Making Changes

 

Make a change

I don’t know about you, but coming out of lockdown is a bit like coming out of hibernation. I was walking the dogs along the cliff this morning, it was a beautiful (if cold, with occasional hailstones) morning, and it got me thinking about how life has changed so much over the past year, and how we as humans, across the world have changed in the aftermath (for Wales at least) of Covid.

The anxiety that I felt this time last year still lingers and I am not 100% comfortable with stepping out of the comfort zone that I have built. Whenever we want to make a change to our lives, it does take more than courage to implement new ways of being and doing. As a fitness instructor, changing your client’s habit is one of the most challenging aspects – going to the gym and writing a programme is the easy part!  So why is it that even when we want to change, we find ourselves somehow entangled in the web of life that we have created…yet we want to get out of.

First, lifestyle change is  a whole world on its own, but there is a wealth of information out there on the basic steps that we can do to support ourselves in making the tiny, but long lasting, changes to improve our lives. One of the most common ones that we used to teach at Level 3 Personal Training was done in the early 80s by Prochaska and DiClemente, and is still considered to be an important pivotal theory on creating change.

The basis is this, that if you are reading this article because you are interested in health and fitness and want to find out more, then you are already in the first steps of change, where gathering information will help you move forward. If you are reading this and you are also trying to implement some of the fitness suggestions then you are in an active stage.  Maintaining that active stage is the key, because we can quite easily drop back down to the “thinking about it” stage, without getting back into the active….I’m just thinking about all those people who are looking forward to going back to the gym, but haven’t yet done the booking.  Staying active for over 6 months then leads to a more stable and ingrained behaviour. Yes, six months or more…..it’s  a long time, so don’t worry if you dip in and out of the stages, this is considered to be normal human behaviour.  There are, of course, many other motivational ways to encourage activity (but not enough space on the page to discuss today!) but my tip would be to start with the reading and learning, and then may do some trying.

This is my plan as I try to reintroduce myself back into the community of life, starting with a weekend away from home….first trip in a very long time.  Be brave, take the step, make the change, live the life you love, love the life you live x