Photo by Alex Plesovskich on Unsplash
Try having some fruit, that will give you some good vitamins’.
During my burnout period, I went basically into total hibernation mode. My eating was repetitive, easy to make food.
Fruit slowly disappeared from my meals, whilst vegetables also were less visible in my plate. It’s essentially been whatever I can put in the oven that requires minimal effort.
But in this one moment of eating an apple, my body suddenly felt a surge of energy. Rather than relying on a sugar boost from a fizzy drink or falling back on an energy drink, I was getting genuine, healthy nutrition.
It didn’t take long for my body to start craving fruit again. And so, without necessarily trying too hard, I’ve been buying more fruit.
None of this is exactly mind blowing. We all know eating fruit is generally good for us. Yet when I was stuck in a rut of mediocrity, I lost sight of what is genuinely nourishing.
The striking thing about mediocre living is that how easy we can become comfortable with it. Yet once we get a taste for a higher form of living, returning back to mediocrity is no longer be appealing. Suddenly my desire for a more rounded diet is returning, and in the meantime so is my energy and a more rounded lifestyle.
I’m not ‘trying’ to eat healthier. I’m just naturally being pulled towards doing it. I don’t need a bucket list of accountability statements, affirmations or manifestations. I’m in sync with living better, so I just do it. It’s like getting a whole package of benefits without needing to even try.
Understanding and self-compassion is important. My mediocre living was necessary for that moment – it was a period where I was toughing it out. By accepting this, and treating myself with kindness and grace, I don’t feel guilty for living this way.
Guilt-tripping ourselves into change is very rarely successful. It takes far more effort, is far less fun, and can have adverse negative effects. Whenever I guilt myself, It also only serves to add to my unhappiness. The unhappiness can then undermine my original intent. If I’m feeling so low that I want quick comfort food, well I’m going to find it hard to eat healthy the next time. Worse, it’ll just fuel a next cycle of guilt.
As I start socialising with people again, I’m seeing far more instances of people living in a mediocre way. Rushing around, often being stressed, or just being unable to really get a grip of their lives. The issue is never that people don’t have hopes and dreams, it’s that the hopes and dreams are buried under a pile of life admin and stress.
But change is possible, and often easier than you think. Often, the change is not actually about the subject itself. Instead, it’s about how we view and treat ourselves. Shifting our internal feelings does wonders for dealing with the practical elements of our lives.
For example, today I woke up early, and ended up spending an hour or so tidying my room. It’s something I haven’t really done in months. I’ve been kind to myself to allow my room to be messy, instead foccussing on my basic needs of energy and sustenance. But as I have became more content with life, my desire for better also has reawakened.
My want for a clean room drove me to tidy it up. I can already feel the benefits that this gives me. What was nice is that this wasn’t something I had to force myself to do either.
My room is just an analogy for a wider point (which I actually made in an article a year ago). When we create the right conditions for ourselves, change can be remarkably easy. We end up making changes within weeks that we thought would take us years.
If you want better in life, it’s possible. If it’s something you’d like to pursue, drop me a message and I can see if there’s anything I can do to help.