WEIGHT LOSS WITHOUT WILLPOWER

Return Home

Together with Athleta, we’re compiling actionable wellness advice you need from the experts—and Well+Good is bringing it to life all year long at events in NYC. Here, reiki master and empowerment coach Kelsey J. Patel explains how to take care of yourself this holiday season.

(Image: Getty images/ svetikd)

If thinking about all the family you’ll be interacting with, old friends you haven’t seen in ages, and copious amounts of sugar (so much sugar) that happens over the holidays sends you into a stress nose-dive, you’re not alone. So what do you do to get back into balance—and good spirits?

“This is the time of the year that’s meant to be spent relaxing, receiving, giving if it feels good and joyful to you, and loving your life and the people in it outside of your weekly routine and work,” says Kelsey J. Patel, reiki master and empowerment coach. Tellingly, she also notes it’s a time to “replenish, refuel, and hopefully re-fill our cups,” which sounds a lot like self care.

So, rather than focusing on external factors that are probably out of your control, try to shift your mindset and focus on you (we know, it’s tough). Consider it putting on your own oxygen mask first before helping others—or in this case, reconnecting with what the season is all about, sans the stress-fest.

Keep reading to learn Patel’s four ways you can take care of yourself during the holidays.

(Image: Getty Images/Aja Koska)

1. Don’t Forget to Check In With Yourself

It’s easy to get caught up with preparing dinner or wrapping gifts until your fingers fall off, but be sure to take a few seconds to ask what’s going on with you.

“Do a daily check-in with yourself each morning to see what you need, just for you, that day,” Patel says. “It could be the simplest thing like your morning coffee alone, a 30-minute walk with your favorite music, or drinking a green juice to fuel your body.”

2. Tell Your Friends and Family How You Feel

During these fast-paced few weeks with parties popping up every other weekend, you tend to nod your head yes to basically anything your family or friends ask of you—but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the feelings you have or feel like they aren’t valid enough to share.

“So often what happens during the holidays is that people don’t say what they are needing or desiring and instead just go along with everything and everyone else’s needs and they dismiss their own,” Patel says. “Honor yourself and your desires and share it lovingly and openly.”

(Image: Getty Images/Westend61)

3. Move Your Body

You know how after a long day at work sometimes all you need is a proper sweat session? Endorphins can do some pretty magical things, so when you notice you’re slipping into a stressed-out mood, kickstart a yoga flow or set out on a light jog to get your blood pumping.

“Take a little time each day to move the energy of the body and watch how you will shift the energy of the mind,” Patel says.

4. Do Things That You Really Enjoy

A giant factor that leads you to feeling subpar over the holidays is that you aren’t taking part in the things that you genuinely like to do. Patel suggests making plans with family or friends that bring you pleasure, like taking a fitness class, making dinner, or putting on a face mask and settling into the couch for a movie night. (Yes, you just might actually bond with your loved ones this year.)

Remember: The holidays are for celebrating and spending quality time with people you love, not for pretending to have a fun time for the sake of everyone else. So, set aside allotted time for self-care rituals that speak to you and invite your friends and family to join in, too.

Let’s say you want to change your life.  You first need to start with just one habit. Most people try to change a lot of things at once and fail. This is because brain wiring is tied into the rest of your body.  In order to change one habit, you first need to identify the thoughts and emotions that provide the impulse of energy and release of brain chemicals to to the body responsible for the habit. It is really not as hard as it sounds if you are guided through the process with a qualified Neuro coach.

A simple method to improving your well-being is by learning how to quiet the mind and control your thoughts. The most essential part of you – the souls, spirit, inner self, higher self (use whatever term you prefer) is much deeper inside of you than your thoughts that pull you from emotion to emotion and from activity to activity. Being a slave to your thoughts and impulse causes you to feel scattered, mentally fatigued, accident prone, and reactive rather than being able to choose how we want to respond to an event. You are not your thoughts. Your thoughts are simply electrical impulses in the brains that fire in well-worn patterns that keep you in a perpetual pattern of thinking, feeling and doing day after day.

 The process of changing a negative thought, emotion or negative habit all starts with finding your inner place of stillness on a regular basis.  Repetition is essential to rewire well-established neural pathways that have you on “auto-pilot” through most of your day and have had for a long time.

The most common excuse for not taking action to make the changes is: “I don’t have time”. The good news, however; is that consistency is much more important than how much time you spend practicing.  Furthermore, studies show that by taking even one full devoted minute to centering each day makes you more productive. Just one minute of centering yields benefits that include enhanced focus and ability to concentrate, better mood,  lower blood pressure, reduce muscle tightness and crush cravings.
To learn more about how practicing centering can reduce cravings because of its immediate and long term  effect on hormones read my report 10 Easy Ways to Lose Weight Without Exercise.

To get the most out of your “Sixty-Seconds to Centered”  follow these steps:
Free guided audio is at the end of this article.

1. Determine a specific place you will practice. A chair at home, in your car at lunchtime, at the kitchen table in the morning or evening when others are asleep in the house…wherever you can work it in on a consistent basis.
   
2. Make an appointment with yourself for the same time each day. Really block that time out as sacred. It may only be a minute but you need to be firm.  By making it the same time and place each day, your brain will adapt its wiring more quickly and make it easier and faster for you to establish it as a habit. Thus, when you sit down to get centered, you will drop into that space of relaxation faster and more easily. And the calm feeling will linger longer.
   
3. If you have trouble “getting into the habit, find an accountability partner. Someone with whom you can have an agreement that you will check in each day to let her know that you DID IT that day. Just a quick text can be enough. Your accountability partner just needs to respond with Congrats of some kind, even just a thumbs up emoji to give you that positive feedback. Your accountability partner needs to agree to support you and if you know someone who wants to implement this practice into his or her life as well you could be mutual accountability partners.
   
4. If you find you need more support, then hire a coach who is knowledgeable about brain and habit change. She can provide valuable insight to make a faster, stress-free transition to a healthier, happier you.

To schedule a strategy call with Master Neuro Coach Sunnie Brooks go to MeetWithSunnie.com

“Of all the things successful people do to accelerate their trip down the path to success, participating in a coaching program is at the top of the list. A coach will help will help you clarify your vision and goals, support you through your fears, keep you focused, confront your unconscious behaviors and old patterns, expect you to do your best” – Jack Canfield International Success Coach, Best Selling Author of The Success Principles, Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and more.