Louise Thompson: Dropping the shoulds

I have had a flare up of an old knee injury which has been most frustrating. It hurts to run, it hurts to walk uphill. It makes me feel like a Nana. It's being fixed by my fabulous physio, but it has also given me pause for thought.

It's a funny thing that we tend to take our bodies so much for granted until something goes wrong with them. And we promise ourselves that when we are well/fixed that we will look after ourselves better, until of course we get busy and then our body takes a back seat again.

I am over of treating my body like this. Bored of hearing those same old arguments in my head "you should have declined that client and gone on that run you wanted to"; "you should have made time for that check-up" and so on. You probably have the same voice in your head too. A whole lotta shoulds.

What if I started to take my wellbeing even more seriously? What if I made my body my true priority for the year? How would I feel? How would I look? My real priority for the year, not just when it's not working but as a consistent principle through the year.

It's not just a shift in attitude that's required, it's a shift in behaviour. There is not going to be a huge magical surfeit of time that just appears out of nowhere, it's a conscious choice to make this happen. To plan it in as a priority and then let the rest of life flow around it.

I tend to wait until I am injured or achy to book a massage and then my favourite lady is booked up (Trish at Wellbeing Massage if you are interested) and I end up with a random masseuse, who doesn't know my body and isn't as good and it is a much less satisfying experience. Same with the physio, the optician, etc, this list goes on. I wait until there is a reminder from my body before taking action, but waiting for the "should" doesn't feel good and it isn't good for my body.

I encourage you to join me and eliminate the shoulds around your wellbeing. Decide it's a priority and schedule it in, commit to it in advance of a problem.

• I have a monthly massage booked, right through to December with my favourite masseuse.

• The three weekly yoga classes I attend are diarised to the end of 2014.

• I have a scheduled monthly maintenance appointment with the physio to prevent problems rather than an emergency one when I am in pain.

• I have diarised to go for a run with my girlfriends each weekend.

Whatever you can manage is fine. Just work with your diary and the needs of your body and the time and budget you have. You may think you will feel daunted by all this planning, but actually you will feel relaxed, energised and excited. The thought of treating my body well on a consistent and planned basis feels great! I feel great for taking something that was causing me stress and taking control of it.

Eliminating the should and knowing it's all in hand. Dropping so many shoulds out of life is profoundly energy generating. Try it this week.

Action step:

Where are you shoulding on your body? How can you eliminate those shoulds? What can you commit to and diarise NOW to make a dramatic impact on how you feel about your body?

Louise is a life coach, author and corporate escapee. Visit louisethompson.com for more.

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