Let’s start with a bit of humor today. This morning my husband shared a Facebook post with me that made me laugh. It said “If you see your glass as half-empty, pour it into a smaller glass and move on!”
I did laugh and then I really thought about the message in that when applied to something we all face in our fitness routines. How many times have you left work, knowing you’re supposed to go to the gym, but you are so tired the last thing you feel like doing is going to the gym and jumping around? Yup. Your glass has barely anything left rattling around in the bottom. So pour it into a medicine cup and get to the gym. How? Simple. Learn the art of re-framing. No, not with real pictures – with the thoughts about working out going through your brain trying to derail you.
Wipe out the thought of being too tired to work out, and replace it with “The gym is my haven to relax my mind after a hard day. I can settle into my workout and decompress. My work world can stay outside the gym door and I can seek some mind peace. No one is going to bother me inside these doors. It’s precious me-time.” Suddenly the gym is a place you look forward to going after work. It’s now a promise of peace and time to take a break from the rest of your life. Wow. Who wouldn’t want that after working hard all day? Right?
Re-framing also works with other difficult or just annoying times in life. For instance, a favorite app of mine redid itself and took away a lot of my favorite cardio workouts. I was mad. I read the negative comments about it on Facebook. I sat there thinking, “I’m going to quit this app! How dare they!” I bought into all the talk in the post until today. I re-framed it. I told myself this will force me out of my rut and challenge me to do some different workouts. It worked! I tried new ones and loved them. On the elliptical I used glute muscles I didn’t know I had. Give it a try the next time you are upset about something.
And so, as another day goes by, don’t let circumstances define you, re-frame it – pour it into a smaller glass and move on.
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