Follow the Feeling
How often do you check in with your physical, mental, and emotional mindset? Do you understand what you’re feeling throughout the day? What about how your feelings change throughout the month? Throughout the year? In a world that constantly changes and throws new things our way, we likely forget to listen to some of the most important determinants of our lives.
To better follow our feelings, it’s good, to begin by defining what feels good to you. It’s important to realize that ‘feeling good’ might look and most importantly feel different from one person to another. Maybe you feel good because you feel less stressed and your workload is lighter. You might feel good because your body feels more capable and flexible today than it did yesterday. Maybe feeling good means your stomach doesn’t hurt today. It will look different for everyone. It's also important to realize that you’re not going to feel good every single day. There might be days or even weeks for that matter that you struggle to find a good feeling. That is okay. Life and our health are not linear or solidified processes. It constantly changes and shifts making this journey anything but smooth.
Once you can understand what feeling good means to you, we can then look at what steps we might take to get you there. Maybe your body moves better today because yesterday you rested or added a mobility workout to your schedule. We can find more opportunities to add some restorative movement to your routines. Maybe you feel good because you made a homemade meal with friends or family last night. What you eat and who you eat with are two important aspects of our relationship with food and how we feel after eating. Maybe you ate a specific food and now you feel better physically. For myself soup always makes me feel good.
How to Follow the Feeling
Define your feelings – all of them.
Understand your relationship with your emotions and the way your body feels. It will help you understand what to do about it.
2. Consider why or how you feel a specific way.
Did you do something different that made this feeling happen? What if you kept doing this thing differently? Will it continue the feeling or form different feelings?
3. Write it down.
Journal about how you feel, when it’s good or bad. This helps to keep track and determine what you do to change how you feel.
4. Practice makes progress.
Continue trying new things and practicing how to follow your feelings towards good foods, good movements, and good experiences, for you! This will look different for everyone depending on their lifestyle and personal goals. And we’re not looking to be perfect, because few things in this world are. We’re just looking for you to be one step closer and feel good doing it.
When we look at healthy habits, it’s not enough to religiously follow some fad diet or extreme workout routine to reach our goals. Our lives simply don’t work like that. Some of us have multiple jobs, and multiple kids, maybe we’re a caretaker for someone in our family. Maybe even taking care of yourself feels like a full-time job. The reason for that is because it is. Health is a full-time practice. But these habits won’t always look the same, and they’re not always consistent. Also recognize that change may not be visible, sometimes you feel the change instead. So, when you’re looking at the food you want to fuel your body with, or how you want to move your body, don’t do it because someone told you to or because you think it will help you reach your goal. Do it because you want to and because it makes you feel good. This might mean taking a break, it might mean changing your routine, and yes, it might mean eating your cake too.