Your thousands of thoughts whirling everyday are not necessarily true (a crowd of perceptions, projections, You can build new habits limiting beliefs and ideas) but they are important. What we repeatedly think, say and do matters and accumulates. It takes courage and practice to examine and expand beyond our habitual patterns and well worn grooves. Encouragingly, it is both possible and worthwhile: you can build new habits.
Neuroplasticity
Neuroscientists have shown us that we have the ability to create new pathways until the day we die. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to form new neural connections – ‘the flexibility of brain circuits’ (Bessel Van Der Kolk, The Body Keeps The Score) – this natural malleability can be engender and stimulated by learning new skills, such as a new language or developing a yoga practice.
Where to begin?
The rational brain motivation may be clear and easy to relate, for example:
“I want to feel less stressed and look after my health, it is important that I do not burn out.”
However, the emotional brain may be a cacophony of (often unhelpful) inner talk, including a lack of trust:
“I say that I want to wake up earlier and go for a walk, but I never stick to it for more than a day…”
To build what I call ‘the trust muscle’ and believe that we can develop in a positive and sustainable way beyond hard worn grooves and habits.
We have to set the bar low to begin with. And take small steps, savouring the process, acknowledging progress and nurturing oneself to gradually step into a different way of being.
We are more likely to show up on the walk, the meditation seat. The yoga mat or the journal page if we trust ourselves and the process and we encourage and back ourselves.
Create a System
Create a system to support the creation and development of said new habit. That is as simple as having the yoga mat rolled out the night before. Or the pen and paper ready for your morning pages.
Refine it as you go along, i.e. does it help to wake up 30 minutes earlier to have that quiet no-tech time to yourself before the working day begins?
Can you make sure no meetings are scheduled until after a certain point to allow for reflection, grounding and breakfast?
The power is in the Focus and the Awareness
We so often practice distraction rather than focus. And we can encourage to do so by addictive devices and a corporate world prizing productivity far above health.
We risk being connected at all times and losing a deeper sense of connection to ourselves. The kind of work that requires deep focus and what matters most to us.
Paying close attention to an idea, activity or experience helps create networks in the brain. That can stay with you, wired together, sometimes forever…when a circuit fires repeatedly, it can become a default setting – the response most likely to occur.
Dr David Rock, Your Brain at Work
Pay attention to what is beneath the rumination, the procrastination, the inner critic, the myriad excuses not to build a healthy habit.
It is not as simple as willpower, we have long built other circuits and beliefs to support these – i.e. “I’m not awake and ready to work until I drink that coffee.”
If we can notice the resistance and lean into it. Try something different rather than recoil back or distract away, gradually developing a new pathway becomes easier.
In this way we can show ourselves that our fears/thoughts/beliefs are not gospel and need not be limiting. What we do with awareness is infinitely more powerful than going through the motions.
There is bound to be resistance to change, we are wired to protect, guard and be cautious about change, yet overriding these cautions (where appropriate) is how we grow.
The task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time
James Clear
Let’s say you want to create a new morning routine which includes a few minutes of conscious breathing. Or a walk to support your stress management and awareness before switching on to emails and texts.
Take notice of your inner radio and how you feel in your body. Take notice of the morning light, the way that your inner state shifts as you wake up, stretch and ground yourself.
Savour the good
Savour the good, it is through appreciation and pausing that you will begin to solidify a new habit. A state becoming a trait – as a gift and more than worthwhile.
In summary
Set the bar low to begin with, take it step by step. Create a system and refine it, be kind to yourself along the journey, pay attention and savour the good.
Louise Wellby, Head of Content