I was out on a morning run (I can usually talk myself into 1-2 of those per week), when I saw them.

A group of women, circled up, all wearing activewear and doing lunges.

“Okay,” you might think.  “That seems pretty normal.  What’s so interesting about this scenario?”

But what I didn’t mention was that these women were clearly moms.  How did I know?  They were all doing lunges…next to their STROLLERS.

“What an amazing idea!” I thought as I stopped listening to my podcast and pondered what I’d just seen.

These women represented a lot to me in that moment.

Women who were busy-but were still exercising.

Women who were consistently sacrificing for a little person (or people) they loved-but were still exercising.

Women who rallied together with others in their same stage of life-and helped one another keep exercising.

The biggest reason people give for not exercising is a lack of time¹.  Though I didn’t know any of the women personally, I’m guessing they didn’t have a lot of time either.  If any of you currently have, or have had, kids who were still small enough to ride in strollers, you know that time is not your greatest resource.

But instead of giving up and giving into a perfectly understandable reason not to exercise, these women got CREATIVE.

They found others who would hold them accountable, all while empathizing with the ups and downs of having small children.  They found a space in a little corner of a park and figured out a creative way to exercise.

The point of sharing this story isn’t to say we all should mimic exactly what these women were doing, nor is it to shame us if we haven’t been exercising-whether due to little kids, lack of time, lack of workout partners, etc.  Rather, the point is to learn from these women.  On our journey towards health, sometimes a dose of creativity, like they exemplified, allows us to overcome obstacles to make the changes we desire.

So-how about you? 

Is there something in your health journey you’d like to change, but you can only see the barriers, challenges, or lack of resources standing in your way?

What would a dose of creativity do to help you overcome those obstacles and pursue the changes you want to make?

How can creativity fuel the healthy life you long to live?

Note:  Sometimes we can run out of ideas ourselves, and our creativity can be jogged by inviting someone else in to help with our health journey.  A wellness coach can do just that!  By meeting with a wellness coach, you have a guide, an outside perspective, looking at your health journey with fresh eyes.  Through a coach’s questions and reflections, you can dream up new options you’d never thought of before.  And someone just might be writing a blog post about how inspiring YOUR creativity was to them!

Want to keep that creativity alive and work with a wellness coach?  Simply follow the steps below and get started today!

 

Written by Brittni Paris, Wellness Coach & Blogger

Sources:

¹Riebe, D., Ehrman, J.K. Liguori, G., & Magal, M. (Eds.). (2018). ACSM’s guidelines for exercise testing and prescription(10^thed.). Philadelphia, PA:  Wolters Kluwer Health.

Photo Credits:
Photo by Alvaro Reyes on Unsplash
Photo by Alexander Dummer on Unsplash
Photo by Sai De Silva on Unsplash