How to Tune Into Your Inner Voice

I'm sure you've heard of that saying " trust your gut". We all have that inner voice that tells us "This is what you have to do",or " this doesn't feel right". Unfortunately, it can be tough to hear that inner voice amongst all the noise happening in our brain. We sometimes ignore our "Gut feeling" or second guess it because of all the outside pressures of society, family, friends... or we are so used to functioning or behaving a certain way that we are scared to change it to something we are not familiar to. I've ignored that voice many times when someone close to me would give me advice or tell me what I should be doing when instead I should have listened to my inner intuition. I learned that lesson the hard way when I once took a job that I thought would be the right fit for me and my family but realized later I was not happy. When talking to my closed ones about it they would come back to me with " Yes, but think about your children", "You should feel lucky to have a job", " Where else will you find such a convenient work schedule"... So I ended up staying in this position for 7 years... Being unhappy, eating unhealthy, and simply not taking great care of myself.

It took the help of a coach to get me to tune in to what It was I really wanted to do. He simply asked : " What makes you happy", "what interests you"; I wrote down 3 things : Fitness, Nutrition, and Writing. Those three things had nothing to do with what I was curently doing but my gut was telling me this was what I was supposed to do. I didn't exactly know where to start at first but here are some strategies I learned along the way that helped me tune into my inner voice and led me to become a Fitness and Nutrition Coach:

I wrote down Pros and cons

When facing tough decisions, I would take a pen and paper and would simply write down the pros and cons of a situation. I found that keeping everything in my head can make a situation feel worse as I would spiral into worse case scenarios... I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about. Seeing the cons in writing would prompt me to find more pros. My mind would suddently shift into pushing me to find to good, and how I could make it work. A good example would be; Exercise. I would ask myself " I want to train 5 days a week but I don't want to miss time with my kids during the week" I would write down the pros and cons, and once I would identify the pros ( feel better mentally, have more energy to take care of them, sleep better...) I could see the possibilities.

I would ask myself what causes me stress?

Figuring out what triggers you, or asking yourself why you feel a certain way when someone says or does something, helps you take a step back and better anticipate when you need more or better self care. I struggled with stress eating for years, where everytime I would be faced to a tough decision, or a stressfull situation I would eat to the point where my stomach would hurt. By identifying the cause of my stress ; I learned to use other ways to manage it. Through meditation, taking short naps, walking outside, and mindfull eating I learned to take deep breaths, drink more water , and make clearer decisions about stressful situations.

I would ask myself " Do you really need it?"

In the wellness and nutrition world, we talk a lot about Gut Health. Did you know that what you eat influences how you think, feel, and make decisions? One thing I've learned to do through the years is to catch myself before going into auto pilot mode when it came to eating. If you ask yourself these questions : " Do I really need it?", or if faced with a situation instead of doing what you always do ask; will [doing this ] really solve the problem. Commonly, the answer is NO. Your gut is like a second brain and the best way to take care of your brain is to nurture the health of your gut with the right foods including pre- and probiotics, healthy fats, leafy green vegetables, and supplements.

I set aside some quiet time

Each and every day, we are bombarded by external noise from social media, to our interaction with others. Setting aside some quiet time has personnaly been my self-protecting strategy. Disconnecting from social media, waking up 30 minutes before everyone else at home, or just laying quietly in my bed for 15 minutes in the afternoon has tought me to listen to my body and mind. In addition, writing down your thoughts on a piece of paper during this quiet time can be beneficial in listening to what's going on inside your head.

When people ask me how I got into Fitness and now Functional Nutrition coaching, I tell them in moments I felt unhappy, I asked myself : " What do I like to do?", " What do I really need" I took a chance and listened to my inner voice, took better care of my second brain : my Gut which led me to make cleared decisions.

XoXo,

Christina.