Saturday, February 19, 2011
The Importance of Commitment
Tonight I went to my girlfriend's long time family friend's recommitment ceremony/20th wedding anniversary celebration. It was a good time and I felt priveleged to be there as these people who have been so important in my girlfriend's life reaffimed their love and devotion to each other.
Anyway, the once-again-bride did a survey of the couples she knew to see if they could go back in time if they would remarry their spouses. Out of 15 couples, only 6 of them said they would do it all again! She stopped the survey of her friends at 15 because she was getting depressed.
I really think that this little survey shows us something that is wrong with us and our society today. We have lost the ability to really commit to something. When people get married, they say they are committing to each other for life, but often that commitment is based solely on a feeling, and when that feeling goes away, so does the commitment.
Being committed to something means sticking with it, even when you don't feel like it. If you're like me, you probably have goals for your health this year. Mine is to shed the 15 pounds of fat I put on in the second half of last year and replace it with about 10 pounds of muscle. This is in preparation to do my first triathlon on June 11th. That means I have a little less than 4 months to train. I know I'm going to need every minute of it, but when it's cold and dark outside and I don't feel like going to the gym, just how committed am I? I can't just be involved in training for the triathlon, show up at the gym every once in a while and hope for the best on race day. I need to commit to sticking to my training schedule and to eating right if I want to meet my goals and have any chance of finishing the triathlon on race day.
I recently heard a story that illustrated the difference between involvement and commitment. I don't know where I heard it, but basically it said this, if you eat a cooked breakfast of bacon and eggs, the chicken was involved but the pig was committed!
We need to have the same kind of commitment to our health goals as the pig does to you breakfast. It's all on the line and there's no going back!
You don't have to commit to doing a triathlon, but if you want to feel good about your health, you need to make some sort of a commitment to it. Whether that's committing to eating right or taking better care of your body by getting regular chair massage (my shameless self plug of the day), it doesn't matter. What does matter is that once you've committed to your goals, stay committed by telling people what they are. Introducing accountability to your health goals means that you are much more likely to complete them!
Now that I've told you what my goals are, please hold me accountable! Post a comment below or drop me a line to ask me how my training is going. I'm sure I'll write more about it as I go.
If you want me to keep you accountable and committed to your health goals, I'll reply to everyone who emails me at info@feelgoodchairmassage.com with the subject line of "Keep me accountable Andrew!". I'll check in every month this year to make sure you stay on track.
If we can be just a little more committed than the chicken I know this year will be one we can feel good about!
Here's to Feeling Good!
Andrew
Friday, February 18, 2011
The Feel Good Chair Massage Groupon Store Needs followers!!
If you haven't already, please click on this link and follow my Groupon Store! I need 25 followers before I can run a Groupon deal, and let me tell you, it's going to be a great deal!
It doesn't cost you anything to join Groupon or to follow my store, in fact, it might actually save you some money!
http://www.groupon.com/merchants/feel-good-chair-massage
If you are already following the store then Thank you! You'll be the first to know when my deal goes live! Tell your friends!
Here's to Feeling Good. . . for a little bit less at Groupon!
Andrew
Sitting On The Highway Going Nowhere
Following on from yesterday's post about how stress can manifest itself in our lives and that when it does it can incapacitate us bit by bit, I'd like to talk a bit about ways of dealing with the stress that will inevitably come into our lives.
I'll do that by telling you a story. This morning I was running late for a massage gig. That's a feeling that I hate, and if you're in business I'm sure you do too. Now I could tell you how bad traffic was or that it was only the second time I've been late since starting my business nearly two years ago, but that isn't the point of the story. The point is that as I was sitting in the fast lane doing 2km/h I could feel myself tensing up.
I was beginning to have the feeling that it was going to be "one of those days". Eventually I made it past the problem and off I go trying to make up for lost time. When I arrived at the company we were doing massage at, I grabbed my equipment and went inside as quickly as possible. So now I'm trying to provide a relaxation service (chair massage)to someone when I myself am not relaxed.
Instead of worrying about it I focused on the massage I was giving and on my technique. I forced myself to control my breathing and to become calm. Fortunately it's relatively easy regulate your breathing when you are doing something as metered as massage, but doing massage professionally has made me realize just how important controlled breathing is to maintaining your stress levels.
I'm not suggesting you try to massage someone the next time you feel stressed, although, I do teach a couples massage workshop if you do want to learn to regulate your breathing by helping those around you!
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I AM suggesting that the next time you have something stressful come into your life, that you consciously think about the fact that you are experiencing a stress response, then try to take long and deep rhythmic breaths until you start to feel yourself relax a bit. I promise you'll be in a better place to deal with whatever it is after you do!
Here's to Feeling Good!
Andrew
PS On the way home the sun was shining, traffic was good and I was belting out whatever song was on the radio. . . I guess being 10C in February will do that to a guy!
PPS Tell me about a stressful time in your life and how you dealt with it in the comments!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
The Stress Train
And then it tenses up a little bit more. The problem is that your body can't distinguish between the cause of stress and it's symptoms. It just feels tight and sore. The good news is that when you get a massage, your body loosens up. The knots in your muscles un-tie allowing you to have better posture and your body sighs a big sigh of relief. Once you know what it feels like to be de-stressed it gets easier to return to that state after a stressful situation. You can't avoid stress completely, but you sure can develop strategies to better manage it! Here's to Feeling Good! Andrew
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network
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