Tag: Exercise

Posted on

Grass Court Tennis

Grass tennis court at Wimbledon

A Game of Luck, Resilience and Finesse

If you’ve been playing tennis for a while, you can appreciate the difference between different surfaces. The beauty about grass court tennis is that the lawn is catchy to the eyes, it feels good to walk on and provides you with a hint of nature at your fingertips. To get good at playing on grass, you need to first become one with the court and let it play for you. This involves appreciating the uniqueness of how grass plays; accepting the circumstances while willing to learn how to maneuver, deliver and conquer.

It’s a game of luck: well it kind of is! You can be down 4-1 in the first set and find yourself in a tight tiebreaker 25 minutes later, only to win the set and cruise in the second. How do you create this luck? You believe and you enjoy the surface; you learn to dance. And the more you want to dance, the luckier you get. I know, this is still a work in progress.

Tennis racquet with tennis ball on grass court

Grass Court Tennis: The Resilience Factor

It’s a game of resilience: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, in this case not feeling the ball, not identifying with your strategy and being mentally distracted. Grass can help you change when experiencing any of those difficulties; it provides you with longer points that help you build a groove and feel; in other words, the surface buys you some time. In return, you develop a capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; this is resilience.

And lastly, it’s a game of finesse: doing something in a subtle and delicate manner, in this case introducing backhand and forehead slices from the baseline and on returns of serve; introducing chip and charges and following the ball in to the net more often; serving and volleying at least 1-2x per game; throwing in several drop shots to keep them honest while testing their physical stamina; and most importantly, loving the grass and believing that your matches will turn into your favor. This is grass court tennis.

Have you played grass yet?

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)

smiley winking Gif face
Advertisement
Posted on

Exercise and Fitness

White man riding bicycle on road during daytime

Exercise and Happiness

Exercise and fitness is like a tug of war for your mind. For instance, part of you envisions yourself getting stronger and fitter, while the other half prefers to sit on the couch and watch Netflix or play video games. Negative thoughts about exercising include:

  • Why put more effort into my life?
  • I’m fine doing less work
  • Working out requires effort; I’m already tired from my job
  • I won’t lose weight
  • I’ll probably get tired within five minutes of exercising
  • I don’t see any results
  • It’s too much work

Right off the bat, your mind comes up with negative thoughts and reasons as to why you shouldn’t exercise. This is because it’s easier for your mind and body to relax and not put in any effort. Why? Because as humans, we prefer the easier route in life that maximizes results with little effort. The problem is that you can’t obtain the benefits of exercise and fitness if you don’t make an effort. Some people try to get away by exercising here and there; inconsistency leads to inconsistent results. Eliminate your negative schema about exercise with the following positive thoughts listed below.

Fit blonde model staring at ground

Positive Thoughts that you need to start Implementing Regarding Exercising:

  • Hard work pays off
  • My mental health will improve
  • My body-mind connection will improve
  • I will feel more confident and better about myself
  • My discipline will improve
  • People will compliment me on my improved physique
  • I will have more confidence in my ability to work hard

Exercise and Fitness: Just do it

You see, as with anything that requires hard work in life, negative thoughts often get in the way of succeeding. Negative thoughts have to be intentionally replaced with positive ones until your attitude shifts and the process of exercising becomes easier. It’s definitely possible. You just have to be willing to make a change and then put yourself out there to accomplish it. Ask yourself, what is it that I’m trying to accomplish? Are you looking for an improved physique? To lose weight? Or do you simply want to feel better about yourself? Also keep in mind that exercising is also great for your mental health and you’ll feel much better after a workout. The question is, are you willing to start?

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)

Exercise and fitness winking, smiley Gif face

Posted on

Exercising For Your Mental Health

Exercising is not just about physical health. The point of exercising is to also feel good mentally. Exercise helps decrease your anxiety, improves your mood, promotes the birth of new neurons in your brain and elevates your self-esteem and confidence. Not to mention, exercising feels amazing! When you feel physically and mentally good, you radiate that positive energy into the world and people can sense it; this can lead to an improvement in your relationships! Start with baby steps if you don’t currently exercise: every day, go for a 20 minute walk on the street. After doing this for a week or two, include some jogging, fitness bikes, weights or whatever you enjoy. You’ll notice soon enough how beneficial exercising can be for your mental health.

eBay hand gripper advertisement

BUY now👇 (awesome price!) 

https://ebay.us/jZAMws

Posted on

Exercise and Mental Health

White blonde woman stretching on yoga mat
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0keBuv4d89USd9gBIQUAS0?si=879adc424db049a3

Exercising is not just about physical health. The point of exercising is to also feel good mentally. Exercise for your mental health helps decrease your anxiety, improve your mood, promote the birth of new neurons in your brain and elevate your self-esteem and confidence. Not to mention, exercising feels amazing! When you feel physically and mentally good, you radiate that positive energy into the world and people can sense it. This can lead to an improvement in your relationships! Start with baby steps if you don’t currently exercise: every day, go for a 20 minute walk on the street. After doing this for a week or two, include some jogging, cycling, weights or whatever you enjoy. You’ll notice soon enough how beneficial exercising can be for your mental health.

