While the pursuit of wellness seems harmless, there’s one catch: 

Self-pressure. 

If your pursuit of wellness is built on a foundation of subtle pressure to change, improve, or be better, you might be adding unnecessary stress to your mind-body system.

This is counter-productive to your pursuit of wellness. 

Are you pressuring yourself to be fitter than you are?

Are you pressuring yourself to eat healthily all the time? 

Are you pressuring yourself to do stress-reducing activities like meditation?

That pressure creates stress. It forces you to think about failures. It makes you focus on what you need to do to instead of celebrating what you have already done. 

Culture teaches us to push ourselves toward success and judge ourselves into better versions of ourselves. 

It just doesn’t work. True wellness is an intrinsic motivation to enjoy a positive relationship with your body. It’s the freedom to trust yourself and how you need to take care of you. It’s letting go of the “shoulds” that don’t feel right and the idea that you have to be perfectly healthy to be a better person. 

True wellness leaves room for play, laughter, joy, and fun. 

Drop the pressure and watch your wellness improve naturally. What motivates you more; taking a walk by a beautiful river because it’s gorgeous and fun, or pressuring yourself to get a certain number of steps so you can be fit and healthy?

When you stop pressuring yourself, your natural desires have room to emerge and take you on an entirely different wellness adventure. This adventure takes your spirit into account, not just the latest measurements of good health.

Start with a fun experiment:

1. For one week, ask your body what it wants to do, what it wants to eat, and how much it wants to rest. You don’t have to act on all of this immediately. Just start gathering intel.
3. When you’re ready, you can try living this way for a few days and see if you experience more fun, freedom, and wellness. 

Before you know it, your stress levels will be going down, not up…and that’s a very positive shift when it comes to your wellness.  

Hugs,
Abigail

P.S. Want support with more mind-body tools? Join my Mind-Body Magic Facebook Group!