February 14, 2020

Why Your Feelings are Keeping You From Your Goals

Do you trust your brain or your gut? The answer may be a little more complicated than we think. Everyone, including myself has gotten spoiled in today's age. We don't want to do anything that doesn't feel good. I almost didn't write this blog because I was tired and I just wasn't feeling it. We have all heard the conventional wisdom that we should listen to our feelings. When we feel something, especially an intense feeling, then it deserves to be seen as truth. Right? Not so fast. It turns out that it may not be so beneficial to stick with this train of thought. So, should we let our feelings control our behavior?

Emotions are essential for survival. They tell us what we want, feel, and need. They tell us what to avoid and what to seek. Beyond all of that, our emotions are the bond that connects us to others and keeps these connections strong. In turn, Just as our thoughts can dictate our emotions, our emotions can also dictate our behavior. We need to be careful though, because, our emotions can be wrong. Our feelings that come from our subconscious often betrays us. We see things the way we want to see them or our values and principles tell us to see them. Often times, we know what the right thing to do is, but we continuously find ourselves not doing it. Why is that? Well, lots of emotional responses are wrong. Emotions insist their will on us, they have their own roots in our personal history. We have been wired since the dawn of man to seek pleasure and avoid pain. So don't beat yourself up. We are hard wired this way. There is good news! You don't need to be a slave to your emotions or feelings. These feelings can be unmasked and released once we take responsibility for our own actions. 
 

So how do we do the right thing despite how we are feeling? Enter, self reflection/ self awareness.

 

Being self aware of the emotions you are experiencing and respecting he emotions as a valuable signal that something important is happening. However, you do not need to give these emotions power. After you have identified the emotions you are having, do not respond or act immediately. Try and understand why you are experiencing them. DISCLAIMER: This part takes some guts and some honesty with yourself. You can easily come up with excuses and lie to yourself and keep following the path you have been going down or, you can decide if the emotion is keeping you from doing the right thing to get you to your goal. A lot of the time people will break away from a diet or miss a workout because they just aren't feeling it. A lot of the time if you can just take a step back, analyze the situation and understand why you don't want to do something you can step back and make the right choice!

 

If you're struggling with making the right choices, feel stuck with your fitness and nutrition, and looking for a customized online or in person program tailored to your specific goals click here to schedule a free session or 20 min call.


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