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.
Habit stacking creates 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:
-Whilst 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.
– Whilst 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.
– When I 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.
– Whilst 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
– When I serve my dinner I will put the vegetables on first and notice what I am enjoying about my meal.
– To be 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.
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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.
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Transformational change
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.
Would you like to change a few habits and effect a great transformation change with ease? I work with busy working women over the age of 40 I use tools that include great nutrition, mindful exercise and personal coaching to ensure your emotional health works with your nutritional health. I’ll hold the space so you can investigate what you want to see happen in your life let’s chat
Get Gorgeous is a journey together – yours and mine.
PS. Gorgeous! is your insight into great health and vitality Gorgeous! how to look and feel fantastic every day. Click here to download your FREE chapter of Gorgeous!
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