it!), being grateful is just a lovely way to lift your mood and make you feel good.

The more you do it, the more it’ll become second nature and the more things you’ll find to be grateful for.

Do it before going to bed or when you wake up in the morning. Lie there and think about 3 things you are grateful for. Really appreciate them and let the positive feelings wash over you.

If you’ve got kids, try doing it with them on way home from school or over dinner – it’s a good way to get them to talk about feelings and appreciate what they have in their life.

This one has helped me massively over the last few weeks. Try it!

2. Notice the small things

This is another one I’ve found useful. I’ve been snapping pictures of things that make me happy over the course of the last couple of weeks and it’s lovely to look back through them all on my phone.

One thing I’ve noticed is that most of them are little moments…ones you wouldn’t necessarily think about unless you focused on them. Here’s some of mine. What would yours be?

• a cup of coffee in the sunshine on our balcony
• walking past the most gorgeous Wisteria on the way to the gym – it smells amazing. When I’m a grown up and have a house to live in, I’m planting one!
• watching James play happily with his little friends – they’ve started hugging when they see each other. Not good for social distancing but super cute!
• walking bare foot on the sand

3. Do things that make your soul sing

Once you’ve worked out what makes you happy, do more of it. Sounds simple but you will need to actually carve out time for yourself…otherwise it’ll never happen and you’ll put everyone else’s needs before your own.

I think often we get caught up in what we ‘should’ be doing rather than what we ‘want’ to do. Everyone feels they need to be busy, busy, busy and rushing around full of purpose. But often this just leads to stress not happiness. I know some of it’s essential but try to balance it with doing things you love.

My things are: swimming in the sea, reading a book, having a bath, exercise (although the feeling after not before!), doing a puzzle, something creative like drawing or sewing, doing the housework whilst singing along to music (sad but true). All super simple, involve spending next to nothing and make me happy.

It really is the simple things in life! What could you try to do more of today?

On that note, go out into your Monday morning feeling positive. Remember to nurture yourself and look after your mental health as much as your physical. Have a fabulous day!

And remember if you enjoy reading my posts, make sure you ‘like’ my Facebook page. That way, you’ll never miss any! Click here to pop over there now. 

PS. My ‘Back to Basics’ bootcamp is full of tips and advice to help you make small changes – we look at improving both your physical AND mental health because the two go hand in hand. The next one will be running in Jan 2021…I’ll give lots more details in the run up but if you want to sign up in advance, you’ll get the 2 weeks for the early bird price of £20. Pop over and have a look now 🙂