Are you on a negative spiral going down or a positive spiral going up?

My Positive Spiral

The other day I noticed that I was on a positive spiral going up!

I’ve been holding on to a few extra kilos around the middle, so to burn more calories I decided to increase the amount of exercise I’ve been doing by adding three runs per week to my workout schedule.

I started off running short distances slowly and gradually built it up over the weeks.

After a couple of weeks I noticed that I was looking and feeling slimmer.

Then without any decision or planning on my part, I started to make some different food choices.

I would eat one slice of toast and marmalade, rather than two.

I ate a smaller meal for dinner at the end of the day.

I was snacking less, just sticking to eating my main meals.

And so I lost even more weight!

I found myself enjoying the running so much as I run in the countryside, on the grass, surrounded by nature.

I am enjoying it so much that now I’ve started to go for walks, on top of the runs, so I can really take in the nature, breath the fresh air, let go and destress.

Experiencing this renewed sense of calm has peaked my interest again in meditation and I’ve begun to research what meditations I can add to my routine.

I could go on and on… but I think you see my point… one good thing can lead you to another good thing.

The Negative Spiral

Unfortunately, the same can happen in reverse, you can get into a negative spiral going down… and I’ve been on my fair share of those too.

There are times I’ve put on some extra kilos, I’ve felt fat so I would think “what’s the point of exercising”, so I didn’t…

I thought that I’m already fat so another chocolate won’t make any difference…

And without much effort, before I knew it, I was on negative spiral going down.

My examples are about health and weight loss, but you can see this happen just as easily in other areas of our lives.

It’s Our Thinking

The important thing to realise here is that it’s not about the things that are happening, it’s about how we think about the things that are happening.

• It’s not about our weight, it’s about what we think about our weight which will determine if we’re motivated to change it or demotivated and sink further into the hole.

• It is not about the food we eat or the exercise we do, it’s about what we think about that.

And this is a good thing, because we can change what we think… we can literally think again!

We get to choose if we’ll look at what’s happening, or what we are doing, in a way that supports us moving upwards or downwards!

The Action Plan

So, the first thing we need to do is notice when we’re on a negative spiral going down.

It usually happens automatically and we’re not aware of it until it’s too late.

But now you can be on the lookout for the signs that one negative thing is having you do another negative thing.

When you notice yourself on a negative spiral, stop and realise that, although you feel like things are against you, you can change direction by changing the direction of your thinking.

You can stop the downward spiral and start an upward spiral.

Ask yourself…

What one thing can you do that will start you moving in the right direction?

Choose something small and achievable.

Using my running example, don’t make it a 10km run, just go out and run what you can, nice and slow…

You’ll feel the difference…

And next time you’ll do a bit more…

It becomes a habit…

And you’ll begin to see the benefits and this will stimulate your upward spiral.