There is always the sun behind the clouds. Living happily. Tatiana Grafova
won’t hurt it to wake up as well.
Don’t you think? This is the beginning of a wake-up complex of morning exercises described by Anastasia Semenova in her book “Seven steps to happiness”.
I have tried it myself and find it very good indeed.
It doesn’t take up too much of my precious morning time.
I can do it in fifteen-twenty minutes but the effect is really wonderful!
So I strongly advise you to give it a try.
• To start a new life, it’s not at all necessary to wait till Monday.
You can forget this outdated stereotype with a clear conscience.
Blue Monday is a hard day as it is. There is no need to aggravate the situation even further.
Why make things more difficult than they actually are?
It’s so much better to start your life anew at the weekend or during holidays, when in the morning you don’t have to hurry to the University or to the office.
And when you have a real opportunity to devote more time to your own precious self.
It does not matter what you start with.
The most important thing is to take the very first step, which is usually the most difficult.
And not tomorrow, not next Monday or after the holidays.
Start TODAY!
Even if today is not Monday.
Particularly if today is not Monday.
• The laziest of us should better start with the easiest things.
If you can’t get up early to do the morning exercises,
if you don’t feel like torturing yourself with such exhausting things like colonetics… don’t despair and don’t lose heart!
First of all, try this very simple trick.
Make it a rule not to wait for a bus to go one or two stops but walk this short distance.
Don’t jump into your car each time you have to go to the chemist’s only two blocks away.
Go there on foot.
Just for a change, if not for other reasons.
Naturally, I wouldn’t recommend doing it on the coldest day of the year or when it’s pouring with rain. That would be the best way to kill any desire to travel otherwise than by car with a climate control on and could put you off walking for a long time, if not for the rest of your life.
It’s certainly best to turn over a new leaf in spring when the whole nature is waking up from its long winter sleep.
You fill up your lungs with fresh intoxicating spring air.
You can feel the winds of change blowing around you.
And it’s so much easier to follow the inspiring example of nature and change your way of life and your attitude to yourself and to the world around you.
But if you don’t want to wait till spring, if the whims of the changeable weather can’t frighten you off, don’t wait and start your new life TODAY!
Do it NOW!
Even if it’s a nasty autumn or a freezing winter day.
“There is no such thing as bad weather. Any kind of weather is a blessing”.
It’s a well-known fact that walking does you a lot of good.
It’s an extremely healthy and also a surprisingly easy and pleasant exercise.
It’s not a ten-kilometre cross-country race and not even jogging.
Nobody doubts that walking helps you to keep fit, and with the minimum effort on your part, too.
But as it turns out, this is not its only advantage.
Scientific research has proven that it also stimulates and impoves the functioning of your brain. But this refers mainly to women.
Which means it won’t help mental abilities of men, and the latter should look for other, probably more complicated ways of improving their thinking processes.
• Try to live a more active life and to move more!
It’s important not only for the slimness of your body and the firmness of your muscles.
It’s no less important for your general well-being and your mood.
Find your favourite ways and methods.
If you say that you are too busy to go in for sports, that you have no time for keep-fit activities, or that a year’s membership in a fitness-club costs a fortune, don’t fool yourself.
You are only looking for excuses.
This is nothing but your inner resistance to change and you have to overcome it.
You can do fitness virtually anywhere.
On your way to college or from work.
Even in the office if you lock yourself in for a least a quarter of an hour.
If you are interested and want to learn more about it, leaf through “Fit for Fun” magazine or other similar editions.
Some of the women I know are actively using its recommendations.
They have added some of their individual favourites and can now do a wonderful complex of exercises right in the office, practically at their working places.
A very simple exercise for home and office
When you sit in front of your PC or laptop the whole day, make a break from time to time and put one leg over the other thirty times in a row, in a high tempo.
Then do the same with the other leg and you’ll immediately feel the difference.
You’ll realise you’ve got muscles and they can hurt.
Naturally you shouldn’t do that during important negotiations with potential clients.
It can be grossly misunderstood and misinterpreted.
But whenever the boss leaves the office or turns his back, or your colleagues are going out for a smoke you can go ahead and exercise to your heart’s content.
There is one thing you can be a 100% sure of:
It’s much healthier than joining the others and poisoning yourself with a cigarette or yet another cup of coffee.
A few pieces of friendly advice
Here are some very simple ways to start moving more, practically for free, without any extra expenses and with minimal time losses.
• Walk more. It’s much more effective than you can imagine.
• Walk up and down the stairs, in the metro, in the office and at home.
Don’t use the lift (up to a point and within ⠀ reasonable limits, of course. I don’t mean climbing to the top floor of a skyscraper every day of the week) but if it’s only a matter of several flights of steps, don’t be lazy and use your feet.
By the way, here is an interesting fact:
It would appear that going downstairs is much easier than going upstairs.
But it turns out that, strange though it may seem, we are using up more calories when we go down and not up. Just bear it in mind, especially if you are planning to lose weight.
• Remember your childhood and jump the rope or do the hullahoop.
It’s good both for shaping your body and training your heart.
• Dance