If you are time-poor creating habits will take the pressure out of life. Forming a great healthy habit is incredibly useful because it takes the pressure off in your busy day. When a consistent behaviour becomes a habit it moves from your conscious mind to your subconscious mind. You are not even aware that you are performing it. You save time and energy because in everyday life it is your conscious mind that is the bottleneck of the brain. Habits reduce the cognitive load and free up mental capacity so you can allocate your attention and spend your time on other tasks. Habits create more freedom and this blog will outline how you can add more easy habits into your busy day.
There are ways to add new habits into your day in an easy way. When it comes to building new habits you can identify a current habit you already have. Think for a moment of all the things you do in a day that you hardly remember or know that you do, they are deep in your subconscious. Liking filling or unloading the dishwasher, or other habits like:
– brushing your teeth
– making dinner
– walking the dog
– glass of water by your office desk – remote or at home.
What other habits are personal to you? Do you have a morning ritual or routine that you stick to religiously?
Power exercise: Identify some habit that you currently do every day write them down in a vertical column on a piece of paper and add a second empty column alongside. I do love a healthy habit and I talk a lot about this in my best-selling book, Gorgeous! If you want to make nutritional changes but feel overwhelmed and confused by conflicting information and you’re left bewildered about where to start then pick up a copy of Gorgeous!
How does habit stacking create freedom?
Once you have a list of about 10 of your current, preferably good habits then write down a quick easy habit you do alongside it.
Stack a new habit or desired behaviour on top of it. This is called habit stacking. The real beauty of this technique is that you are already in motion, you have already begun and therefore attaching a ‘desirable’ new habit alongside will be easier than starting from scratch. The new behaviour needs to be easy. Don’t aim for 10k run next to brushing your teeth, although your thinking is commendable it isn’t realistic. You could add a simple stretch for that niggling sore knee or thigh. Or perhaps when making your morning coffee you can empty the dishwasher – again! Or if you are looking to improve your health and kick start your day. You can make your morning coffee and before the kettle has boiled/perculator percolated or whatever fancy pants coffee routine you have – you can add in a drink of water.
Here are some of the combinations of stacked habits that clients have shared with me over the years:
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- Brushing my teeth I practice my balancing on one leg in a tree pose to prevent injuries and dramatically lower my risk of injury whilst running. It’s worked I feel so much stronger in my less dominant leg.
- Making dinner I mindfully notice what I am doing, it helps me to destress and unwind from my busy workday and gives me a clear break from work to home.
- Sit down to dinner I say 3 things I am grateful for that happened that day and I ask my family to do the same.
- Walking the dog I add in a 1-2 minute run to improve my heart and lung health. I feel so much fitter and stronger and I’ve put no pressure on myself to do this
- Serving dinner I will put the vegetables on first and notice what I am enjoying about my meal.
- More organised and productive at work I will write my 3 most important tasks when I switch my computer off at night so that they are the first things I do in the morning.
Which one resonates with you? Rather than trying to add in lots of new little habits, start with one or maybe two. It is a great idea if you ensure that they are related. For instance, if you want to improve your productivity then make your new habits around that focus. If you want to strengthen your right leg focus on that for a few weeks until that feels truly embedded. Don’t miss How to keep a healthy perspective when life is crazy
The mastery comes from practice, small changes and that you are taking advantage of the natural momentum that comes from the first habit which leads to creating the next. It creates a behavioural change that leads to easy steps to transformations. Success comes from using the strategy to pair a new habit with a current habit.
Bonus tip: Consider adding a new habit when you will be most likely to be successful. Research shows us that we are more likely to have higher motivation in the morning rather than when we are tired in the evening. So adding your new habit into your morning routine will mean a higher success rate.
Don’t Miss: 5 surprisingly helpful tips to boost your mental health
How can you create a transformational change to your health?
Creating a long-lasting relationship with yourself that is loving means change that adapts to you, creates confidence and the results lead to long term transformation change. The Gentle Reset – 6 weeks reset your mind and detox your body
If you’re not feeling great, full of vitality and hitting your weight goals then you’ve probably had a few glaring gaps……so with that in mind, I’d like to invite you to work with me inside my membership community on The Gentle Reset.
What sort of results can you expect?
Here are a few examples of what my clients have achieved so far: Marketing business owner Charlotte is frank: “Your support, great advice, laughter and tough love have changed my approach to food…as a busy mum of 2 teenagers and consumer brand marketer & business owner, I’ve changed my entire approach to food and prioritising my own health” Read more about Charlotte’s journey here and Mary’s story and others click here: success stories click here
How much does it cost?
Your investment is currently £415 but this is for a limited time, the price will be increasing soon – click here to grab the best possible price
BE QUICK this programme, along with all my programmes will be increasing in price very soon > Click here to find out why I am raising my prices But you’ll also discover how you can grab a place before my prices go up, but you will need to be fast.
Gorgeous is your journey of discovery
PS. If you have read enough and you know that this is for you, and you are ready to discover the next stage of your journey – then click here to join my next round
Find out what other clients have to say…
A quick note to let you know that I loved your book. I read it as someone who is wanting to understand changes she can make to pull her health and wellbeing back into a place she is comfortable again.
I love it! You’ve done a fabulous job! I’m lucky enough to know you so could hear your voice in my head and enjoyed the easy style and chatty and gentle direction you offer.
I suspect it will do very well.
Bravo beautiful!
Simone Gilbert Simone Gilbert - Real Health & Vitality Get Gorgeous Book 19th November 2018