21: How Movement Can Boost Your Confidence & Mental Health - Happy Habits Series

In today’s episode, I’m kicking off a brand-new series all about my Happy Habits Framework—and we’re starting with one of the most powerful habits that changed my life: movement

This isn’t about weight loss or fitting into a certain size. It’s about what happens when you start moving your body in ways that feel good, for your mind, your confidence, and your emotional well-being. I’m sharing my personal journey of how movement helped me through anxiety, why I believe it's a core pillar of self-care, and how I started building this habit in a way that finally stuck (without guilt or pressure).

If you’ve ever said, “I don’t have time to work out,” or felt discouraged because you couldn’t do it perfectly, this episode is for you. 

✨ Want to create your own Happy Habits?
 Download my free Happy Habits Guide in the show notes. It’s simple, doable, and designed to help you build habits that actually support your life, not overwhelm it.

Get your FREE HAPPY HABITS GUIDE BOOK

 ✨ Perfect for women on a journey to feel stronger, happier, and more grounded, inside and out. 

Sign up for Laura's weekly email: https://gracious-adventures.myflodesk.com/podcast

Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/graciousadventures/

Subscribe to the podcast so you can get the show right in your favorite podcast provider and never miss an episode! Also, please take a minute to RATE & REVIEW! It would mean the world to me!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hi, I'm Laura Orlando and welcome to the Build Strong Women podcast. I believe as women that we are the role models for the next generation of girls. So how do we become the best role models for these young girls? We work hard to become the best version of ourselves, whatever that means to you. It's not easy. It takes work. It takes learning, trying new things, falling down and getting back up again. But that's what we do on the show. We dive deep into how we can grow on the inside. We will learn from women that are on the same journey as us. Just trying to become the best version of themselves. Let's learn together, build our confidence, learn to love who we are so that we can teach the next generation of girls to grow up to be strong and confident women. Hey guys, before we jump into the episode, I'm excited to share something really close to my heart, my happy habits guide. If you've been craving more clarity, more joy or happiness in your life, this is for you. This guide isn't about fixing yourself or adding more to your already full plate. It's about creating small intentional habits that gently support your mental, emotional and physical well-being. No overwhelm, no hustle, just simple shifts that help you feel more grounded and connected to who you really are. If you're ready to start showing up for yourself in ways that feel good and not forced, the Happy Habits Guide is your invitation. You're not alone in this. I'm right here with you. So make sure you head to the show notes to download this free Happy Habits Guide. Hi guys and welcome back to another episode of the Build Stronger Men podcast. I'm so happy that you're here with me today tuning into this week's episode. This episode is going to become a series that I'm going to be talking about and it's all about my core pillars for my Happy Habits framework. So I created these happy habits in my own life all around the promises that I was making to myself. So what I did was I decided I was going to make some promises to myself. They could be goals. It can be whatever you want to call them. But they were more of a promise to myself that I'm going to try to keep these promises. And I created these little habits on my life that helped me to keep my promises. So the core pillars of these happy habits framework are move Thank you so much for joining me. I have a free downloadable printable that you can use to help you create your happy habits all based on this framework. And this was like a very unintentional thing. I didn't say I'm going to create this framework for my happy habits. Absolutely not. It was just something that I kind of discovered. I was like, hey, you know what? All of these things that I'm doing in my life every day that help me feel good and help me with my mind really are Umbrella under these little buckets it had something to do with movement it had something to help me with my mind it had something to do with bringing me joy and bringing me peace and really helping me be intentional about connecting with people so I. created this framework to help you really figure out what your happy habits could be so that you can feel good inside yourself, so that you can keep these promises that you want to make and keep for yourself. So today I'm going to be talking about the pillar movement because it has been a transformational thing in my life. It has really helped me with so many things in my life. It had really shifted everything for me and I really wanted to share with you how how and why this pillar is so important for your life. And it is so much more than trying to fit into the jeans that you have in your drawer. That has nothing to do with it. It has so much more with your mind. So that's what we are going to be talking about in this series. And today is all about movement. So remember, if you want to create these happy habits in your life and find what works for you, this is all about what's working best for you. I want you to head over to the show notes and make sure that you print out this happy habits guide because it is going to help you create these little intentional things that you