Are you a glass half-full or glass half-empty over 50 woman? Either way consider our 9-Step Mindset Resilience for a Strong Body, against your lifestyle.
While both mindsets can affect your physical and emotional health, both will also play opposing roles in maintaining life-long strength transformation.
Establishing the resilience for a positive mindset in our body’s ongoing strength transformation journey will have its challenges, but they can be tempered by simple practices that limit the risk of derailing you and all the progress you've made.
Let's look at these 9-Step Mindset Resilience for a Strong Body.
Step 1: Establish your Support Team
You know the saying “You become what you hang around”.
Well, when things aren’t going the way you want, be it illness, injury, or other and you can’t devote much time to keeping your body strong.
It’s easy to become despondent.
That’s when those around you either lift you with positivity or keep you down with negativity. Positive people can
- Energise you.
- Keep you on-track to achieving your goals.
- Help you overcome challenges and see the bright side.
Step 2: Exercise - Goes without saying really
The more regularly you exercise the more desirous you are of wanting the endorphins, dopamine, adrenaline, and endocannabinoids that come as a result.
Why? Because they promote confidence, happiness and reduced anxiety, which means you’re more likely to maintain the habit of exercise.
Step 3: Eat mainly whole foods.
Ultra-processed meals (IE. The chemicals added in them), along with high sugar consumption, could impact your mood or happiness, and not in a positive way.
Why? The more whole foods means the more nutrition your body’s getting to recover from workouts, illness or injury. Meaning, you’re less likely to be sitting on the sidelines, moody and despondent.
Step 4: Focus on "The bigger picture - Your REAL why".
When challenging conditions come, and they will, find the ‘silver lining’ and stay up beat because of where you’ve come from and going. Focus on the bigger picture, the REAL reason you want a strong body.
No matter how modest strength transformation appears at first, by looking closely, you’ll be encouraged by what's been achieved and motivated for what's yet to be achieved.
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Step 5: Practice gratitude.
Daily recall comforting memories and express thankfulness for things around you.
Keeping a journal of the small daily things is a great way to capture things and when down, look back and be... GRATEFUL for what you've achieved.
Life-long strength transformation is a step-by-step journey and daily gratitude helps you zero in on the daily things that matter, be they independence, support for family, a body that works and much more.
CLICK to see our Blog Post on The 7-Day Gratitude Challenge
Step 6: Embrace fun and laugh a lot.
There’s a lot to be serious about in doing life, peppering it with some fun and laughter can quickly reduce stress and simplify things.
We all need more fun, be purposeful about finding fun with the simple things, like... Dancing to those old tunes of yesteryear.
Aside from the physiological effect, psychologically, you’ll be more inclined to maintain habits like strength training, because a stronger body means wilder fun!!!!
Step 7: Lift others & Pay it Forward.
One of the most rewarding aspects of a resilient mindset is the ability to lift others around you, even despite the circumstance you're in.
The resulting joy of others can be a positive motivating experience to press on.
Acts of kindness, compliments, and supportive gestures not only make others feel better but also reinforces your own mindset resilience and positive outlook. That in-turn brings an inner empowerment that fuels any ongoing habits that enable it.
Step 8: Meditate
Whether you have faith or not, taking time to “Be Still” and practice calm thinking, which can enable you to let go of unhelpful thoughts that hinder.
These times can make big problems appear, not so... Big.
Also a great time to focus on gratitude and your why, which can deeper cement your forward momentum.
CLICK to see our Blog post on A Guided Mindfulness Meditation
Step 9: Prioritise Sleep
It goes without saying as we all know what it’s like to maintain any good habit, let alone strength transformation, when we’re dealing with regular lack of sleep issues, be they internal or external related.
If this is you, be kind to yourself, and give yourself the mindset freedom to dial back the exercise habit, as your body is operating from a deficiency and 2-3, 30min strength sessions a week can easily send it over the edge to illness or injury, leading to disappointment or depression .
Instead, during this period or season until sleep is replenishing and regular, dial back the workouts to 2-3, 10min strength sessions.
This way you maintain the habit and the physiological and psychological benefits of that forward momentum.
Final Thought
While positive thinking alone isn’t the wonder pill for maintaining strength transformation, it will certainly go a long way to supporting your efforts and overcoming the obstacles that will arise on a life-long journey.
Sources & Additional Reading
The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Barbara L Fredrickson
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15347528/
Effect of kindness-based meditation on health and well-being: a systematic review and metaanalysis.Julieta Galante, Ignacio Galante, Marie-Jet Bekkers, John Gallacher
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24979314/1
Go for it! Exercising makes you happy and strong. M Illario, V De Luca, A Cano, D Tramontano
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34447722/
Crum, Alia J., and Ellen J. Langer. 2007. Mindset matters: Exercise and the placebo effect.Psychological Science 18, no. 2: 165-171.
https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/3196007
Sugar intake and expectation effects on cognition and mood. Grace E Giles, Benjamin FAvanzato, Belén Mora, Nicole A Jurdak, Robin B Kanarek
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29863386/
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