The Power of Showing Up: How Finding Your Community Can Change the Way We Feel About Fitness

It says, I can't stop comparing myself to other people.

I know they're on a different part of their journey, but still, any tips? Now look, comparison, as they say, is the thief of joy.

And I think that actually it is a very normal part of being a human being to compare ourselves.

But I do think the introduction of social media, things like Instagram and TikTok has made this even worse because we're constantly seeing images and videos of people who may look a certain way, whose lifestyle might be a certain way.

And then we are comparing ourselves to them.

And ultimately it can make us feel really, really rubbish.

So the first question that I would ask you here is who are you comparing yourself to? Because if it is often a lot of people on social media, just for a while, unfollow those accounts.

Really unfollow those accounts and follow accounts that are more authentic, that are maybe more representative of your experience so that you don't end up feeling rubbish about yourself every single time that you open your phone.

I think it's really important that not only is comparison the thief of joy, but it's the thief of happiness.

our own life and our own experience because very often what happens is we're so focused on what we don't have by looking at other people's things that we're not focusing on all the good things that we do have in our lives and trust me there will be some so i think in this scenario it can be really helpful to introduce some kind of gratitude practice and this doesn't have to be cheesy where you kind of sit down and say today i am grateful for my coffee it's If you are grateful for your coffee, that's great.

But you can also do this list and make it aimed towards you.

So you can look at things that you are grateful to yourself for.

So it might be.

Today I'm really grateful to myself that I took myself to the gym because I am happy that I'm sticking to my routine and it made me feel much better.

Even if it's just one thing a day, what happens when we start to train our brain to focus on things that are positive is that we will start to notice more of them.

So I think that can be really, really important as well.

And the other thing is to be self-aware enough.

to catch yourself when you are in that comparison loop so self-awareness is about noticing that we are having or that we are in this thought spiral that we are in this thought loop and it's about saying hold on a second this isn't making me feel good this isn't supporting me and this isn't working for me anymore so I don't want to think about this thing so I am going to you know think about something else whatever that might be and try and make it something that's positive or supportive it might be You know what? I'm going to think about what I'm going to have for lunch.

I'm going to think about the fact that I'm seeing my friends at the weekend.

I'm going to think about the kind thing that someone at work said to me.

And it's about bringing in that self-awareness as often as we can to say, what am I thinking? What am I feeling? What am I believing? Is it making me feel good? No.

OK, what can I do about it? How can I alter it in that moment? So I think all of that combined could be really, really positive.

Someone says, I have just gone through a breakup and I feel absolutely numb.

I have zero motivation to do anything.

How do I turn the page? I think, first of all, when it comes to going through a breakup to heartbreak, it's a form of grief.