Staying Motivated in Wellness Goals | Orlando Counselor

How to Stay Motivated in our Wellness Goals 

Intro 

Many of us have the desire to focus on our health and wellness but have a hard time getting started and staying involved. Exercise, diet, and mental health all require that we give them a consistent amount of our energy and focus. However, if we’re in a slump or haven’t gotten started before when it comes to our health habits it can be tough to get the motivation we want. Luckily, we can develop momentum that helps us to reach makes reaching our goals much easier, however, we all just need to understand what type of thought processes are conducive to productive wellness choices. 

The Trap of Feeling Guilty 

Firstly, it’s important that we know why we want to focus on a wellness goal. If we’re only going to the gym and eating kale because it’s “good” for us, we might enjoy feeling like we’re the type of person that makes healthy choices but that feeling can be quick to fade and can also lead to feelings of guilt whenever our motivation wavers. This motivation hinges on complex personal morals and beliefs, where some choices are good and make us feel like good people while others are bad and make us feel like bad people. The issue with moralization is that at some point when we fall short of our own standards, so then we feel guilty, which is not conducive to our mental health nor our motivation. Guilt is a feeling that discourages a certain kind of behavior, and it doesn’t give us motivation to do better, it just punishes us for our missteps without personal reward for successful and healthy choices.

Knowing the Benefits of our Choices 

Exercise and healthy eating choices have a large plethora of so many researched benefits that it can be hard to choose what to spend our limited energy on. There is likely a problem in our lives that can be is solved or improved with the addition of a wellness habit. However, we just might not know what we have to do how or where to start solving to solve it yet. If for example we’re having trouble sleeping, a quick google search of “how to improve sleep” will teach us that nutrition choices that include including foods high in magnesium and manganese, like almonds, or doing cardiovascular exercises, like biking, will greatly improve our ability to drift off. Whether it’s irritability, poor sleep, or low-back pain, researching what we should do to fix it can give us a huge advantage in staying motivated towards our wellness goals. 

Staying Self-Compassionate and Excited 

Not meeting our own standards is inevitable and can be an obstacle that we’re able to work through without losing motivation. The key is to maintain self-compassion when we fall short, and stay excited about how we’re improving the parts of our lives that we’re working on. Refraining from making ourselves feel guilty and staying in touch with the benefits of our choices are two great ways to stay motivated with our wellness goals.

Call our In-Person and Virtual Counselors in Orlando for help now at 407-248-0030! We also have counselors located near Altamonte in Winter Park, Lake Mary, Clermont, East Orlando Waterford Lakes at Avalon Park, and Dr Philips Windermere. We also help with EMDR therapy for anxiety and trauma and treat DHD often without medication and the News Media have called us 200+ times for our mental health advice.