Don’t move until you accept your why.
Get Physical
It can take a lifetime to really appreciate a body. In youth, we suffer the slings and arrows of our thoughts about our bodies due to the constant comments absorbed from birth. The doctors immediately start rating us physically at birth and that’s where the competition begins. Everyone has an opinion and compares us to every other known baby. It’s hard to win a contest with intense competition. The never-ending notice of weight, height, ability to smile and laugh becomes a conversation that endures. Visitors want the stats. To be truthful, there isn’t really a lot of other knowledge about us, so the focus is limited. Once babies start to make noises, crawl and drool, there is more to talk about. The world is waiting on the baby to respond. It is easy to believe what we are told at that point since we can’t reach a decent mirror. This might be a beautiful time in life to appreciate our physical selves. That might account for the way we perceive our physical bodies in adulthood. There is way too much data by that point.
Body Talk
Think about how the thoughts you create about your body are formed. If comparison wasn’t already hardwired into humanity, you would probably just choose to think incredibly wonderful things about yourself. Admiring the absolute complexity of the human being occurs at the highest levels of self-awareness. If it was baked in at birth, it would contribute to good mental health. The moments when adults are astounded by the tiny perfect toes of a newborn are fleeting. Because we tend to have a negative mental bias, the continuing thoughts about bodies tend not to be constructive ones. Our brain wants to notice what could get it hurt and values keeping an eye out for bad stuff. In early adulthood, it is easier to keep up a decent body image. Working out comes more naturally through activities and social interactions. In mid-life, it is a little harder to keep everything in tip-top shape and more emphasis is needed. But it is easier to know what kind of exercise is more desirable. Change still occurs at a good clip, so it is more satisfying to keep up a program. The results don’t take forever.
50 Plus
Counter intuitively, exercising the body after fifty takes on a different feeling. There can be more satisfaction because taking care of your body starts to be more important. Self-care honestly feels like doing the right thing. In addition, the thoughts that hurt your feelings earlier in life don’t make as much of a dent. Due to having gone through years of criticism, the effects aren’t as lingering. The issue about appreciating your physical body is tricky if you don’t control your thoughts. Many times, it depends on who is making the remarks.
What do you want to feel?
This is going to be an ongoing question to answer. How you feel about your body and how you want to take care of it is going to be based on how you want to feel at the end of the year. An important aspect is to accept that and start somewhere. There are ways to start to insure a great finish. Knowing what you are able to do easily is a good place to start. There is a reason that walking is advised most often. It is cheap and plentiful. It is a great place to start. It will get you moving. That is a lot to offer. Walking will give you a chance to think about what you want to do next. You can ignore your phone and keep it in your pocket. That will help you with future planning. Decrease the thought given to the activity and focus on the feeling you want to create. When you start to feel what is happening, you will naturally continue. Your outer activity is going to create your inner feeling. We will come back to this over and over. Take a breath. Now take another, get up and walk somewhere.
Question yourself: How do you feel about making an exercise plan that will work just for you? Can you just start and see what happens? How do you feel about your body today?
