Hello, hello Feminal Fam !!
Welcome to another Wellness Wednesday post. Today we are going over the first step to starting your fitness journey... or really anything !! Let's get right into shall we?
SELF-AWARENESS
Yupp, you read that right. Self-awareness is so important not just for your fitness journey, for everything in life. Before we dig any further let's define what exactly self-awareness is:
According to Oxford, Self-awareness is the conscious knowledge of one's own character, feelings, motives, and desires.
So why is it important to your fitness journey? Well, let's pull that definition apart.
Motives and Desires:
By knowing your own motives and desires you are ensuring you are doing, working and focusing on what it is you want and what's best for you. There is lots of helpful and sometimes not so helpful information out there when it comes to health and fitness. It's easy to look at someone else and assume you want what they want, you want to look like they do, you want to fit into society's ever changing standard of beauty and fitness. If you're self-aware and you're aware of your own motives and desires you can easily decide if something just isn't for you.
Character:
By understanding your character or your personality, who you are as an individual you are better equipped to understand what you might or might not like, what resonates with you and lines up with your values. Are you someone looking to get into fitness with a goal in mind? Do you just want to maintain your health as you grow older? Do you want to get into fitness for the mental benefits? Can you handle counting macros, or is this something you know will just overwhelm you and maybe even lead you to develop disordered eating habits? By understanding the type of person you are you can go about a fitness regime that will better work for you physically, emotionally and mentally.
Feelings:
Listening to our feelings is so important especially as women (cue intuition !!). Our feelings can sometimes reveal to us how something is effecting us. Do you feel fatigued from your 2 hour workout? Are you walking around always hungry which causes you to feel anxious and angry? Are you constantly stressing over what you eat and how many calories you're burning in a day? Does fitness or working out bring you positive emotions and feelings or negative ones? These feelings can help shape how we approach fitness and what is truly going to work for us.
Going beyond the definition of self-awareness, we should also listen to our body. Our bodies are amazing things, their sole purpose is to function so that we can live. Not to mention the fact that women have the power to create another human... miracles. Our bodies can tell us a lot if we take a second to really listen to them. Their signs can come as mental or even physical cues. It's important to listen and understand your body to know how it needs to be treated and what works best for it.
Self-awareness is a journey, it's something that requires patience and honesty, mostly with yourself but with others as well. You shouldn't look at self-awareness as a chore, it's an amazing process and you should totally enjoy it !!
Let's leave you with a few tips and actionable steps you can take to start your self-awareness journey.
Journaling
Journaling is a great way to get out some feelings and thoughts. Carry a journal around with you or keep notes on your phone. Pay attention to how you feel in certain situations. Make note of how a certain workout made you feel mentally, emotionally and physically. There are tons of journal prompts available if you're not too sure where to start !!
Self-development books, podcasts and other often free resources.
Sometimes when you don't know, you just don't know. That's where reading or listening to books or podcasts from others with experience on the topic can be helpful. There are so many resources out there, both free and paid that you can use.
Therapy, counseling or health specialist
We need to move away from the stigma that often surrounds therapy and counseling. It is just another resource available for us to use if needed. Sometimes talking to someone else can help us understand who we are, help us process emotions and in cases where fitness has taken a negative toll on our body they can help heal us.
What do you think about this week's post? Leave a comment down below and let us know :)
xx