The future’s a promissory note; the past a cancelled cheque

I’m struck more and more – when working with clients – by the fact that people’s lives are on an ever-increasingly rapid treadmill. I know you know the feeling! How can we become calmer and more productive in the midst of this?

So many of the health or weight issues that clients present, stem from this pace of life we’ve come to call normal. In my experience, there’s a yin and yang to everything, including our ability to either expend or create energy.

Creating energy

Think about your lifestyle for a minute. Does it allow for quiet contemplation or relaxation on a daily basis; do you have time to sit and do ‘nothing’; do you allow yourself to be ‘unproductive’? If no, you’re more than likely expending more energy than you can produce and this will impact (negatively) on you at some point. ‘Though we like to believe that success comes about through being productive and proactive, we need to consider the costs of this mindset to our health and wellbeing.

Doing vs Being

Actually, one can be far more productive when ‘achieving’ less; in a calmer, quieter state of mind, which allows for better efficiency and focus. Being in a quieter state also allows one to remain more frequently in the present and there’s nothing quite like being in the present to remind you of how beautiful and precious life on this planet is! You know the saying “The future’s a promissory note; the past a cancelled cheque“?

Well, if you think about it logically, you only have this moment – the one occurring right now, so if you’re moving so rapidly through your day that you’re constantly thinking about what you still need to do, or the problems you have to deal with, you simply can’t be in the present, with full appreciation of what that means.

This is possibly one of humankind’s biggest challenges – not to do but to simply be. Try it yourself – preferably on a daily basis and as often as you can throughout your day.

How to stay present

Keep bringing yourself back to the present and enjoy the moment you are experiencing now. It’s astounding what changes you’ll experience in mental attitude.

We understand that our ability to manage stress is pretty much based on how we experience stressful situations, so there are two options available to us when looking to reduce stress. Either change the stress, or change your perception of it. Often, the latter is the only choice.

Mental attitude is everything and it’s so much easier to have a positive mental attitude when you remain present. Tackle your stressors from this place and be amazed by how many of them you’re ultimately able to manage in a far more optimistic way…

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Tanya Wyatt

Owner at The Happy Body

Tanya started out as a professional ballet dancer. Swopping her pointe shoes for takkies, she decided being a hip hop dancer was way cooler, so chopped off her bun and joined a street dance company. For many years, she also taught dance and fitness classes in Cape Town before deciding that nutrition and lifestyle coaching was the way to help people change their state of health for the better. So, while writing two health and fitness books, she moved to London to study and began her ‘real life’ – that as a health and lifestyle coach. She’s been in private practice for 10 years now, is a mom of a 7-year old pig-tailed ball of energy, writes for various national and local health publications and is a health presenter when the occasion arises. Oh – and once a dancer, always a dancer – she’s also taken up ballet pole dancing 🙂 Click here to contact Tanya.

Latest posts by Tanya Wyatt (see all)

• DIE with a capital ‘T’ - 3 October 2014
• Time to ditch the wagon? - 1 September 2014
• Tips for avid Cheescake Eaters - 5 August 2014
• Falling off the Wagon - 2 July 2014
• The future’s a promissory note; the past a cancelled cheque - 3 June 2014