Personal Training and Wellness Advice from Crux Fitness – How to Get Out of Your Own Way
Most people know the recipe for living a good life. Eat whole, unprocessed foods and stay away from sugar and pre-packaged bullshit. Check. Engage in tons of physical activity throughout the day, and have a formal “exercise” routine that you can be consistent with. Yup, heard that one before. Be present, do things that you enjoy, breathe deeply, and sleep at least 8 hours a night to stay stress and dis-ease free. Pretty obvious. Again, I would argue that most people know about these behaviours that make up a healthy, happy life.
Lack of information is not the problem. The problem is that people get in their own way. Self-sabotage, bad habits, laziness, call it what you want but at the end of the day we’re all fucking ourselves over. So with that, here are the top three ways that I’ve used to get out of my own way to live a healthier and happier life.
Ask yourself good questions.
There are two questions that have been hugely influential in my getting my shit together over the last year. The first is “in what ways am I complicit in creating the conditions that I say I don’t want?” Thank you Tim Ferriss. Put it up on the fridge and ponder it every day; very quickly you’ll find the (oftentimes extremely obvious) limiting behaviours that are preventing you from living well. Question two, and this is from Kamal Ravikant, is “if I loved myself, what would I be doing right now?” Great question that hits you with some heavy cognitive dissonance to spur behaviour change. I say I love myself, but my workaholic, ruminating tendencies say otherwise. So I can either accept that I’m a lying sack of shit, or change my behaviour to reflect the fact that I do in fact love myself. Ask yourself good questions and change your life for the better.
Seek out paradigm-shifting experiences.
Oftentimes we get caught up in endless patterns of maladaptive and untruthful thoughts that prevent us from living our lives. It’s like we become addicted to only viewing the world through a certain lens. Life closes in on us and traps us in a small container of bullshit habits. The antidote then is to open up to life. Engage in paradigm-shifting experiences: Perform holotropic breath work, subject yourself to extreme physical stress (cold exposure, heat exposure, endurance sports), drop a tab of acid, to name a few examples. Reset your nervous system so that you can step outside of your limited, constricted viewpoint (“I don’t exercise because I’m not athletic”) and open up to a more honest and objective view of the world (“I can easily walk around more during the day”).
Hire a coach.
You could definitely go to a silent meditation retreat or eat mushrooms to gain a bird’s eye view on your life… orrrrrr you could simply hire a coach or personal trainer. Someone who can analyze the totality of your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours and tell you where you’re missing the mark when it comes to living a good life. If you do go this route, please a) find a good coach and b) be receptive to feedback. A good coach should have a holistic understanding of health and wellness, as well as possess a huge toolbox of communication strategies to connect with their clients. Remember though that being coached is a two-way street. In the past I myself have been absolute shit at receiving feedback – I would listen, but only to the negative feedback, thus causing me to get in my own head and focus on avoiding failure rather than truly striving for greatness. Or I would only listen to positive feedback and block off the constructive criticism, allowing my ego to ride the wave of validation that ultimately leads to 0 personal growth. So find a good coach and be receptive to feedback – it’s the fastest way to getting yourself to where you want to be (which I would hope is a life of health and happiness).
As always, if you’d like to know more about, and start taking responsibility for your own health, fitness, and wellness, please reach out to Crux Fitness Richmond for any of your personal training needs.
Patrick Koo – Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Personal Trainer at Crux Fitness Richmond
