{"id":21374,"date":"2021-12-09T10:48:50","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T18:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicalfitnessnetwork.org\/public\/?p=21374"},"modified":"2021-11-25T10:29:18","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T18:29:18","slug":"living-purpose-challenge-fear-can-sabotage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/all-mfn\/living-purpose-challenge-fear-can-sabotage\/","title":{"rendered":"Living With Purpose: A Challenge Fear Can Sabotage"},"content":{"rendered":"

I find the holiday season to be challenging mentally, emotionally and physically. I am sure many of you who are reading these words feel a similar pressure of the current year ending \u2013 and the uncertainty of the new one to come. During this time of the year I have found myself being repeatedly burdened by entertaining old, worn out, negative thinking which\u00a0leaves me exhausted and prone to getting sick, frustrated and fearful of the unknown time ahead.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe mind-body connection<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This year it has been no different for me\u00a0as I seem to be facing a past\u00a0challenge regarding my belief in myself, my self-worth \u2013 and my purpose. For the better part of the last week and a half I have been struggling with a bad case of what I believe is the flu. With this latest (rare) bout of\u00a0illness I have been blessed with a large dose of coughing, sneezing, general weakness and a very substantial lethargy. I believe in the power of the mind to bring us health and well-being but I also believe our thoughts (and beliefs) can\u00a0\u2013 and do \u2013 deliver to us the other side of life which includes illness, unease, a genuine\u00a0lack of self-confidence,\u00a0and a sense of what I will call \u201chopelessness\u201d \u2013 a feeling of living without purpose.<\/p>\n

This is how I have started to feel in December \u2013 that regardless of what I have done, written or spoken about in terms of my passion for healthy aging<\/a>, that it matters little and that I am wasting my time. This thought has occurred to me many times before and I am sharing it\u00a0with you now because I am going through this challenge\u00a0in this moment\u00a0in time. ALL of us at some point in our life\u00a0(and in my case it has been more than once) have felt\u00a0empty\u00a0inside and\u00a0afraid \u2013 fearful of the unknown, of not being enough, of having chosen our path in life\u00a0badly \u2013 and much more \u201cbaggage\u201d that we carry around with us every day! It is a burden we decide to carry. It is up to each of\u00a0us to decide to stop carrying this extra weight \u2013 or it will remain a \u201cdrag\u201d on our life\u00a0well into the future! We don\u2019t need negative thought patterns ruining our lives, do we?<\/p>\n

Fighting negative thoughts<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The point is that it takes courage and discipline to \u201cfight\u201d this negative \u201cwave\u201d of feelings and thoughts. The first step that we can take to address this important issue is to become AWARE that it is happening \u2013 and to STOP and THINK in order to increase the possibility of changing your mind in order to \u201creassert\u201d your power over your training \u2013 but your life as well. I am grateful for these reminders as they spur me to make the choice again that I AM valuable and worthy of success. Even at 70, I am dealing with this very issue as Christmas approaches \u2013 again. I had a terrible Thanksgiving because I could not be with my daughter and grandson and tonight had a harsh exchange of words with her over the phone (frustration, anger, fear \u2013 whatever it may be.)<\/p>\n

What this matter basically comes down to is a FIRM belief in ourselves \u2013 and our own\u00a0unique purpose \u2013 that we are alive for a reason. It is incumbent upon each of us to maintain\u00a0a vigilant and forceful awareness that CAN prevent negative thoughts\u00a0from derailing our dreams from becoming fully realized. If\u00a0we allow\u00a0these negative thought patterns\u00a0to remain in our subconscious minds over time they WILL harm us emotionally, mentally\u00a0and physically. ALL life \u2013 and reality \u2013 begins with thought, so guard your thoughts well! I am sorry to report that we are never done with these challenges of the mind and they can \u2013 and DO repeat (sometimes \u2013 not always) for a reason: To REMIND us of who we are \u2013 and are becoming. The ego wants to regain control of our thought patterns and return us to an earlier status quo that never worked for us \u2013 and never will.<\/p>\n

The antidote for this negative\u00a0\u201ccycle of thought\u201d\u00a0is an examination of what we are doing and how well we are doing it. Can we improve our behavior? Our discipline? Our planning? Our listening? What is it that we are seeing again \u2013\u00a0and why? My conversation (argument) with my daughter showed me I am still capable of entertaining past negative thinking with poor results showing\u00a0up again in my life. What a DRAG!\u00a0Low self-worth and self-esteem can\u00a0raise doubt and fear in all of us. What I am experiencing right now is a reminder of the road I have travelled \u2013 and the miles I have to go. It is always incumbent upon each of us\u00a0to be \u201cself aware\u201d and allow this awareness to guide us to take personal\u00a0responsibility for our behavior \u2013 and thoughts \u2013 (all that any of us can control \u00a0and then,\u00a0and only then, will we make it successfully to our goal and accomplish our mission.<\/p>\n

