creating a habit

Go Easy (With Habit Creation)

Go easy. Go slow. Go simple. Go small.

When we’re creating a new habit, it’s usually easy at first. We’re excited to be doing something new and good for ourselves!

And then the honeymoon wears off and we slide back into our old habits. Have we failed?

No! We just need to keep going and realize that changing habits takes time. You formed your old habits because they were helpful and now they are, well, habits! They’re really easy to do. You do them with out thinking, on automatic! That’s really easy!

And now, you’re changing to something new that you have to think about. That’s much more challenging.

As change coach and professional mentor, Robin Rice, says, this is why we need to make our new habits as simple and easy as possible!

And go slow. We need to give ourselves the time and space to change. Habits take time to form… we have to create new pathways in our brain, and change the old ones. That takes time, so allow yourself the time to do that.

And go small. Rice also points out that small changes are much easier to make and we’re more likely to succeed. Changes that are too big require too much time, space, attention and brain power and thus they usually don’t work!

Go slow. Go easy. Go simple. Go small.

Happy habit change!

Is Mindfulness Helping You or Not?

(4:01) Why are you practicing mindfulness? Do you want to be less stressed, more focused or have better relationships? Maybe you want to sleep better?

And is mindfulness helping you with this? Are you getting better? How do you know?

Sometimes the answer to these questions are obvious, especially if we’ve been practicing mindfulness for a while and we can see lots of change over time. Sometimes it is less clear if our practice is helping or not.

If you aren’t sure, there are a few simple things that you can do… First, it helps to get clear about your motivation: why are you doing it? Get clear about what you want to improve.

Second, identify something about it that you can measure over time. For instance, if you want less stress, pick something that stresses you like every time you get a new project at work, and notice if your stress reduces over time. You can do something like give yourself a number from 1 to 10 each time it happens, write it down, and see if your number goes up or down overtime (from 1= not stressed to 10= really stressed) .

If you see positive change, you’ll be motivated to keep practicing! If not, then think about doing something different than mindfulness to address your issue or consider adjusting your mindfulness practice to suit you better. I specialize tailoring practices to suit individuals, so check other videos or email me for suggestions!

Happy Improving!