You are here: Navigating your map to lasting lifestyle change, when you feel stuck.

Do you want to make a lifestyle change, but you’re feeling a little bit "stuck"?

Maybe you want to exercise more or improve your diet...

Perhaps you've had a health scare, and you're telling yourself "I HAVE to change something", but you're struggling to get started....

Or maybe you're a few steps, or even several years into your lifestyle change journey, and now you’ve hit a wall...

Whatever the circumstance, you're feeling kinda stuck.

Well, I've got a story about (sort of) that very thing!  And I'd love to share it with you, because sometimes when you’re stuck, feeling like you’re not alone in your stuckness helps to unstick you. 

So grab some marshmallows and let's gather round the (completely imaginary) campfire for Charlie’s Sticky Story Hour! (Okay the working title might change.)

HERE BE FRIESIANS

When I first moved to Cumbria, I LOVED how - no matter where you are - you're only a stone’s throw away from nature. I still do.

So I'd grab my dogs' leads and head off to explore as often as I could.

However, being new to the area (and, if I'm honest, a hopeless navigator) I found myself getting lost quite frequently - so I enlisted the help of a GPS mapping app.

On this particular day, we went out walking. The route was scenic, the terrain was varied enough to be interesting without being a brutal assault on my cardiovascular system, and the weather was GLORIOUS...

Once I was confident the cows weren’t going to boot the fence down and keep chasing us, I took a moment to try and slow my heart rate and take in my new surroundings. We couldn’t go back by that path now, as the cows stood stomping and jostling and snorting plumes of hot breath vapour over the fence.

Peering into the dense trees ahead, I felt my stomach clench. 

The woods were uncharted territory. I was totally lost...

...In fact I was quite literally stuck, because I had landed in thick, sticky black mud up to my shins.

No path forward or backward, just me, sinking into the mud, with two shivering dogs staring at me with anxious expectation in their eyes....

For a minute I was angry at the dog who started it all. Did he have to be such a stereotypical chihuahua and put us in danger, resulting in us being stuck here?...

For a minute I looked back at how much of a nice walk we were having, and how it had now been ruined, and I felt regret....

For a minute I blamed the farmer (I'm not sure what for), and hoped he’d come and move his cows.....

For a minute I felt totally helpless and stuck.

Then I remembered… My mapping app!

“Wait, heck, I won’t have signal out here will I?” I thought as I fumbled my phone out of my coat pocket in a shower of spare poo bags.

ONE BAR! Please please please…

Bingo. 

I looked at the blue dot that showed me my location, labelled simply “You Are Here”.  Three words that had never brought me so much relief.

I looked around.

I

Am

HERE.

Ok, I am here.

And there I was indeed: me, the dogs, our lives still intact...

Sure I could learn from the previous few minutes, but I couldn’t change them.

I was here, and it was ok.

It wasn’t what I’d planned or wanted. But really, it was ok.

At that realisation, I was able to stop feeling mad at the farmer, the dog, the cows and the clump of nettles I suddenly realised had been constantly stinging me through my leggings for the last three and a half minutes, and just focus on moving that blue dot on my map...

...shifting that “You Are Here”, a little bit closer to where I wanted it to be, one step at a time.

FOOTPRINTS IN THE…MUD

As that blue dot started hovering along the road back to my house, I realised that in getting lost, we’d actually discovered another route to take in the future.

Not only did this new and unexpected route have no angry cows, I also discovered loads of things along the way, including lots of cool wildlife and a little river for the dogs to get that nettle bog swamp water off themselves before performing a muddy, stinky victory dance all over my house...

I might even go so far as to say that it was a BETTER route than the one I'd planned...

A route that I may never have found had I not accepted my “You Are Here”, or maybe even got stuck in the first place.

So...how does this relate

to you feeling stuck

right now?

Now,  I don’t know (yet, at least) what your equivalent of the field of angry cows is, but I do know that when we are in a place that we aren’t happy with, it’s only natural to go over past events…

(Just like I did after throwing my dogs over the fence.)

Maybe we try to go back over them and fix them...

Or perhaps we look back through rose tinted glasses, wishing we could turn back the clock to a time when we didn't struggle so much...holding our present day self - with all of the changes in our life circumstances - to the standards of our younger self.

Sure, non-judgemental, compassionate and objective self-reflection is GREAT for progress.

But it's anything but great to be so tangled up in the past, that not only do we struggle to move forward, we even start to doubt our ability to do so.

When you feel so bad about your current situation - your personal “You Are Here” on this metaphorical map to better health - you can’t even bring yourself to look at that blue dot that shows you your location…let alone plot out the route to your happiest, healthiest and longest life.

So let me tell you...

YOU ARE HERE.

And you know what?

It’s ok.

It really is.

I realise that you want to be somewhere else, but it’s much easier to map your route there when you accept that you are here.

And maybe, just maybe, that route will be a better one, and maybe you’ll discover loads of cool things along the way too.

But know this…

You don't have to walk this path alone.

We recognise that accepting where you are right now and recognising that it's okay to feel stuck is undoubtedly challenging, and we understand that this process is easier said than done, so the support of a Body Matters coach can make all the difference.

Your coach will be there every step of the way - from helping you find acceptance in your current situation, to guiding you as you map out your unique path toward your healthiest self.

And no matter what obstacles life presents, they'll be by your side, providing the understanding, support, strategies and expertise you need to navigate your journey.

Plus, their guidance doesn’t just stop when your coaching sessions conclude; our aim is to equip you with the tools and confidence necessary for lifelong success, ensuring that you can maintain your results long after your time together.

If you'd like to find out more about working with a Body Matters coach, we offer a free initial call to help you decide if health coaching with Body Matters is right for you.

This friendly and informal chat is completely confidential, and we are dedicated to ensuring that you get the best help for your unique situation.

This not only means strictly 0% "salesy stuff", but also that if we aren't best suited to help you, we will help you - where possible - to access the appropriate professional and qualified support, via our referral networks.

If that sounds good to you, CLICK HERE to book your free Breakthrough call and I'll look forward to getting to know you!