It’s time to give yourself a break if your manner of taking control is slamming on the gas pedal.
Heidi Powell rose to fame as a personal trainer on the reality show Extreme Weight Loss, where she appeared alongside her husband Chris Powell.
But it took her dealing with her own workout and eating difficulties, the couple’s divorce in May 2020, and finding new love with Dave Hollis for her to realize that letting go, rather than exerting control, is the key to inner peace.
Heidi is currently juggling being a mother of four and a demanding career. She competes in physique competitions in addition to being a New York Times best-selling book.
“I am my best self now, more than I have ever been,” she adds, “and a lot of that is due to the fact that I am more physically and emotionally fit than I have ever been.”
Heidi tells SUCCESS’s Madison Pieper how giving up control made her feel calmer, and they discuss her notion of balance and what health actually means in this episode of SUCCESS Stories.
Health Entails More Than Just Bodily Well-Being.
When we consider what it means to be healthy, we frequently concentrate on the physical aspects of our lives.
“When I heard the word ‘health,’ I thought to myself, ‘Am I working out six days a week?'” Heidi explains. Is it true that I eat five times a day? Is it true that I’m keeping track of my macros? How do I appear? ‘How much weight can I lift?’
However, after her divorce from Chris, she realized she had been putting these physical aspects of her life before everything else.
“I realize now that if you don’t take care of your mental, spiritual, and emotional health, and you don’t rest or take time for yourself, the physical doesn’t matter,” Heidi says.
This carelessness will eventually catch up with you, and you won’t be able to keep up with your workouts and nutrition. “At some point, the physical will burn out,” she predicts.
She’s since discovered that taking it easy may be just as rewarding as finishing a strenuous workout. “On Sunday, we really rested all day, which I’d never done before,” Heidi says. “It energizes me and gets me psyched for the week ahead.”
It is critical to your overall health to feel strong and fed in your body. It is, however, only one component. You must balance it out by devoting time to other elements of your life.
You Are Not In Charge If You Need to Feel That Way.
It might offer you a sense of security to be in control of a situation. However, it could be deceiving. When your need for control becomes a necessity, you’re essentially handing over authority to whatever it is you’re relying on to feel in command.
That was food and exercise in Heidi’s case. She believed that if she could utilize restrictions and workouts to make her body look a certain way, she would be able to achieve her goal of finding someone who would love her. Her passion for eating and exercise, on the other hand, took over her life. She felt even more powerless when she began bingeing and purging.
Heidi was only able to break free from her compulsive tendencies after accepting that she couldn’t manage her anorexia and bulimia on her own and putting her trust in a coach to help her.
Even if you don’t have a disordered eating problem, we all have aspects of our lives that we try to control too much and end up causing ourselves additional stress.
For example, have you ever been outraged or furious because of a comment on social media? Are you still irritated by it?
Related: 6 Great Marketing Strategy Books for a Competitive Advantage [2021]
Heidi is well aware that the comment section can be a dangerous place to reside as a public figure, particularly as someone who has gone through a very public divorce. She’s learned, though, that just because others feel compelled to express their thoughts on her life doesn’t mean she has to read or respond to them.
Heidi explains, “Getting angry by comments is another type of control.” “And I’ve had such a lovely connection with letting go of control over the previous two years.” Part of that is relinquishing control over what others say about me. They have the right to their opinion, but I don’t want to read it.”
Please take this as a license to not read the comments.
Related: 8 Ways to Leave a Long-Lasting Impression
Balance is a Never-Ending Process.
If you’re the type of person who always pushes themselves to be better in every aspect of their lives, be prepared for a shock: you’ll probably never have everything perfectly balanced. Another revelation: It’s all right!
“I don’t believe in balance,” Heidi replies. But I’m constantly balancing.” She continually evaluates where she spends her time and energy so that she can readjust and change her schedule if one aspect of her life is receiving too much attention.
Related: Great Quotes By Alexander
She confesses that it’s a trial-and-error procedure. For example, if she misses one of her children’s baseball games by accident and sees how it affects their connection, she knows that’s something she can’t compromise on in the future.
Another essential consideration in this balancing act is that you get to decide how “balanced” appears for you. Different people have different priorities, and only you know what you need to prioritize in order to live your life in the most effective way possible.
Heidi is a happy person who always chooses happiness. She asserts that “everyone has the right to select what they want.” “They have the option to struggle, to select whatever they choose. “I’ve made the decision to be happy.”