Industry Rules is back again to ease your transition into the new year and provide you with the best tips to live your best life in 2024. Let’s break healthy living down in two categories: Mental and Physical Health for a well-rounded picture.
Mental Health
With the exception of people living off the grid away from constantly changing and distressing news cycles, most of us modern day folks are bombarded by the negative events happening in the world and in our own neighborhoods daily. In addition to these triggers, seasonal changes can make us less resilient against tough feelings that arise when holiday stress pulls us in all directions and the sun disappears early in the afternoon. While negative emotions and stress can be quite personal, they are far from unique. Per the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, depression now affects 1 in every 10 Americans. One of the first steps to addressing stressors, triggers, and painful emotions is to seek help from a professional found on psychologytoday.com or one of the many online therapy platforms offering video and/or chat sessions with complete freedom to try working with a different provider if the two of you do not mesh for any reason. Regularly working through internal processes with a professional trained to help you challenge your own thoughts can help you make the changes you have been struggling to make for years.
Physical Health
I often see a common theme amongst my patients who are struggling to maintain an exercise or diet program – The All or Nothing Mistake. These people put high pressure on themselves to follow very specific plans that are not feasible to fit into their current lives. Guilt, shame, and negative self-talk follow closely behind. This “cold turkey” type of plan may work for a small number of people, but if it has not worked for you, please remember to create programs that can result in initial SUCCESS. Our brains are wired to feel averse towards extremely challenging tasks and far more accepting when we are good at the task. So instead of 45 minutes of HIIT training per day and a high caloric deficit, allow your mind and body to acclimate to 10 minutes of HIIT training every other day and equal caloric balance between intake and exercise.
Cheers to the health & success of the Industry Rules community!