How are you doing in the
Body Moves Gratitude Challenge 2024!?
Whether today is your first, fifth, or eleventh day, we are glad you are here!
With Thanksgiving only two days away, it may be pressure is mounting. It can feel like there is so much to get done before you leave town or before family arrives! Lots of people are out in the stores buying supplies and Black Friday specials; and it seems more and more that society, in preparation for the holidays, sometimes loses that holiday spirit of kindness.
With a preoccupied minds, people stop seeing others and focus only on the task at hand. They assert their needs above others, be it in a household or at a stoplight. And it may be that we are those people!
So let’s change the playbook.
Here’s your challenge for today:
Don’t complain.
Read that carefully to make sure you’re not reading what it doesn’t say!
No complaining doesn’t mean you can’t acknowledge a problem. What it does mean is when conflict occurs your energy and words are directed toward the person who can help with a solution.
Will Bowen, author of the book “A Complaint Free World,” says that complaining:
- Keeps a person focused on the problem
- Damages a person’s health
- Is destructive to a person’s relationships
- Limits a person’s career success
He highlights that our minds and bodies are connected.
What we say, our bodies feel.
Read that again: what we say our bodies feel!
Changing the habit of not complaining can transform your health, relationships, career and life; however, Bowen says complaining is like bad breath, “It’s a lot easier to recognize when it comes out of someone else’s mouth!” So how do we start to identify our bad breath? To help make this change, Bowen proposes a 21-day complaint free challenge.
To begin, participants are given a purple bracelet. Every time they complain, verbally or otherwise, they switch the bracelet to the other wrist. The goal is to go 21 days-in-a-row without complaining. This is the basis for our challenge today.
Put a rubber band on your wrist.
Every time you complain today, switch the rubber to the other wrist.
The goal is to be complaint free, but even if that doesn’t happen,
you will still end the day more aware than you started!
Following is a presentation by Bowen. The video is set to start near the end as Bowen explains the 21-day Complain Free Challenge.
The whole video is an hour-and-a-half in length, so you may not have time to watch it right now; however, I encourage you to make time to listen to it as it is really about communication, focusing on what we say and how we say it. Remember, you can have the audio playing without having to sit in front of your device to watch it.
Here’s another suggestion: at the end of the day, spend five minutes writing about it. Your thoughts create your life, but your words indicate what you’re thinking. And what we say, our bodies hear!
Here’s to a complaint-free day!
Questions? Email fitnessatbodymoves@gmail.com or call 319-337-4777.
Find us on FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM.