Tis the season for watching the best holiday shows over and over again under the warmth of a blanket and with a cup of something delicious in your hands. If you are like the Kinseys, you may have Elf playing on a loop. Do you remember when Buddy the Elf realizes that he is human and not an actual elf like his family and friends in the North Pole? Buddy’s world starts (literally) swirling around him as the shock of his humanness settles in. Up becomes down and down becomes up. Buddy eventually passes out, crushing a poor elfin co-worker in the process as this revelation takes over his body. It is in that split second that he realizes that it was all right in front of him his whole life although he never saw it.
Moments like this can happen for all of us. The overwhelm these a-ha moments bring is not always welcome. They generally bring significant discomfort and a pit in your stomach as reality washes over you. But they are often the very thing we need to initiate action.
In my world as a fitness instructor, health coach, and studio owner, I have a front-row seat to these moments in many people’s lives as they pertain to their health. Their stories of health lost sometimes come in timid whispers. More often than not though, the stories come with few tears of regret for having taken their health for granted for far too long. My first job is to just be present with them and listen.
Have you ever had a Buddy the Elf, I mean, human moment?
January 1st is right around the corner. Many people use the first of the year as their calendar-induced wake up call. To be fair, working towards a new year’s goal is a heck of a lot more comfortable than one that comes with the utter angst that Buddy had. According to surveys, 79% of New Year’s resolutions involve improving health. Sounds great, huh? A collective heave-ho and no one has to pass out to initiate action. But I am sure you know the grim reports on just how many of those people stick with it.
I know columns about resolutions are very common this time of year. And for many of us, just reading about strategies for success make us feel like we are scratching the itch. So I am fully conflicted about even writing this…but here goes nonetheless.
One of the biggest ways not to improve your health is to just keep gathering information about improving your health (and doing absolutely nothing with it). Information-gathering mode is necessary for a time, but when it goes on too long it can give us a false sense of accomplishment. It makes us feel like we checked a box when in fact, we did not. It is a sneaky means of procrastination. To make change, you have to do something. So how do we get around that?
Do one thing. I’d like to say do it today, but for the sake of flow of this column, feel free to wait until Jan. 1st. Drink one glass of water when you wake up. Go to bed 30 minutes earlier than normal. Add one more egg to your breakfast and increase your morning protein. Whatever it is, do it on the 1st. Then do it again on the 2nd. And 3rd. And so on. You get the idea. Once you stop feeling like this new action is taxing you and you no longer have to think hard about doing it, add another thing. Take a walk after dinner. Spend five minutes of quiet time before you start your day. Call a friend and connect.
The trick of it is to not overcomplicate it. Focus on the process rather than the outcome. And enjoy the slow and beautiful metamorphosis that comes with doing something on behalf of your health, mind, body, and spirit.
We all have those comeuppance moments in life. Ones where we can fully relate to our friend, Buddy. But we also are gifted other opportunities to shift, doors that open just waiting for us to walk through…like the first of the year. Go for it. Don’t be a cotton-headed ninny muggins.
Meghan Kinsey is a 20-plus-year resident of Newburyport. She is a health coach and fitness instructor and owns Motivate.® Movement Studios in Amesbury and Rowley, and opens in North Hampton, N.H. in January.