Tired Of Feeling Guilty About Your Wellbeing?
It’s a common enough problem, and yet one which relatively few people seem to know how to solve. We are all sometimes guilty of feeling guilty, particularly when it comes to trying to lead the healthiest lives possible. But no matter how bad you think you are at looking after yourself, there is a good chance that you can do a lot to improve the situation. Your wellbeing is really just a matter of adopting the right approach, taking careful steps, and forgiving yourself when you mess up. Everyone does, and beating yourself up only makes it worse. Let’s take a look at some of the most powerful changes you can make to lead to a more guilt-free existence.
Adopt A Positive Mindset
You have probably heard a good deal about the power of positivity. In many circles these days, it is something of a buzzword. But it is also something of real value and if you know how to make it happen you can make other changes in your life much more easily, and usually a lot faster too. Of course, learning to be more positive is in itself a particularly tricky task, but as long as you take small steps you will find you can do it as well as anyone.
Above all, being more positive requires that you spend more time focusing on the good in your life. Many of us have something of a pessimism bias, and it is shocking how much damage this probably does in the long run. If you think this might be true of you, then it might be worth trying to reverse that bias into a positivity or optimism one instead. To achieve this, try the following challenge. Every day for a fortnight, write a list of some of the things you are grateful for. You can do this at any point in the day, but right after waking or just before sleeping are especially good times. After a fortnight, you are bound to appreciate your life a lot more, and you can then build on that newfound positivity when you approach other issues in your life.
Remember: gratitude is a great attitude. Gratitude is the attitude that works, because when you focus on what you have, rather than what you lack, you open up even more space to receive even more. Whereas, when you focus on what you lack, you close up and effectively shut off many of the opportunities for change which are vying for your attention every moment of every day. This is at once a simple and an incredibly powerful practice, and it will make a huge difference to your life in many ways, fast.
Vary Your Exercise
We are not going to tell you how important exercise is for a healthier life. We all know that exercise is vital for that. But no matter how much exercise you currently engage in, you can benefit from not only doing more, but doing different exercises. If you are used to, say, jogging every other day, you will have trained your body to react very well to that particular set of movements. It is still good exercise, but you are not challenging your body as much as when you started jogging.
This is why switching it up a bit can be so profound. When you find ways to vary your exercise, you are encouraging your body to learn new skills again. You will probably sweat even more, lose even more calories, and get even fitter as a result. It is especially helpful and beneficial if you go for something completely different to what you normally do. So if you are usually a fan of cardio, try doing some strength workouts for a while, or in addition to your normal regime. Similarly, if you are into strength, go for cardio. This is a powerful way of getting much more out of your workout sessions – and if you really don’t like the new exercise, you can always go back – or better yet, try something else entirely new.
Cut Out Poisons
How long do many of us spend in our lives telling ourselves we will make the right decision, and never doing it? The problem with these kinds of decisions is that they very often lead to a severe limit in our progress. And that, as we all know, can lead to the guilt that we know so well. Maybe it is time for you to take a stand with your health, and try to cut out all the poisons you are currently putting into your body. This can be scary to think about, but it might prove to be essential – and it is probably easier than you think.
For a serious addiction like nicotine, you might need to find some help in the form of nicotine replacement. This will help you to deal with the cravings while you are working to cut out smoking all together. But as long as you stop smoking, you will be doing great things for your overall well being, and it is likely that your guilt will drop significantly.
Too much alcohol is also a problem. Moderate alcohol use for healthy adults means up to one drink a day for women of all ages. Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to long term detrimental health affects. Regular drinking has been linked to increase risk of cancer and heart disease. The highest increased risk is with breast cancer.
You don’t necessarily need to get rid of alcohol altogether, but it definitely helps your wellbeing if you cut down on how much you drink as much as you can. If you feel that you find this particularly difficult, it might be that you need some more serious help. Fortunately, such help abounds, and if you go out of your way to find it you will be doing one of the kindest things for yourself you possibly can. This will surely get you on a good path towards a healthier life of greater happiness.