Our fitness programming follows this same logic and if we believe we cannot make it \u2013 we won\u2019t. Our thoughts determine our results and our belief systems determine everything else of importance in our lives. DON\u2019T LET FEAR AND SELF DOUBT control your future destiny. DO NOT entertain thoughts that in and of themselves are self destructive. I don\u2019t know how the distance with my daughter will be bridged before Christmas but it will probably include compromise and some serious mutual listening.<\/p>\n

Conflict in itself solves NOTHING but it CAN promote growth and understanding so I am not shy about engaging in a good argument \u2013 if it leads to greater mutual understanding\u00a0\u2013 and peace. It is in HOW we disagree that matters. I\u00a0argue\u00a0with my feelings leading the way\u00a0sometimes and that CAN be hurtful, but in this hurting we may get the opportunity to expand our definition of ourselves \u2013 and expand our consciousness as well. This is what I would call a \u201cwin \u2013 win\u201d. This potential outcome\u00a0CAN help us grow into a new definition of\u00a0ourselves and create new opportunities\u00a0with those we love \u2013 and with those others we value in our lives. It is\u00a0about taking some risk and exposing ourselves to being uncomfortable for a while. I feel it is worth the effort \u2013 just be smart about how you go about implementing this idea!<\/p>\n

I am convinced this time of year is challenging for all of us because there is much we need to learn \u2013 not only about ourselves \u2013 but about each other as well. After 45 years of being a father I am still learning about what that means and tonight I found out I am still NOT as patient or compassionate as I thought I was and so some \u201csoul\u00a0searching\u201d will be required to bring me back to my best path of growth and understanding with those I love.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nTake time today to reflect not only on your relationship with yourself but also with those you love and care about and see what emerges. You might be in for some amazing surprises and only YOU can do this work. Becoming a thoughtful listener is really the key to effective communication so practice that skill a lot! We have TWO\u00a0ears and ONE mouth for a reason. I really find the holiday season to be about buying\u00a0\u201cSTUFF\u201d and not about appreciating our many blessings. This thought\u00a0drives me crazy! However, this is the life we are living\u00a0today\u00a0so I either learn to live with it creatively or I will continue to hit the same \u201cbrick wall\u201d as I have in the past \u2013 and I CHOOSE NOT DO THAT. All of this is to say that becoming unsettled, confused \u2013 or even angry \u2013 is probably a sign that\u00a0we ARE ready for positive change<\/a> to enter our lives and I TRULY BELIEVE that is a VERY good thing! Travel well.<\/p>\n

Originally printed on\u00a0HealthyNewAge.com<\/a>. Reprinted with permission from Nicholas Prukop.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

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Nicholas Prukop is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer & a Health Coach, a fitness professional with over 25 years of experience whose passion for health and fitness comes from his boyhood in Hawaii where he grew up a swimmer on Maui. He found his calling in writing his first book \u201cHealthy Aging & You: Your Journey to Becoming Happy, Healthy & Fit<\/a>\u201d and since then he has dedicated himself to empowering, inspiring and enabling people of all ages to reach for the best that is within them and become who they are meant to be \u2013 happy, healthy and fit \u2013 and be a part of a world where each person can contribute their own unique gifts to life.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I find the holiday season to be challenging mentally, emotionally and physically. I am sure many of you who are reading these words feel a similar pressure of the current year ending \u2013 and the uncertainty of the new one to come. During this time of the year I have found myself being repeatedly burdened by entertaining old, worn out, negative thinking which\u00a0leaves me exhausted and prone to getting sick, frustrated and fearful of the unknown time ahead. The mind-body connection This year it has been no different for me\u00a0as I seem to be facing a past\u00a0challenge regarding my belief in myself, my self-worth \u2013 and my purpose. For the better part of the last week and a half I have been struggling with a bad case of what I believe is the flu. With this latest (rare) bout of\u00a0illness I have been blessed with a large dose of coughing, sneezing, general weakness and a very substantial lethargy. I believe in the power of the mind to bring us health and well-being but I also believe our thoughts (and beliefs) can\u00a0\u2013 and do \u2013 deliver to us the other side of life which includes illness, unease, a genuine\u00a0lack of self-confidence,\u00a0and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":21375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[193],"class_list":["post-21374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-mfn","tag-healthy-aging"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21374"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31087,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21374\/revisions\/31087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}