HABIT FORMING
Part of the motivation behind creating The Self Reset Challenge for our Balance + Glo community was to help find ways in which we can implement positive habits into our daily lives. As we head further into September and towards the Autumn Equinox on the 23rd, we instinctively and intuitively turn inwards and look closely at ourselves, our goals and our daily rituals.
Habits are pretty essential to our health and wellbeing, but we all know that the good ones can be easy to break and the hard ones tricky to let go of! Creating new habits takes time and effort, but there are a few things that you can do along the way to make it easier until they become like second nature. In his book, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, James Clear break the process down into more manageable steps:
#1 Start Simple.
It sounds pretty obvious, but start small, with something that should be easy to achieve. So instead of saying “I’m going to do an on-demand class everyday” it should be more like “I’m going to do two classes a week”. This is a much more achievable goal that can become a bedrock to build upon.
#2 Build on your habit with small steps.
Continue to add small steps to your habit and look for ways that you can break a big habit goal down into bite size chunks. If you are looking to increase your meditation practice, why not look to do two 10 minute sessions a day instead of one 20 minute? Again, it makes it more manageable and achievable, which in turn makes it more likely to succeed and increase your motivation to keep going.
#3 Stack your habits.
Add the new habit you want to form onto something you already do without thinking. You always brush your teeth every morning (we hope!) so make this the time to listen to that new podcast. Want to start including meditation in your day? Every time you make a cuppa, meditate whilst the kettle is boiling. This makes the new habits fit into your life and feel like part of your normal routine.
#4 Track your progress.
Pretty much every journal or diary has a habit tracker these days and that is because it works! Everyone falls off track, life gets in the way at times, but the key is how soon you get back on track. By keeping a visual record of your habit, it can help build your motivation and also help to understand what is getting in the way. The key message is consistency over perfection.
At Balance + Glo we are all on our own journey with our own habits, sometimes it feels like things are working really well and other times it can feel unmanageable. The key thing is to keep trying, to keep setting goals and working towards them. You don’t have to wait for a set date to start improving your life, the best time is now, you can still sign up to The September Reset or join our online community and pick the perfect on-demand or live class for you.
