“ An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”
-The Law of Inertia
I’m no scientist, but I find Newton’s first law of motion 100% true in the patterns of my life!!! The more I do something on a regular basis, the easier it is to just keep doing it. The less I do something, the longer I stay away from a habit, the harder it is to start it back up.
As you all know, I love to write. It’s not part of my job, I’m not required to do it, but writing my blog since 2008 has just been something I love spending my free time doing. For years I did it several times a week. People would ask me, “how do you have time to write?” and the answer in my mind at the time was ‘when you love doing something it’s hard not to find time to do it’. It really did feel as if inertia was propelling me forward. The more I wrote, the more I wanted to write. I kept doing it. Some call it “being in the flow” and it felt good.
The second part of the law feels equally true, in my experience. Once I get out of the routine of doing something, even if it’s something I love doing (like writing) or something I know is really good for me, it can be quite a challenge to get myself moving back in that direction. When I get out of the flow for whatever reason (get busy with other things…work, family, holidays, life in general, etc.) activities or actions that used to come fairly easy, become things I procrastinate and think of as difficult.
Getting back to a healthy routine after the holidays while adjusting to being in the midst northern Illinois winter weather is an PRIME example. I’m writing because I want to connect with anyone out there, who like me, struggles at this time of year. If you feel as if getting back to making yourself and your health a priority is super, super hard to do right now, I’m writing to you specifically.
If you can relate, there is a great deal of evidence to support our challenge: extreme cold temps, ice, snow, dark mornings and early dark evenings make it hard to move around/exercise outside; winter days seem to elicit cravings for traditional comfort foods; in season, fresh produce is sparse; the holidays put us in a routine of eating more than we usually do and richer foods, making it difficult to break the cycle.
There are plenty of reasons why it can be a hard time to get back to a healthy routine, BUT the fact of the matter is, even harder than all those hurdles we could brainstorm, I’ve learned living with myself when I’m out of control is HARDER. I don’t like the feeling of being out of control. I don’t have as much to give others when I’m feeling down on myself and it shows up in all areas of my life. Taking control is the only real option.
If this is your challenge too, don’t feel alone! You don’t have to stay on a path of behavior that isn’t serving you. Change is possible and it happens by making the decision and taking just one day at a time. Together, we can get back to the behaviors that make us feel our best while getting to and maintaining a healthy weight.
That first step is to give ourselves the gift of personal time. Time to decompress after busy days. Time to be creative. Time to find those creative activities that inspire us if we don’t know what they are yet. Time to plan for and arrange nourishing, tasty meals. Time to exercise or just move more, even if it’s indoors. Time to connect with others who lift us up. Time to just breath and be in the moment! Even time to get more sleep! Unfortunately in today’s world, the above are not a given. We actually have to purposely commit to making time for self care and stick to it.
This is my commitment to myself and I’d love company if you’d like to join me! I’ll be checking in with a blog post each week to share reflections, tips, tricks and inspiration that I’m finding helpful on a variety of topics that relate to living well. I welcome you to use the comments section below to share your findings too! If you remember, I took the security feature off of my site, allowing you to post your comment very easily. I hope you will speak up and post because hundreds of people subscribe to this blog and many will benefit from what you have to share. Pay it forward, if you will!
I look forward to staying connected and helping each other achieve our goals and make 2018 our best year yet!!!
All is well❤️
Love,
Terra