do throughout your day that bring you joy and fill you up okay so let's get started on the first habit and this one is all about movement and moving your body movement is so much more than just getting that exercise workout routine in and trying to fit in those jeans or whatever you're trying to do lose weight or you know whatever it is, it's so much more than that. It's about clearing your mind. It's about honoring your body. It's about boosting your confidence in your mood. That is why it is one of the core pillars. It has so much more to do with how you feel about yourself than just fitting into a size six that is still in your drawer. Okay, it really has shifted everything for me. And that was one of the wasn't moving my body. I wasn't doing the workout that I wanted to do. I wasn't being intentional about doing it. I was sleeping in. I was pressing snooze. I was just forgetting about it. I wasn't being intentional. And it was in the summer, actually, which is kind of funny because I would think, you know, summer, I'm going to be in the best mood ever. I'm going to feel good about myself. I'm going to feel good about my life right now because I don't have to work and go to school every day. But that was a really low point in my life. I just felt so crappy inside my mindset was in this terrible place and I started just kind of journaling and saying like okay what is going on what am I not doing that is really messing with my head and one of the things was I wasn't moving I wasn't getting my workouts and I wasn't doing the things that I told myself that I wanted to do I said I wanted to work out and I wasn't going to do that and my whole mindset was off I wasn't feeling good in myself I wasn't and feeling good in my own skin I just I didn't love who I was so I was done I said oh my gosh I'm not doing this anymore I'm gonna make these promises to myself and I am going to follow through with them so to make sure that I was following through with these promises I had to create these habits and one of the habits was moving and moving my body and exercising and a lot of women really complicate this whole movement thing because they you know look at other people on social media and oh I need to be doing that I need to be doing this no you need to do what's best for you if moving your body for 20 minutes taking a walk around the neighborhood a couple times makes you feel good then great, I want you to do that. It's not about doing what everyone else is doing. You have to do what's best for you, for your mindset, for your day, and you have to be intentional about it. All right, so this whole framework, this movement bucket that I have is meant to help you feel good and to really clear your mind and to give you just mental clarity. It's not really about, oh, I want to look a certain way. No, it's really about making this promise to yourself and following through with it and moving that body every single day. So I was listening to this podcast, and I can't remember what podcast it was, but there was a guy on, and he was talking about how you should have an A, B, and C for everything that you do. So a lot of the times we tell ourselves, okay, I want to get a 45-minute workout in five days a week, and that's what I want to do. And if we can't get that 45 minutes in, we say, oh, well, I can't get my workout in. I'm not going to do it. So he says to have an A, B, and C. So your A would be your 45-minute workout that you want to get in. If you can't get that 45-minute workout in and you can only get 20 minutes in, then do that. That would be your B. And if you can't get that 20 minutes in even, if you can even do a 10-minute thing, do that. At least it is something. So he described whatever you are doing or pursuing in your life, have an A, B, and C. An A is your ideal. Yes, I want to get that 45 minutes in, but if I can't, maybe I can get in 20 minutes. If I can't get in that 20 minutes, at least get in that 10 minutes. Have an A, B, and C for the things in your life. So a lot of the times we say you know what if I can't get my 45 minute workout in I'm done I'm not doing it and then you broke that promise to yourself and you didn't continue with your habit that you want to have in your life and then you just feel like oh so you have to not be striving for perfection if you can only get 10 minutes in or if you can just get in like 15 push-ups before you take a shower at the end of the night okay just do that you have to be able to adjust and give yourself grace and not be so hard on yourself When you can't get your full 45-minute workout in and your stretch and all the things that you want to do, you have to be okay with just getting a little in. So always have an A, B, and C. If you can only get that C in that day because you have a crazy schedule or something's going on, that's okay. And if you can't even get to your C, get to a D. Make a D. Make, okay, I have to do five minutes. That's it. Or it's just going to be 10 push-ups before I take a shower, before I go to bed. Okay, at least you did something. Putting in some type of movement into your life is going to be foundational for your mindset and your mental health. I'm telling you it's going to change your life like it changed mine. So I don't want to go on and on about giving you ideas for what you can do for your movement. You have to do what's best for you. What's best for you and what's best for me can be completely different. It depends on the season of life you're in and just what feels good to you. Just because someone's doing some crazy workout that's two hours long online and you're like, oh my gosh, I have to do this or I'm not going to feel good inside