There’s no question that a lot of our members are feeling a level of worry, doom or despair right now with the state of the world.  Being in Howard county, Maryland, a huge portion of our members are either government or government contractors with tons of volatility right now.

But honestly, this advice pertains to any time in your life when you are struggling, losing your way and letting that fear/worry get in the way of your health.

I’ve noticed that my natural response to fear is contraction.  My first instinct is to get full of dread, think the worst thoughts and want to bail on the stuff that feels “hard.”  The rub is that most of the things that feed us, make us stronger and give us the energy to climb out the other side are those same habits.

The stuff that takes work- eating healthy, working out, going to bed early, etc.- are the same behaviors that give us back our power.  And on the flip side, things that take from our energy– drinking alcohol, binge watching shows, scrolling on our cell phones, etc.- tend to be insidious and detracting from our energy and happiness when they’re dominating our time at the cost of healthy habits.

What we often see, like now and during Covid, is people wanting to run from their healthy habits.  They feel overwhelmed with fear and worry.  They don’t feel like they have enough energy to give to their fitness.

Let’s be honest.  What happens when we stop investing in ourselves, give up on working out and/or eating well, and reach for the “cheap thrills” that give us instant gratification.

For a moment, we feel at ease.  All of those things come with a nice endorphin kick.  Then, we feel worse.  Our sleep suffers, our mood, connection with those around us, energy, and so on!

If you are in a time of struggle right now, please fight the urge to give up!  Get outside and enjoy the sunshine.  Go to your gym, connect with your friends and sling some kettlebells around.  Eat the healthy food (and yes, have the beer or cake if you want some).  Get enough sleep to thrive.

These things may feel like work in the immediate….but they will give you the strength, grounding and perspective to keep going.

Going one step forward, how can you turn these negative emotions around and make them more empowering?  

The opposite of Doom can become Creativity!  Doom, dread and worry are all contracting.  They all assume that you know how things are going to turn out.

I remember in the early months of Covid, I was so scared that we would lose our business.  Over night, we lost a good portion of our members, the economy was struggling and people were looking at home workouts and other options that didn’t require them to be in public.

But creativity allowed me to see that I still had a service people would crave.  Some folks would switch to working out at home and thrive…and that’s great.  But most of the folks who make up our community want more.  They want coaching, community and a feeling of belonging.  

No matter what happened in the world, I knew people would be back.

Now I realize you may not want to hear that this moment if you’ve lost your job or fear you will any day soon.  But whether that happens or not, I challenge you to get creative.  To open up your mind, look for new possibilities and think about the work, community and health practices that might be calling to you now.

This doesn’t have to mean reinventing the wheel.  It might look like putting your energy back into the workout you’ve been doing if you’ve lost that loving feeling (yes, that was a Top Gun reference).  Can you find new excitement for your workouts?  Can you get psyched and finally commit to buring 20 lbs, or getting really strong, or getting in badass cardio shape?

There are tons of things you could do now to get creative, expand your possibilities and feel strong emotionally again.  But I promise, contraction and doom won’t feed that.

Good luck in this process!  If it wakes some movement up in you, I’d love to hear about it.