Exercise and mental health spinning bike

Exercise and Mental Health: Cycling

Cycling is a great form of exercise and can be done in the convenience of your home. No, you don’t need to buy that $1500 Peloton bike. You can find cheaper bikes on Amazon under $1000 that will provide the same benefits. Cycling is convenient because what can be easier than sitting in place and moving your legs? If you have a bike with a screen and programming, the experience becomes even easier. Besides not being able to afford it or not having enough space in your home, there should be no reason why you shouldn’t by cycling; especially during the pandemic. You’ll tone your calves and upper legs as well as your abs. And mentally, trust me when I say that a 30 minute ride feels amazingly refreshing.

The Weights Are Waiting For You

Lifting weights can also be done in the comfort of your home. You can easily buy weights on Amazon and start lifting in your living room every day. The hardest part are not the weights but the discipline to pick them up and use them. It may be easier to start off with small weights so that you can motivate yourself to use them every day. Once your motivation is there, you can upgrade to heavier ones. If you start with heavy ones, you might get discouraged early on, especially if you don’t have a strong drive to work out. Lifting is great because it shapes your deltoids, triceps, biceps and forearm muscles. When your arms start looking bulkier, trust me when I say that your mental health will bulk up as well.

Stretching is Important

Lastly, you must stretch! I am so guilty of preaching this but not consistently doing it myself. Can you imagine? I cycle and life almost every day but I won’t stretch which is the easiest of them all. Stretching is important to prevent injuries and stiffness. You feel much better after immediately stretching and it will you to avoid stiffness during work. When I feel stiff during work and talking to patients, it becomes a distraction and affects my mental health. I end up feeling annoyed. The worst is when I feel pain that could have easily been prevented with stretching. So if you start exercising after reading this, don’t forget to stretch.

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)

Smiley GIF face
Posted on

I Am Physically Fit

Blonde athletic girl holding weights in gym in front of mirror

Positive Affirmation: Staying In Shape

“I am physically fit because I put in the effort every day to maintain a great body by exercising and eating healthy. I enjoy to exercise because it makes me feel good about myself, including my mental health. Exercising makes me look more physically attractive and people notice how fit I am. I feel great waking up in the morning knowing that I exercised yesterday and that I have more motivation to exercise today. The more that I exercise, the more motivation and desire I harness to keep pushing forward. I am physically fit!”

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)

Posted on

Stay in Shape

Blonde athletic girl holding weights in gym in front of mirror

Positive Affirmation – Staying in Shape

“I am physically fit because I put in the effort every day to maintain a great body by exercising and eating healthy. I enjoy to exercise because it makes me feel good about myself, including my mental health. Exercising makes me look more physically attractive and people notice how fit I am. I feel great waking up in the morning knowing that I exercised yesterday and that I have more motivation to exercise today. The more that I exercise, the more motivation and desire I harness to keep pushing forward. I stay in shape because it makes me feel happy!”

Stay in shape because you want to; not because society expects you to. You feel good when you put in the work; fatigue does not bring you down. You enjoy working hard, sweating and getting tired. When you exercise, your mind becomes stronger and you become happier. People start to notice your results which further propels you to keep exercising. Your body improves and you feel more confident. People notice your improved confidence and become more attracted to you. Exercising brings you happiness, confidence and an improved physical health.

Stay in shape - white woman doing leg presses in gym

Exercise for Your Mental Health

Exercising helps you to overcome your sadness. When you feel depressed, working out helps your mental health. Exercising is a distraction from negative thoughts that accompany depression. Rather than focusing on feeling worthless, you devote your energy to breaking down your muscles to become stronger. You transmute your negative thoughts into physical energy. Your mind becomes distracted and focused on exercising; it has no room for depression. With constant repetition, you overcome your depression and become mentally sturdier. Your mental health benefits just as much as your physical health when you stay in shape.

