Last week I wrote about exercise being the most potent medical intervention ever. In fact, just “one minute of exercise buys you five minutes of extra life.” This compelling statistic increases to seven or eight minutes of extra life for higher intensity exercise.

That’s incredible! But, as essential as exercise is, if you don’t have other foundational health habits in place you will struggle with keeping it up and making positive progress.

And if you want to make positive progress, you need to get into a positive state.

I want to share with you what I believe the secret sauce is to getting, and staying in a positive state of forward momentum.

I have been doing this for years and it is the most effective thing I have found to keep me motivated and moving forward.

The key is to focus on your most important roles in life and ensure you are spending what you deem an appropriate amount of time and physical and emotional energy on each of them. Less important roles get less time and energy allocated to them, more important roles get more time and energy. And depending on what stage of life you are at, these roles, and their importance will change.

But personally, I go by the belief that at the core of our being we are all still animals…in the physiological sense at least. And so I look at my primary and longest lasting role in life, as the caretaker of this animal, and ask myself, what does it need in order to survive, and even better, thrive? And I figure it needs 5 key things.

Five Keys to a Healthy You

  • Movement (exercise)
  • Food & Water (good quality ideally)
  • Air (breath)
  • Sleep (quality and quantity matter)
  • Sunshine (outdoor time)

I take this role, as the caretaker of me, quite seriously as I know that when I am not doing well, I am not able to take care of my more evolved human self (the one with complicated emotions) or my friends, my family and my community around me. And so, in order to make positive progress and stay in a positive state, self care should be your first priority whenever possible. I of course don’t mean self care in the form of pampering, that is lovely, but it isn’t essential. The five things I have listed above are.

I also believe that we humans are pack animals, and that it is very difficult to be healthy if you are alone, so I look next at my other roles within my pack, (ie. mother, daughter, sister, wife, friend, business owner, community member etc, ) and make sure I am spending the appropriate amount of time and energy on and with those that need me the most. And this changes over time, a new parent will spend the vast majority of their time and energy on their children, rightly so, as the kids age this energy shifts to friends or aging parents or career.

But at the foundation of it all, I firmly believe that, if you take care of your physiology first, then your community around you, you’ll be able to control your emotions and choose to spend your time in a positive, empowering mindset and make empowering, successful decisions for everyone involved.
I’ve tried to create a diagram below that I hope helps show what I am referring to.

Why do I share this today? I’ve talked with a few people lately who just aren’t able to find the balance. They want to exercise, they want to eat well, they want to feel better but can’t seem to do it. There is a multitude of reasons of course but what I see is that a lot of these people are running on empty. They have spent too many years working with an upside down pyramid. They focus on mindset first, waiting to be inspired or to be motivated in order to start or keep up their healthy habits, or they put the needs of others before their own too many times and now they have nothing left.

I firmly believe that physiology is the most important factor in creating change in your life. Our physical state, or physiology, significantly impacts our emotional and mental state. (But it often has to start with a vision for your future self, what is it you want to achieve for your future self and this will help you determine what type of movement, how much food etc)

Tony Robbins agrees! He believes that changing your physiology can help you break negative patterns and create a positive mental state. It is the foundation of many of his programs.

So, the next time you feel unmotivated or down, do something that changes your physiology. Sit up straight, take some slow deep breaths, go for a walk, drink some water, practice better sleep hygiene.

But remember, there really is no #1 thing to do. All of our animal needs rely on the other; you can’t exercise unless you have fueled your body properly. Your energy is dependent on your hydration levels. If you don’t sleep well, you will have a difficult time working out with any intensity. If you’re anxious and stressed your energy will be sapped before you start, so take some time to breathe deeply. You can’t go all out on one without the others supporting you.

I would love to know what you think about this philosophy or let me know if you want to dive a bit deeper and chat about it. This pyramid I have above is a first draft for me so if you have questions or comments or feedback I’d love to hear it!

Remember, the only way to coast is downhill. Midlife and beyond isn’t the time to coast or give up – it’s the time to show up for yourself and the life you want to live. Let’s create a future you’re excited about!
Christine xo

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