Skating Uphill - April 2015

The Uphill Skater: Living a Healthy Lifestyle

SkatingUphill-1-web

By Judith Lawrenson

We all know that living a healthy lifestyle is not just about food. Not by a long shot.
It is a very involved process that brings many feelings and emotions into play.

I recently have been emotionally touched by an experience of a friend of mine that is something which we can all benefit from. Please allow me to share with you:

My friend has a part-time job, which allows her to pay her part of the rent with a roommate she actually likes. In addition, she is able to pay her share of the bills, drive a small car, and some months, she can even put a bit into savings. She loves her job. Her co-workers are friendly and her hours are flexible.

Unfortunately, she hates her life! She hates that she is not working a full-time job and being a big success. She dreads the phone ringing for fear it is her parents with yet another lead for a better job. She feels like nothing is happening in her life and she is powerless to change her awful circumstances. When she is not working, she is sitting home feeling sorry for herself.

This makes no sense, does it? How can both of these scenarios be true? Well, it is all a matter of how one looks at things. In fact, my friend was becoming more and more sad, to the point of depression. Isn’t it funny how a person can see themselves through the eyes of others? I think this is pretty common. We frequently, and without even realizing we are doing it, see and judge ourselves by standards that are imposed by others.

Hey, I don’t look like Jennifer Lopez. I don’t look like Maggie Smith, either. But, I also don’t look at pictures on TV, in magazines, or online and feel sorry for myself that I am not them. I am about 10 pounds overweight, in an awkward hair phase and have orange legs from the cheap tanning cream I tried last week. SO WHAT!

Just because I am me and I talk too much, I asked my friend what it would take to make her feel better. I told her not to say a glass of wine and a boyfriend, because we all know that while that might seem good for a Saturday night, it does not help long term. Headache in the morning and gone boyfriend—I think not. What can we see from a better point of view?

My friend was so down, she actually went for a counseling session, and in fact, she had a genuine turn around. She asked the right person for advice, she believed it to be good advice and she took it!
She was told something very simple—to look at things in a different way. That sounds way too easy, doesn’t it? She was told to walk away from her job to her car telling herself that she enjoyed what she had just done and enjoyed the people with whom she had interacted. She was told NOT to think how little she earned or that her parents considered her to have a “chump job.” Basically, that is what she had been saying to herself every day for nearly two years.

She was told to get into her little car and acknowledge that it ran great, got super gas mileage, did not have any dents or dings and was paid for. She was told NOT to say that her car was six years old, had a rusty door handle and a small hole in the carpet.

When she got home she was told to tell her roommate how happy she was to have such a great roommate, who never argued about the bills, kept her space clean, and was a great cook. She could have said that her roommate did not clean out the shower, did not phone when she was going to stay out all night and often forgot when it was her turn to vacuum.

To make a short story longer, you get what is happening I am sure. It is not whether the glass is half full or half empty; it is how heavy the glass can become if you have to carry it around for a very long time. The advice here is obvious. Take a long, hard look at the good things you have in your life. Be thankful for all of them, and believe it or not, this can be the key to a healthier lifestyle!

P.S. Two words about healthy eating for right now—seasonal vegetables!

If you have questions or comments about "Skating Uphill" please feel free to contact Judith Lawrenson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Leave a comment

You are commenting as guest.