Fitness Myths And Hopes About New Year’s Resolutions

Did I complete all the goals for 2022 of fitness, dancing, and blogging?

Every year, we hope to achieve a goal or a number of goals. 90% of those goals are forgotten or changed by the end of January. 2022 was one such goal-defying year for me. I break my own rules and every month add a new variation to my goals. It means that I try different variations of a basic exercise. If you have been reading or following my blog often, you will notice that I write about these variations. That is the result of my fidgety mind, as I always want to make exercising interesting and fun for myself and for my readers.

My daily workouts are my inspiration to write. I like to exercise every day, even if it is only for 10 to 15 minutes, and I like to write every day. I combine both my interests in writing about fitness. My connection to dance, music, and rhythm is the strongest and ever-present. It’s like vitamin D for me. If my feet are not moving, my heart is not happy, and I feel undernourished. And therefore, after blogging unambitiously for a long time, I decided that my blog would be for both fitness and dance.

Resolutions for the new year are both a myth and a source of hope. If you complete your new year’s resolutions, then it opens the gate for more hopeful opportunities. If, however, you cannot complete your goals, then they become a myth, something that we believe in half-heartedly. There are obviously many small goals that we did manage to complete, and that should be celebrated as well. Every small step helps us move forward in our journey to find success and happiness.

#1 Fitness Myth: Fitness is only about staying slim or running a marathon or going to a gym

Fitness and health subjects are both overrated and taken for granted. We want to take care of our health. We want to remain strong and flexible. We all want to be forever young. What’s stopping us from achieving our wishes? Just that. That you WISH you looked like your ideal image of a fit person. 

#Fitness is a habit

Just like brushing your teeth, fitness is a habit and not a burden. To be fit, you don’t have to go to the gym every day or participate in trendy health challenges. These things are part of a good health discipline. You can also remain fit by keeping yourself physically active throughout the day.

In the year 2022, whenever I visited my village, I observed the sharp bodies of village people. They have fewer means, and they are mostly farmers. They don’t go to any gyms. They don’t want to look like Paris Hilton or Dwayne Rock Johnson. They eat organic food, and they like to keep themselves busy physically and mentally while doing everyday tasks. They move more often because of the nature of their work. And it is true of farmers who live in mountainous or rural areas.

Fitness lesson: Without going to the gym, you can stay fit by choosing one simple physical activity and doing it every day. People who live near mountains have strong legs and knee joints because, in order to get anywhere, they often walk, which becomes hiking. 

Move as much as possible whenever you find time.Simple exercises like walking, playing a sport, using stairs instead of an escalator, doing 10 pushups or crunches, swimming, etc.Eat less junk food and drink more water throughout the day.I eat three times a day and walk for 30 minutes after every meal.It takes care of my gut health.

Read More: Sit-To-Stand Exercise For Lazy People

#2 Fitness Myth: Talking about mental fitness will make you appear oversensitive

The importance of mental health is often neglected because we like to go with the flow of life by keeping ourselves busy. It is only when our bodies begin to ache or when we notice subtle side effects that we realise something is wrong. If you get injured in a car accident, the physical injuries can be healed. But the recording of that accident will replay in our minds. It may make us scared of certain objects, a person, or a road.

What is more difficult is to convey the impact of any negative situation to other people. 

Of course, we cannot share with everyone and anyone; that is a myth broken by many bloggers I found on WordPress. It’s ironic that sometimes sharing our deepest fears is difficult with our close ones. We want to protect ourselves and our relationships with them. Surprisingly, sharing thoughts is easier for women than for men.

“A study by Schler et. al (2006) on blogs, on the other hand, found that men and women differ in writing style, as well as in the topics they write about. Women tend to be more personal in their style, and talked more about themselves and other personal stuff, compared with men.”

“Male bloggers of all ages write more about politics, technology, and money than do their female cohorts.”

#Sharing is a form of self-care. 

If you cannot share, then write. If your relationships are suffering because of miscommunication, then go to therapy. Do yoga and meditation or play a musical instrument to calm your mind.

I included daily morning and evening prayers in my New Year’s resolution for 2022. It felt like meditation when I took a deep breath and expressed my thanks and gratitude to God for small and big things. It felt like hitting the pause button and reflecting on the positive side of even the negative things happening around me. I realised that thoughts can impact our daily lives in such a powerful way. It also seemed like a fog had been lifted, bringing clarity to my thoughts and direction.

Surprisingly, my physical mobility also improved as I started writing regularly. It’s as if the more I felt relaxed in my brain, I breathed more calmly. I started humming my favourite tunes. I smiled more often. My body also started responding well to exercises. I was curious to learn more about professional blogging. 

Read More: Engaging The Five Senses For Self-Healing

#Dance Myth: Dance is a only a form of entertainment

When there was no language, our ancestors must have used sign language to communicate. Those actions took shape and became movements. People danced when there was a celebration of hunting a wild beast. When someone died, people invented burial ceremonies. This is not a history lesson that I have learned somewhere. I am just trying to say that movement as a means of communication and expression has always been a part of humanity. Just like in language, vocabulary brings clarity and refinement. Likewise, during training, students are introduced to dance vocabulary. That defines what each movement suggests.

#Dance and dance blogging are a form of expressing and connecting

Dance has evolved for me from simply partying to expressing myself. And as a dance teacher, dance has become a means of expressing my thoughts and also a means of connecting. Connecting to my audience and students is necessary.

My year in fitness and dance blogging taught me that it is impossible to connect to anyone if I do not include my personal experience in an article. No matter what the business or professional blogging advice suggests, as a dance teacher, I believe that people prefer to connect with people rather than a robot or a product. One-on-one human interaction is something I missed during the lockdown. I missed my dance students. I feel really good when someone in the comment section mentions they are definitely going to try the exercises mentioned in my blog. Though consulting an expert physician should always be prioritized,

In the coming year, I would like to increase my interaction by adapting a few practises that professional bloggers do. like creating an email list and sharing my content on Instagram and Pinterest. I would like to know what people’s ideas are about health and fitness. How are they managing their mental health? I learn a lot from both personal and fitness bloggers.

Read More: <strong>How Does Dancing Improve Cognitive Functions And Memory? </strong>

Final Thoughts

The year 2022 has been challenging for me. I felt like I was driving on a dangerous mountain road with unexpected turns. Sometimes, just looking over the edge or at a difficult situation, I thought I was not ready to understand. But life pushed me to look over the other side and jump at a learning opportunity. Fitness, dancing, and blogging are not just hobbies for me. Fitness is a habit because I have always been an athlete since childhood. Dancing keeps my heart healthy and my mind fresh. Blogging is something new for me, but it has become exciting as I have made new friends from across the world.

I hope the new year brings peace to the world as we learn how to take care of our physical and mental health. Happy New Year to everyone! CHEERS. 

References

What Men and Women Blog About on Their Blogs Research Paper, Updated: Aug 23rd, 2022. 

IvyPanda. (2022, August 23). What Men and Women Blog About on Their Blogs. https://ivypanda.com/essays/what-men-and-women-blog-about-on-their-blogs/