There are seasons of life that staying on track with our health and wellness is a real challenge. The holidays are one of those times. Other times are when we have an expected life circumstance. But right now, summer is in full swing! That is three months of routine interruption. And it can be a time that we are holding on by a thread just trying not to backslide into old habits. It’s a tough season. We're out of our routine. We're socializing more, we're eating out more, drinking more, going on vacation. If you have kids at home, your routine has been completely turned upside down! If last summer was a stumbling block to your health and wellness, think back to how you felt after Labor Day. Disappointed, guilty, maybe even ashamed? There is a way we can shift our mindset, so that we can have the best of both worlds.
What kind of mindset do we need in the summer? We need to be flexible, and we need to be in a good headspace where we are being honest with ourselves and reasonable with our expectations.
The hardest thing about being out of our routine is keeping old habits from sneaking back in, because our guard is down. Remaining aware is the key. Here are a few simple steps to keep you thriving this summer:
1 Set manageable expectations. Be honest with yourself about what you can manage. Create a short list of priorities. Make the list almost underwhelming, because you want to set yourself up for success, not failure.
2 “Revisit my priority list every week.” Add this important goal to your priority list. This is how we stay aware of our habits. When we revisit our priorities each week, we can evaluate what went well and what we might do better. This reflection gives us the opportunity to see where habits we don’t want might have sneaked in. If we notice that a bad habit snuck in, we can problem-solve and reset for the following.
A bonus tip: With travel and extra-social weeks, you can even create a subset of priorities week to week so that you’re in line with your overall priorities while maintaining flexibility.
3 Identify obstacles to your priorities and create solutions instead of just letting the obstacles just “happen to you”. This is another great way to stay aware and prevent those excuses that we all tend to have when we make choices that don’t align with those goals.
4 Set a daily intention. Again, this is about awareness. A daily intention keeps your conscious mind in touch with your goals. We need to stay checked in with ourselves each day. Our intention can be a feeling that we want to have or an action we want to do. When we have an intention, our brain is going to work on making that happen. Consciousness and awareness are the key to success while remaining flexible.
5 Reward yourself at the end of the week for adhering to your list of priorities. Our brains naturally want to focus on what we didn’t do, so this is a perfect time to do a little “retraining”. Important caveat: don’t reward yourself with something that does not align with your goals. Reward yourself with the kind of reward that honors the sort of person you want to be!
In these seasons and the seasons of life when staying on track with our health and wellness is a challenge, it’s all about being real, checking in with ourselves so that we stay aware of our habits, and most of all, enjoying the summer! This is what I like to call “the summer state of mind”.
If you’re struggling this summer and find you’re letting old habits sneak in, reach out. Click HERE to set up a session.
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