or I'm not going to, you know, whatever the way you want to look, you can't do that. You have to do what feels good for you. So a tip that I want to give you or some tips I want to give you for building this habit movement into your life is number one, like always, you have to start small. If it is just a five minute walk around your house, okay. If it's just a 10 minute walk around your neighborhood, that's okay. It is more than enough. You have to just start somewhere and you have to start small. So after you start this small habit of moving, I want you to really start Focus on the consistency of that small habit that you created, that movement. If you're going to tell yourself that you are going to walk for 10 minutes in the neighborhood or on the treadmill or whatever you're going to do to move or dance around the kitchen, I want you to be consistent with it. I want you to say, okay, I'm going to do it three times this week, and then the next week I want you to try doing it for 15 minutes three times a week. I want you to be consistent with it. It is not about being perfect. It's all about being consistent, and that's what I want you to focus on. Focus on the consistency and celebrate that. Okay, oh my gosh, I got three days in this week. I am amazing. Talk yourself up. Be your biggest fan. Be your biggest supporter. You have to celebrate that consistency. Maybe your real goal is working out five days a week and you can't get there right away. You have to start small. And then when you do those small little habits and you're consistent with them over time, I want you to celebrate that. Celebrate yourself. And then move on and build from there. You can build on something else. And what has gotten me to really focus on moving my body was all the other things that come with it and it is really how I start my day and like I said before you don't have to start your day with movement but it is a foundational piece of how I start my day it really helps to calm my mind and it helps me to de-stress it really helps me set my intention for the day and there are just so many benefits that have nothing to do with the scale or me trying to fit in my pants and I want to remind you that you are worth it. grow my confidence a little bit more. And I always say that I work out for my mind and I truly, truly 100% believe this. And I want to share this with everyone just because it has helped me so much in changing my mindset. I had very mild depression and anxiety in my life and I still struggle with some anxiety, but movement and moving my body has changed my mindset and has helped me ease my anxieties and all that I have had built up inside of me. And I didn't know that that was such a huge part of helping me heal inside. And this isn't gonna work for everyone in that way, but it has really worked for me. And that's why I think I'm so passionate about sharing it with you and why it has become such a foundational part of my everyday life and why it has become part of my happy habits that I have to do every single week. So what I want you to do is think about what is one form of movement that you can start today, that you can do something really small. Is it just stretching in the morning? Is it maybe turning on a YouTube video and doing a five minute yoga practice, whatever it is, I want you to start really small and make a decision that you are going to do this for yourself. You're going to do this for your mindset. You want to have less stress and clear your mind and have a more peaceful life. Add some movement into your life. It is going to change everything for you. And that is why it's such a key pillar in my happy habits framework. So I hope this episode was helpful and it got you thinking about, okay, how can I incorporate some more movement within my day? How can I add some type of movement into my life that feels good to me? I want it to feel good to you because if it doesn't feel good for you, you won't keep doing it. You'll stop. You won't be consistent with it. So set an intention that you're going to move whatever it is, whatever feels good to you, a couple days a week, and start there and start really small. Starting small is the best way to do it. And I'm telling you, it's going to clear your mind, it's going to help you feel better. And you are going to stick with this habit. So I hope this episode was helpful. And if it was, I would love for you to share it with a friend. And I can't wait to continue on with this series of all the happy habits in this framework. And movement is such an important one. That's why I really wanted to talk about it and it kind of goes into the mindset as well. That's another pillar that I have because it really helps me with my mind. I say every day and I will say it forever. I work out for my mind because my mind can go crazy. And if I don't do it, I feel crazy. So I hope this episode was helpful. And if it was, I'd be so grateful if you could share it with a friend. And if you are ready to create your happy habits in your life, I'm telling you, they're small, they're intentional. This is not hard. This is very easy. And it will be life changing. I want you to head over to the show notes because I have that free download of the guide to help you create your happy habits. It's very simple, very easy, and it's going to be life changing for you. And I can't wait for you to get started. So as I end every episode, I want to end it with a positive affirmation to help you with your day and to help you get you through your week. And that affirmation is I show up for myself because I am worth the effort. I hope that you have a wonderful day and I will see you on next week's episode.