Many of you know I’ve been working as a group exercise coach at the YMCA for a while now and I’ve been learning how to facilitate some of their Life University classes as well.  The Life University classes force me to step out of the gym floor and work on my spirit and heart. I’ve already learned about my own mindset.

As much as I spent time helping other people making life changes, you’d think I would be better at changing myself and facing my own issues.  I could argue this is a case of transference…  I’m spending more time working on you than myself.  Does that sound familiar??

We don’t have time to work on ourselves….  bull pucky….

In any case, we’re only in our second week of the ‘Journey to Healthy Living’ course and there have been plenty of great takeaways and tough questions.  Over the next 8 weeks, I’m going to share a few highlights of what has challenged me.  Hopefully, you’ll have a few a-ha moments yourself!

Failure:  Everyone fails.  A single failure does not mean a permanent failure.  The task or exercise failed.  YOU are not a failure.  Have you ever heard of the phrase ‘disqualifying the positive?’  In essence, we ignore or disqualify our successes and focus solely on our failures.  I have much to learn from my successes.

Normality:  What is a normal day to you?  There are parts of our life that aren’t working, yet we accept them as normal.  They’ve become accepted; perhaps even old friends.  The problem is, those friends aren’t doing us any good!  We need to take a step back each day and identify those things we’ve normalized that aren’t working.

Why do we have a hard time letting go of some things, even when we know they are bad for our lives?

The gift of feelings:  Food is a drug and addiction.  The pleasure of eating help ‘normalize’ my life.  It tempers the extreme highs and lows.  We all struggle with our feelings and many of us are afraid to feel them in full force for fear of what it might mean or what might happen.

“Feelings are the voice of the heart. And you will not have fullness unless you are adept at hearing and experiencing all of them.  When you are not aware of your feelings, your life is lived incompletely.  Whenever you don’t feel, you are blocked from living life to the fullest.” – Dr. Chip Dodd.

Where are you most afraid to fail?
Is there something that you’ve normalized that is holding you back?
Are there feelings you do not want to confront?

I personally invite you to contact the YMCA to join our class.  The next class starts in April and I will be helping lead that class again.  I’ve yet to meet anyone that hasn’t gotten something out of this class.  Every session has helped me uncover things about myself.  This is going to be a great year!!!