Be it a meme on Insta or an article there is a lot out there about positive habits.
Two questions spring to mind:
1. Why does this topic come around again and again?
2. Have you created or adopted your own positive habits?
The second answer probably answers the first. Millions have glanced at these and even read full articles. So why don’t we do them?
Us humans are creatures of habit. We get into routines because it makes our lives easier. My wife and I have ‘the bedtime routine’ for our children. It has changed as the children get older but it exists because its essence is about getting the children in bed and settled and ensuring the indispensable factors of reading to them in bed, washing hands and face and brushing teeth. If we don’t cover off the major points the evening seems to disintegrate – a child isn’t fully settled and needs re-visits or my wife and I internally crumble knowing we didn’t fulfil the bedtime story. The bedtime story is probably more important to my mental wellness then it is for our children!
Some of you may recognise this parental paradise. It applies to everything from having a first quiet coffee when you get in the office to putting on the right sock before the left.
The trouble comes when certain habits no longer serve us. Or they didn’t ever serve us. On our journey to work our habit may be to gesticulate to the tw@t that cut us up at the junction yet breathing and smiling might keep our body in a better state and arrive us at work more refreshed. And what difference did a retrospective middle finger or shout to someone who can’t see or hear you anyway? You’ve wasted brain space on nothing.
There are lots of teeny things we do without conscious thought. They’ve been put there courtesy of a parent, significant other or just seeing a pattern that’s made you adopt the cycle.
Also, we humans are very good at wanting to fit in. It’s sociable to be the same. Right? We do what everyone else does because it feels better that way. It’s socially acceptable. But every now and then we wonder why we’re doing something other than to fit the mould.
Example – I don’t watch sport. I play sport, yes. Badminton, now you ask – and maybe that’s just it. There wasn’t any badders on the tele when I was growing up. Yet I’ve tried to follow football or rugby just for the sake of being able to make conversation. About a decade ago I found myself reading the BBC Sport website and watching Match of the Day on a Sunday morning so I would know who was where in the Premier League. But I was doing it for everyone else – so I could fit in with what I perceived ‘everyone’ was into. It was a kind of hate-like on social. I’ll say I like it even though it’s dull as sh!t (in my eyes).
Does that mean I have positive habits just because I consciously chose not to follow the crowd? Not really, no. By positive habits I mean things that can break through any negatives.
As we get bombarded by all the things we should or feel obligated to like these can bring about negative feeling or create a negative tendency. Like becoming the tw@t that cuts everyone else up.
I’d like to suggest two things. Frame your day and frame your sleep.
1. When you close your eyes in bed tonight think of three things you did well that day. Big or small it makes no difference. From smiling a good morning to a passer-by to completing a piece of work or simply taking care of yourself.
Your mind will take these positive thoughts into sleep, thus creating a positive and restful night so you feel more refreshed.
2. When you wake up stay in bed for a moment and think of three things you are grateful for. Small or big, it matters not. A roof over your head, close family or friends, food in the cupboard….simple items of gratitude.
Starting the day being gracious for one’s fortunes helps to frame the day for positivity. You stimulate the neural pathways to think a little outside the of box and, unconsciously throughout the day, you outwardly project that positive gratitude to the world around you.
These two new steps to your routine take seconds. By exercising the brain every day in this positive the change manifests to be your new positive reality. You can smile and breathe beyond the tw@t or cut through the noise to be more at one with who you are instead of being everyone else.
To take that positive brain muscle to another level then try a WithOutLimit downloadable audio session at https://www.withoutlimit.co.uk/product-page/positivity-session.
WithOutLimit is a Career and Life Coaching Service. Created in Royal Berkshire, UK. Digitally delivered to the world.
PS. Free tip! Keep a box next to your desk at work so you’re always thinking outside of it. 😉
Comentários