Health, well-being, and fitness are something most of us are focused on today. For myself, all my life I have invested time and money on exercise of various kinds, learning meditative and other spiritual practices to manage stress, learning more about nutrition and trying different kinds of diets mostly to lose weight. All of these factors have helped me at different times in my life to varying degrees but still I didn't feel the kind of Quality of life I wanted to feel in this part of my life. Then in the last year something changed that made me approach health as a much more important part of my quality of life.
About 10 years ago I slipped on some ice and hurt my back. During the following years I had times when I felt it was completely healed and times when I had various degrees of pain. I did different things to heal and support it but over the last year or two I realised it was getting worse and I was learning to 'live with' the consequences of having a 'bad back'. At this point I decided it was time to deal with this once and for all.
"I was learning to 'live with' the consequences of having a 'bad back'. At this point I decided it was time to deal with this once and for all."
I asked around for a more 'holistic' place I could go to for help with this and a friend recommended, JH Studio in Menges. Following an initial consultation with Janez I started a programme twice a week that included exercise, nutrition, manual therapy and massage. Less than a year later I am completely pain free as well as fitter and stronger. I have more energy, am sleeping well and have lost 10 kilos.
See my short interview with Janez about this:
So, it's a great result, so what's important about this in terms of quality of life? For me there are 4 things this experience has taught me that I can transfer to other areas of my life:
1. I am reminded that all change starts with thinking differently. New thoughts lead to new actions, which lead to results, which create more new thoughts… and so the positive cycle repeats
2. Motivation is key. It can be a positive focus on something we want or a negative experience bad enough that we want to change it. We often focus on creating the positive goal, but sometimes we need a negative situation to push us forward. The combination of both can be very powerful. If my back had not got worse, I may not have acted to permanently heal it.
3. Determination and persistence are critical. Starting something new can be both exciting and hard work. But staying with it for the long term, incorporating changes in our daily life, no matter what, can be a real challenge. This is where keeping that focus on why we're doing this, both positive and negative and continuing to motivate ourselves, focusing on improvements no matter how small are essential to finally see those results that we want.
4. Having support can be the one thing that keeps you going. Having Janez as my personal coach, encouraging me, acknowledging small successes, giving me feedback when I was off track, and educating me to learn how to not only achieve my goal but be able to sustain and manage my health and fitness throughout my life, was the difference that made the difference for me. This professional support is invaluable, but support from friends, family, being part of group with similar goals can also be the support you need.
I now look at this experience and consider other areas of my life where I can make changes that will also positively improve my quality of life and I have my 4 step process:
1. Think differently. Be creative, open to new ideas.
2. Use Towards and away from motivation to find the strength to make it happen.3. Clarity of focus and determination. Have faith and believe in what's possible, stay on track and see it through.