I know I’m not alone in saying, “I’m going to start working out (fill in some time in the future)? When that day arrives, “Okay, I will start next week.” Hmmm… how many weeks or months pass before I do it? It’s alright, you can laugh if you know this routine.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve procrastinated when it comes time to workout. Yet, I know when I make the time to do something good for myself, I FEEL BETTER!

Here’s the problem…if I’m meeting working out with the energy of lack, the stories I’m telling myself are that I’m not enough and/or I’m not lovable how I am right now. I’m desperate to be somewhere or someone that I’m not. There could be different messages thrown in for different people. It all depends on where our lack comes from. I can always trace mine back to feeling lovable and worthy.

Okay, so if I’m in this energy of lack, and my messages aren’t aligned with the energy of love, abundance, and peace, I’m energetically fighting with doing something good for myself. I’m trying to convince myself to do something mentally, emotionally, and physically, that my ENERGY is working against, and in my experience my ENERGY wins most of the time. I can’t fake it until I make it with my energy. I have to accept where it is and use my tools to move into a different energy.

Let me give you an example. I spent months working my butt off using a tread mill. I did all kinds of routines, elevations, speeds, and distances. I would be on it for an hour, and sweat. I was working out because I didn’t accept how I looked. I HATED the way I looked at that time. When there was not real change, I gave up.

About a month later, I decided to start walking in nature daily because I love nature. I would walk around 5-miles. It didn’t feel like work. Sometimes I would do it with a friend and at other times I would walk alone. I didn’t do it because I wasn’t accepting myself (LACK). I did it because I loved how I felt when I took nature walks (LOVE, ABUNDANCE, and PEACE). Not only did I lose weight, but because I was in the energy of making my body FEEL good, I was attracted to foods that made my body FEEL good too. It all goes together.

When I’m overwhelmed, I forget what it means to feel good, and unfortunately those are some of times I hear myself say, “I NEED to walk.” “I NEED to lift weights.” “I NEED to stretch.” I can go on, but you get it. That’s why I started writing this series, so I can instead focus on what can I do now, because only in this space do I help myself stay out of the stories that keep me stuck. I stay away from expectations of myself for tomorrow or the next day. It also keeps me from diving into the story that I don’t have time. The fact is I have time for the things that are a priority in my life whether those priorities are subconscious or conscious.

What can I do now? Well, I love the way stretching feels, so I can start by stretching. Once I’m done with stretching, I can ask myself, “What else would feel good to do?” Just taking it one step at a time. I’m actually getting excited at the thought of doing it, because I love the way my body and mind feel when I do a stretching workout. What exercise makes your body feel good?

If my goal is to feel good while working out, beating myself is not part of the journey. If I’m shaming myself for everything I’m not, my energy is aligned with feeling bad—I attract more to feel bad. If I’m focusing my energy on how good it feels to workout, I’m aligned to feel good. Therefore, I attract more situations where I feel good.

I’m going start stretching now. Do you want to join me?

With Love and Gratitude,

Rachael Wolff, author of Letters from a Better Me and host of the From A Loving Place with Author Rachael Wolff podcast