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)

Stay in shape - smiley GIF

Posted on

I Am A Great Athlete

Female athlete jumping above ground near sunlit sky

Positive Affirmation: Improving Your Athleticism

“I am a great athlete because I have what it takes to work out longer, run father, lift more and compete at a higher level than ever before. Even if I’m not naturally athletic, I am improving every day because I have the will, drive, motivation, strength and determination to keep improving my athleticism. I no longer give up when I lack strength and I no longer give in to others when they put me down. I am capable of doing extraordinary things and one of these things is being a great athlete. I am athletic!”

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)

Posted on

Being a Good Athlete

Female athlete jumping above ground near sunlit sky

Positive Affirmation – Improving Your Athleticism

“I am a great athlete because I have what it takes to work out longer, run father, lift more and compete at a higher level. Even if I’m not naturally athletic, I am improving every day because I have the will, determination and drive to keep improving. I no longer give up when I lack strength and I no longer give in to others when they put me down. I am capable of doing extraordinary things and one of these things is being a good athlete. Being a good athlete is no easy task, but when I put my mind to it, I experience the impressive results.

I wake up every day believing that I will make it a productive day. My athleticism relies on my motivation to improve. Without motivation, I fall behind in the race and others pass me. When I fall behind, I become sad and less motivated to keep trying. Motivation is key to becoming a great athlete. Motivation is the building block behind my success as an athlete. Sometimes things come up and my motivation takes a hit. It’s okay when this happens; I take the day off and restart tomorrow.

Being a good athlete - white women practicing archery

Being a Good Athlete Requires Belief

It’s not enough to be motivated to succeed. Motivation without belief is like having money but with nothing good to spend it on. Coaches, friends and family can encourage and motivate me, but only I can find that inner belief to become a good athlete. When stepping on the tennis or basketball court or soccer field, I have to muster up that belief that I will play well. The more I capitalize on my previous success, the more my belief will increase. Belief is the fuel that will drive me to becoming an excellent athlete.

Don’t ever give up when you experience a series of losses. Losses are teaching points that help build my character and inner strength. A loss in athletics is like doing poorly on an exam at school; I feel like giving up and throwing in the towel. But giving up is the wrong attitude. Giving up is the easy way out of failures. Failures are not meant to discourage me; they’re meant to get me to reanalyze my game and to come back running harder. And this is where belief comes into play: if I believe that I will recover from my failures and improve even more, the sky will become the limit.”

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)

Posted on

Getting Your Workout On

Female tennis player hitting backhand on red tennis clay court

Working Out Even When You Have No Drive

One of the most challenging tasks throughout the day is working out when you have no motivation. Growing up playing competitive tennis in the USTA juniors, I felt the experience of having days when I lacked drive and motivation to practice or even compete in tournaments. The worst part about it was traveling to other states for tennis tournaments and attempt to compete in 90 degree weather with no passion for the sport. When you have no motivation to exercise or compete, it often feels like you just want to quit.

But quitting gets you no where exciting when it comes to that realm. The more you allow your lack of motivation to prevail, the harder it’s going to become to get back into a solid routine. That’s because it’s not easy to work out, exercise or competitively play a sport. You have to power through even on the days when you don’t feel like doing it. That’s because if you can get through those days successfully, you often end up with a renewal of energy and interest for your next session.

What you don’t want to do is power through on those days and not enjoy it one bit. This is because it will lead you to burning out rather quickly. I felt that with tennis when I was 14. I was an extremely hard-working tennis player who reached a national boy’s 14 USTA ranking of 69th in the country. But as I entered high school and realized that I didn’t have many friends and that my entire life revolved around going to school and getting yelled at by tennis sergeants at the local tennis club, I lost passion for the sport.

It’s not that I ever disliked tennis to begin with; otherwise, I wouldn’t have played for that long (by the way, I still play tennis today). But as with anything in life, you need a balance of different activities. Even if you are focused on working out, exercising or playing a sport, make time and room for other activities as well, such as socializing, spending time with family and friends and even kicking back and watching a documentary or two. You are not a robot to be doing only one repetitive task continuously.

So whenever you feel burned out or have no drive to work out, remember to push yourself to still get some in that day, but mix it up with other activities as well. On the other hand, you don’t want to just stop working out because then your lack of motivation will take over and you’ll soon lose interest altogether. It’s normal to lose interest in exercising here and there, but don’t lose it completely to the point of quitting.

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)

Posted on

I Am A Fitness Beast

White woman dressed in black outfit working out with weights in gym

Positive Affirmation: The Drive To Exercise

“I am a great athlete who has the strength, stamina, drive, willpower, energy, ambition, desire and motivation to consistently exercise on a daily basis in order to keep my physical and mental health topnotch!”

Blog at WordPress.com.
%d bloggers like this: