Whenever my clients tell me that after they started feeling better, suddenly they feel worse, I ask them if they’ve been practicing their healthier lifestyle habits including self-care and stress reduction which were helping them feel better. Usually, they say “No.” Most of them tell me they thought they didn’t need to practice any longer because they felt better and just expected it to last without committing themselves to making these changes part of their life. They are truly shocked when they learn that routinely practicing self-care and stress reduction is key to feeling good. But…it is.
Well, this past week, I decided to disregard my own good advice about self-care and managing stress wisely. You’d think after 35 years of advising clients to ABSOLUTELY NOT stop practicing their stress reducing skills once they began feeling good, I’d know better. Wrong!!! When I realized I’d fallen back into my lifelong habit of overdoing and not taking enough time to rest and recharge, I knew it was time to make a different choice. Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.”
I reminded myself that if I wanted to keep feeling better, I needed to slow down, rest more and push myself less. After all, I’m still recovering from my temporary hearing loss but as human beings we are creatures of habit and old habits die hard. But, we can learn new habits that support our health and well-being if we choose to. Over time, these healthier choices can become our way of responding rather than our old unhealthy ones. With attention, effort and practice, change is possible. If not now, when
Here’s some podcasts and YouTube videos of exercises to help get you started: https://drdianesanford.com/media/podcasts/ https://drdianesanford.com/media/youtube/
drdianesanford.com 