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WOW Fitness has created this blog so that we can communicate with you in a fun and personal manner with a variety of subjects from fitness techniques to new products on the market to funny and interesting things we come across in our daily exercise lives. We'll try to keep it light hearted and informative... please feel free to make comments regarding our posts and indeed any thoughts you may have on the subject in discussion. In the meantime we hope you enjoy reading our posts, and be sure to bookmark this page for quick and easy access.
WOW Fitness Team

Friday 18 March 2016

Rise & Shine!


“It is only those who believe in their ability who shine when it matters.”
Maurice Greene

Have more WOW energy in the mornings
Each morning brings a magical day that can potentially change your life forever. How do you start your morning? Do you rush for a cup of coffee  to recharge your body? Do you do some fitness within minutes of waking up? Or do you like to spend a few minutes in bed, rebooting your system?

There are many ways to begin a day. Each morning is different. On some mornings you wake up sleepy and grumpy. On others, you wake up feeling WOW!  Then there are those mornings when you wake up with a start, realising that you are late for work. Ooops!

Good news, though: You don’t have to be a natural early bird to boost your morning energy levels. I am a great believer in -'How you feel when you get up is affected by much of what you do the day before and when you first get up…'

Can't get going this morning? Put some spring in your step with these WOW tips!
In the morning: Meditate

Even though your eyes are closed and you’re sitting/lying still, meditation activates the brain. It’s a powerful way to get blood flowing in the brain, adding that 10-15 minutes is all you need. If possible, sit in front of a window where sunlight is streaming in.
In the morning: Drink Up

By the time you get up, you’ve gone several hours without water and are mildly dehydrated - and that can make you feel tired.  Drinking something will get your circulation going, which will energise you.  Good old H2O will do!
In the morning: Break the Fast

I can’t say this enough, Breakfast is the one meal you have to have, it supplies glucose to the brain, revving it up for the day’s activities. Breakfast also helps stabilise blood sugar levels; if they’re low, you’ll feel fatigued. What type of food you eat, though, will depend on your body. While some people perk up with protein-based meals, others do better with a carb-based meal (think oatmeal). Try experimenting to see which type of breakfast satisfies you the most
The night before: Downsize Dinner

When and what you eat for dinner will affect your sleep. A late-night meal will force your body to be busy digesting, which makes it tougher to drift off.  If you experience bloating or indigestion, you’re also likely to toss and turn. Even worse, eating large meals late in the evening increases your odds of waking in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. If you must eat late, cut back on portions and keep the meal light.
In a nutshell, rise and shine and keep shining… I think that nothing is impossible when you want to fulfill a dream. A lot of people will tell you that you can't do it, that you don't have what it takes, but if it is in your heart and you feel it, there is nothing that will stop you. It is like the sun - you can't block it: it will shine regardless, if that is what you want.

“Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.” John Lennon

The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the joy of the whole world. We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won't need to tell anybody it does. WOW Fact -Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining - they just shine.

Try not to get lost in comparing yourself to others. Discover your gifts and let them shine! …and remember we all have different abilities that makes us WOW

Rise to a new week and catch the rays!

Sonia Cullington / Sun Shine Coach




Thursday 17 March 2016

Sehnsucht...



I love this German word, which has no English equivalent; it means “the longing for something”. In my mind it has romantic and magical connotations. C.S. Lewis who was one of my favourite childhood authors defined it as the ‘inconsolable longing’ in the human heart for ‘we know not what’.


WOW Fact - Because the concept of Sehnsucht is so important in Lewis' writing, the Arizona C. S. Lewis Society titled their annual journal Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal.


In my opinion, Sehnsucht represents thoughts and feelings that are both positive and negative:


Negative Example - a person’s quest for happiness with unreachable wishes


Positive Example - a person’s developmental function of their life management


“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream” C S Lewis


Imagine taking away unobtainable goals and replacing them with smaller goals to create direction in your life. This will help you on your yellow brick road toward your ideal self. What I am saying here is that you have to use your “imagination”.


My example is, there are two meanings of Sehnsucht – the longing for something or someone. In my case it’s the absence of a very specific someone, my father Ken. There are many traps and dangers in grief and  WOW Fact, time does not diminish them however we must also not underestimate the pain others are suffering over the same loss…In my “imagination” I tell myself – “pain shows that you have not forgotten; pain enhances the flavour of memory; pain is proof of love.” In terms of longing for something – life’s longings -my “imagination” runs riot! Longing for going home after a long day, longing for sea and sand, longing to satisfy my hunger for knowledge, longing for change, longing to help as many people as I can, longing, longing, longing they are endless…


Psychologists have worked to capture the essence of Sehnsucht by identifying its six core characteristics:


  1. utopian conceptions of ideal development   
  2. sense of incompleteness and imperfection of life
  3. conjoint time focus on the past, present and future
  4. ambivalent (bittersweet) emotions
  5. reflection and evaluation of one’s life
  6. symbolic richness
In a nutshell, Sehnsucht has important development functions, including giving pointedness for life planning and helping to cope with loss and important, yet unreachable wishes by chasing them in one's imagination.  BUT, WOW Fact - the majority of people who experience it are not conscious of what or who the longed for object may be, and the longing is of such wisdom and intensity that the subject may immediately be only aware of the emotion itself and not conscious that there is a something longed for.


