If you have been a member of our Best Body Bootcamp Community for a while you may have noticed each week we celebrate "Bright Spots" in our members private group.
Bright spots are a weekly celebration of little wins or gratitude. Things that have gone well or areas of our life that we are pleased about and grateful for. These are not necessarily to do with working out or fitness but they can be.
Mental Health
In a time of pandemics and lockdowns, when there is constant negativity and bad news online and in the media, more people than ever are suffering with their mental health.
Mental health issues are at an all time high and antidepressants have been prescribed at a rate never seen before.
Whether it’s due to job loss, the state of the world during this strange time, lack of exercise, not seeing friends and family, no social time, our mental health must stay a priority.
From feedback from many of our members, I know that our online bootcamp workouts have been the one bit of routine and normality in their lives when all gyms are closed and people are working at home.
A time to get sweaty, let off some steam, forget about worries, to focus on yourself in a super busy day or to simply focus on ‘Can I get to the end of the round holding this plank!
I know that bootcamp being closed may have had a huge negative impact on your mental health. It has on mine too. When our mental health is suffering, our motivation can be rock bottom too.
Motivation
Motivation has been something many people have reached out to me saying they are REALLY struggling with and this is what we know about motivation...
Success has to happen to some degree before you’ll become motivated and success has to keep happening to maintain motivation.We also don’t always recognise success when it happens as we’re pretty hard on ourselves.
Our brains often begin developing thought patterns around negativity very easily especially when surrounded by negative environments or events.
However, it takes roughly thirty-seconds of concentrating on something positive for a healthy thought groove to be established.
That’s why it’s important to focus in on what we ARE doing well, what progress we have made no matter how small, and the ways we’re moving towards new accomplishments.
The practice of thankfulness and gratitude doesn’t come naturally to anyone at first but with practice it becomes liberating.
Bright Spots
By regularly taking time to think about our bright spots, It begins to train our mind to start to see the good things all around us in our day-to-day life that we may otherwise miss or not be mindful of.
It can be hard at first, it may take you a bit longer initially to really think about the bright spots and often we wont feel like doing it, but once we have, we feel better.
Practicing gratitude and thankfulness is an exercise which can help us stay positive which I think we all could do with right now.
That’s why it is important to actively think about the good or achievements in our life no matter how small.
As we practice gratitude more, it’ll become easier, perhaps even habitual after a while, to see the good and to look for things to be thankful for.
So each week in our members area we run "Bright Spots Friday"
“Bright Spots Friday” Is our practice of thankfulness, gratefulness for any wins, achievements no matter how small or anything we are grateful about over the past week.
What is a bright spot?
A bright spot is anything that went really well for us or things we’re celebrating, our personal podium moment and the little ‘wins’ from the week.
Bright spots don’t have to be workout or fitness related at all and can include anything from work, family, hobbies or down to the smallest of gestures from someone that made your week.
Examples of bright spots could be...
You showed up to your workout, that’s a bright spot!
Did you do a full sit up for the first time? It’s a bright spot.
You showed up to your workout, that’s a bright spot!
Did you make a cracking curry last night? It’s a bright spot.
Did you get that job? It’s a bright spot.
Did you find a good Netflix series? It’s a bright spot. And also, everyone really needs a new series after this pandemic so please. Let us know.
Did you have a great weekend seeing your best friends or family? It's a bright spot.
Did you have a great catch up with a friend over zoom?
So over to you...What are some of your bright spots this week?
