| Happy New Year! |
| While we’re still dealing with many of the 2020 struggles, whether it’s lockdowns and covid restrictions, election woes, financial instability, remote school or any of the other struggles 2020 brought front and center, there’s just something about a new year that screams “fresh start!”. Marking the new year seemed so much more important this year, like we all needed some sort of validation that we did in fact survive 2020. With that said, many of us have turned towards our yearly tradition of choosing words to guide the new year, setting goals, and creating resolutions. This year, I hope you chose words, goals and resolutions that allow space for self care, stillness and moments of peace or calm. To help you with sustainable resolutions, I’ve included 3 tips to help you kick off the new year. 1) Start with “Why”. When creating your theme, goals or resolutions for 2021, take a moment and really reflect on why this thing matters or why it’s important to you or why it will change your life. For example, if your 2021 goal is to lose 20 pounds, ask yourself why. Is your why health related? Is it confidence boosting? Is it to be able to do the things you love with a little more ease? Whatever your why is, make sure it’s something that benefits you and feels good to you. 2) No matter what your theme, goals or resolutions are, be kind to your mind, body and soul. Set yourself up for success by choosing resolutions that make sense for your situation and won’t cause any mental health issues, physical break downs or spirit crushing demands. Examples of unkind goals would be setting a weight loss goal that puts you below a healthy weight or requires you to eat one meal a day. An unkind fitness goal would require you to exercise two hours day doing something you hate. An unkind mental or emotional goal would be to work 80 hours a week or forgo all pleasures except necessities to save money. A kind weight loss goal would be to work towards a healthy weight in a sustainable loving fashion by starting with just 5 or 10 lbs at a time. A kind health goal would be to replace one unhealthy snack per day with a piece of fruit. A kind financial goal would be to start with creating a realistic budget that allows for necessities, special treats and savings. 3) Move with joy! No matter what your fitness goals are, they won’t stick unless you are having fun and enjoying the process. Find ways to move that make you happy, even if they’re off the normal beaten fitness path. Take up hula hooping, join a zumba or other type of dance class, learn how to roller skate, dust off those rollerblades, unpack the skateboard from the garage, go for a bike ride, take up hike, try snow showing or mountain biking, hit the rec center pool for laps, try cleaning the old fashioned way. Part of moving with joy means that what we are doing is good for our bodies. Over exercising can be a dangerous trap to fall in to. We can justify it because we’re doing something good for our health, but it’s very easy to become addicted and move too far into a range that is damaging to our bodies. This can look like lifting too often and too heavy, running extreme miles without days off to rest, multiple yoga classes per day, or pushing past all of our bodies alarms, warnings and ignoring pain signals. Move with joy, but always listen to your body.A s always, Pilates Native is here to help you reach those self care goals with relaxing one hour Stretch Therapy sessions or private one-on-one Pilates sessions tailored to your needs. We also sell Proze CBD products to help with sleep, anxiety and focus. If you shop online, the code Pilatesnative will save you 15%. I also have a limited supply of Shield, Nodzz and Nerve in the studio for sale. Other fun stuff going on in the studio:I’m working on a 5 day stretch challenge, so keep an eye out for fun videos coming soon! Did you know, you may be able to use HSA funds to pay for Stretch Therapy? This requires 2 things. 1) It must be allowed by your specific insurance type. 2) Your insurance may require a doctor’s prescription that is specifically for stretch therapy. Wishing you the very best start to 2021 and a year full of love and joy and movement! All the best,Rubecca |