“I have found a desire within myself that no experience in this world can satisfy; the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”  C S Lewis


I thought I would share this poem with you, Sehnsucht by Freidrich Schiller, it is simply WOW


 My eyes are open – but I’m not looking outward.


I turn inside – I turn to my inner light.


Will my inner light shine, what will I find inside?


What’s gone thru me?


The Longing, the Longing.


I’m like a blind man searching for sight.


Because he’s not searching for another.


We see each other.


Some ask – how does time pass?


How time passes…how time passes


I ask – how did time begin?


How time begins….how time begins


In which I live eternally


with this certain longing.


That comes and goes, comes and goes.


I so miss the longing.


Sonia Cullington / Coach of Imagination and Lover of Poetry…





The 3 Wise Monkey's...or is it 4?



Remember the three wise monkeys? One covered its eyes as if to say, 'See no evil'. One covered its ears as if to say, 'Hear no evil'. The third covered its mouth to communicate the idea that we should all strive to 'speak no evil.' But should there not also have been a fourth to signify the need to 'think no evil?' Perhaps that's just too far fetched! YOU can discipline yourself to behave well... but YOU can't prevent your mind from having the opinions it holds.

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective. It is not the truth.” Marcus Aurelius

WOW Fact – people will always have an opinion, but you have to live life the way you want to. It’s very easy to tell others what to do, but difficult to implement it on yourself…

Some people keep their opinions about anything in their personal life, like a prisoner…at WOW Health, Fitness & Wellness classes we are open minded and respectful to people’s opinions which are ultimately determined by feelings. We realise that having a low opinion of yourself is not modesty, it’s self-destruction. We discuss that it doesn’t matter what other people think because if you make the right choice to create positive changes FOR YOURSELF, that is all that matters. YOU don’t need anyone’s approval, validation or support…and a lot of the time, YOU really should avoid it.

WOW Fact – in my teachings I always compare our minds and bodies to a car and it’s engine, I love cars…I say “As a Human Engine sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, sometimes in the middle of nowhere you find yourself, here at  WOW  we will help you find your way….We will help you put your car in gear and drive in the right direction with the miraculous mechanics of your body and mind…we will give you the plan, the road map and the courage to press on with your journey…”

The human body, the engine and the journey are similar in many ways…

“Now to the WOW journey -like GPS navigation, it’s built into cars and your mind works in the same way…why is that? You give your device/mind the destination (end result). Because it already knows where you are, as soon as you give it your destination the GPS/mind knows how to get there! In fact, in a split second it considers every road and highway you could choose from. It factors in speed limits, traffic lights and often construction, and internal & external triggers. And amazingly, in a split second, it then knows the shortest, quickest, happiest route! But notice it doesn’t start talking/thinking until you put your car/mind in gear (and roll) if you don’t put your car/mind in gear, the entire system is wired NOT TO HELP YOU! If your car/mind remains in park, you’re actually telling it “NO, NOT NOW, I’M NOT READY” in the car/mind once you are in drive, the entire system flies into action, tracking your progress, rerouting you where necessary. Should you get distracted singing to One Direction at the top of your lungs, you’ll eventually be put back on track with “make a legal u-turn” YOU don’t get such guidance and correction in either a parked car or a parked life…”

“Can you imagine the travesty of stopping a short way in to your journey “it’s not working for me…it’s working for everyone else but me, I think I will return home and watch some TV and eat some chocolate and crisps, I am not good enough to have a loving relationship, I am not able to top perform at my job etc.. NO it doesn’t work for you, it ALWAYS works for you!! Everyday you get closer, every day it gets easier…these words should be your MODUS OPERANDI forever more on your Health, Fitness, Wellness and Emotional journey. The moment you claim it’s not working it stops working, the moment you say it’s hard it becomes hard…”

In a nutshell, if you fuel your journey on the opinions of others or in fact a negative opinion about yourself, you are going to run out of gas…

For a High-Performance Workout which will Drive YOUR OPINIONS in the right direction, I recommend WOW Fitness Wellness Classes - Email soniacullington@wowfitness.co.uk or contact 07534920666 for details

Catch you for the Drive…

Sonia Cullington / A Coach who helps guide you on the difference between truth and OPINION...