Relationships are everything. Our relationships with ourselves and with other people are the building blocks of our lives and our businesses. Relationships should always be positive. That doesn’t mean you have to like everyone or have a deep and meaningful relationship with everyone you meet but in your mind, in the thoughts that you have, you must maintain a positive energy about everyone that you meet and even the people that you don’t meet.
The most important relationship for all of us is the relationship with ourselves. So, let’s start close to home, in fact let’s start even closer than that. Let’s start inside your head and take a look at your relationship with yourself.
I could enlighten you on adopting a positive attitude or on always taking action or even removing negative self talk. All of these will help you to have a positive relationship with yourself but in order to make this relationship truly wonderful you have to look after yourself physically, spiritually and mentally.
I have developed an easy to remember recipe to maintain this balance. I call it my 5-a-day.
Now before you go running for the fruit and veg this isn’t the sort of 5 a day that I mean.
So what do I mean?
To help maintain a balance across my emotional, physical and spiritual self and to create a wonderful relationship with myself I try and do something from each of these 5 areas every single day:
Physical
Spiritual
Social
Educational
Enjoyable
Let me explain.
Doing something physical is pretty obvious. I just make sure I do some form of physical activity every day. This doesn’t have to be a trip to the gym of an exhausting jog around the park although I do aim to do this level of activity at least 3 times a week. Some days I just go for a brisk walk in my lunch hour or even make an effort to use stairs instead of lifts and escalators all day. It may even be as simple as walking to the shop rather than jumping in the car.
Doing something spiritual will undoubtedly mean different things to different people but for this exercise, regardless of religion or beliefs being spiritual is about connecting with yourself or with your environment. So for me a twenty minute meditation just focussing on my own breathing is truly spiritual. Other examples I use are reading some philosophical or religious text, taking a walk in the park and being mindful of nature and my surroundings or listening, uninterrupted to some meaningful music.
Anything that connects me to my own self and my own feelings is a spiritual exercise.
Doing something social is simply doing anything with other people. As we know, relationships are the key to a Wonderful life and therefore doing any activity with other people helps to fulfil this need. I often make a point of doing some work as part of a group or joining in with other peoples tasks. They often see this as me doing them a favour or lending them a hand which brings its own sense of satisfaction. Other examples of doing something social may be taking part in a team game or sport or even going down to the pub and enjoying the company of friends over a drink or game of darts. I even include sitting around the table with my family to eat our evening meal together as a Social activity.
Doing something educational is often the most tricky but I tend to keep it very simple. My most common educational activity is reading. Reading anything is educational. Fiction, non-fiction, magazines, newspapers or even internet blogs can all be educational. Obviously you can be a little more adventurous if you wish and I have learned to play both the piano and saxophone in my educational activities over recent years.
Doing something enjoyable isn’t always easy to master, particularly if you are in the habit of blaming everyone else for the way that you feel and therefore the way that you act. To make this truly work you have to do something that YOU enjoy. not something that your partner or kids enjoy and you go along to make them happy. Albeit there can be a sense of enjoyment from making your loved ones happy.
Often the other 4 of my 5 a day are actually very enjoyable but I always aim to include something specific just for me. It doesn’t have to be grand or meaningful and often it is the simple things that bring the most enjoyment. So, some examples are watching a television programme that I really enjoy or listening to a radio show or Internet podcast that interests me. I sometimes make myself a special lunch or treat that is just for me or occasionally buy myself a bag of Haribo to eat whilst driving. Like I said, sometimes the simple things are the most enjoyable.
So, that’s my 5 a day.
Of course I still try and eat my fruit and veg as well and not surprisingly, healthy eating dovetails perfectly with my physical , emotional and spiritual balance and my wonderful relationship with myself.
For more information on creating a Wonderful Life visit www.neilgowing.co.uk