At Energy Health Concepts we understand the role that innovation plays when it comes to creating and maintaining a healthy functional life, and importantly, staying the course when it comes to our health and wellness goals.

Today, we are going to talk a little more about gratitude and how practicing it, and understanding it, can keep you in the zone, as you continue to build your own personal health and well being.

Gratitude is not often applied directly, or even indirectly for that matter, to our health and fitness goals, as it is seen primarily as having more synergy and relevance to meditation and spiritual practice for example.

Gratitude is a state of mind and a state of being. It is a way of reframing and seeing our lives in new and exciting ways.
Gratitude helps us to continue to make connections to what is happening, what is evident, and what we are achieving, as we move closer towards our goals.

When we are in a state of gratitude, we see possibilities, we acknowledge victories, we give thanks for the challenges and the obstacles in our everyday lives.
We understand their importance – we make the connection that they are necessary to grow and evolve.

Gratitude is our very own source of energy and inspiration that we can create ourselves.
It’s free, endless, and is only limited by our imaginations.

Gratitude helps us to stay on the path with our goals.

How can gratitude do that you might ask?

By being present in our lives, by giving thanks, and by acknowledging all the little (and big!) things and experiences that are happening to us, and for us, we start to build a clearer picture, and a more complete vision of where we are going.

As a result, our goals take on more meaning, and more purpose, and have a stronger probability of success as we build solid foundations of understanding to support them.

For example, that tough workout that resulted in days of discomfort and soreness, the one workout that had you questioning everything?

Without gratitude, that workout may have been the final nail in the coffin for some people struggling to make sense of it all.
“I am never going to do that again!”
“It’s all too hard.”
“Why am I so sore and tired? – this is crazy!”

And with gratitude?
The soreness becomes an affirmation of success and work rate.
Why?
To get to that level means you challenged yourself. It may also indicate that you went beyond your comfort, or relaxed point of effort, to experience that soreness.

With gratitude in play then, it is more information to build upon, and to grow from.

As you reflect on the day, and the workout that was, with gratitude in play, a very different narrative emerges to the earlier defeatist responses above.

“My workout today took me to new levels.”
“I give so much thanks for my improving fitness levels and my ability to build strength and resilience.”
“I know I am working hard because my body is responding.”
“I am so glad I discipline myself to go to that class.
“I never knew I could push myself that far!”

See the shift?

Gratitude is not only a powerful tool, it is an incredibly smart and effective strategy to help you move closer towards your goals.

The good news?

You can practice gratitude with a sense of appreciation, and with a smile on your face – that’s how it works!
Gratitude does it all naturally and without too much fuss.

The key takeaway here?

Embrace your goals. Make the connections in relation to why you are doing them, and take every bit of information, feedback, and data you get that is going to strengthen those goals along your journey to a better and healthier you.