As we come to the end of ConnectWell, we’ve spent the last four weeks learning and building new skills and hopefully creating a routine around our three pillars: mindfulness, movement and nutrition. ConnectWell hopes to introduce these three pillars in a meaningful and manageable way so that they set up the foundations for long-term habits.
Building strong, healthy habits is an important part of living a balanced life. Healthy habits include eating well, moving your body regularly, getting good sleep, managing your time effectively, practicing mindfulness, and engaging in healthy relationships. Christie Flora explores gentle ways to add new habits to existing routines in our monthly Check-in & Connect sessions
The definition of a habit is something that is routine, you repeat often and doesn't need too much effort or thought to be done. But this very definition is why it can be hard to form habits. The key to habit formation is repetition – doing it over and over again – to make it stick. Find more information on habits and how to form good ones here.
So, if you practice a habit but don’t track it, does it count? Probably, but it might not stick. It’s important to make time for a habit you want to form and tracking it can be a useful tool not only to keep you accountable but to see your progress too. You can track your habits with a diary or notebook, your calendar or planner, or even by being accountable to somebody close to you. Check out our previous blogs on Time Management and Prioritising Time for ways to add the things that are important to you into your life.
Habits can also be challenging to form because many people try to change everything all at once. Try setting small, realistic and achievable goals that slowly work up to a big one. For example, if you want to start incorporating more vegetables into your diet, rather than setting the goal of “I am going to have half a plate of veggies for every meal” it could be “I am going to add 1 serving of veggies every day to my lunch for a week”. After you achieve that goal, you may like to build on it to include dinners or an extra serve of veggies at lunch and keep going from there. Habit expert, Dr Gina Cleo talks about the Power of Tiny Habits and how they can create big results on her blog.
Another handy hint that helps with habit formation is to pair it with a trigger like a particular time of day, a place (like a parkrun or gym class), or an event (like waking up or eating lunch). You could even take this a step further and pair it with an already established habit or something that you enjoy. For example, when you get into bed at night (established habit), you practice two minutes of mindfulness (new habit). Read more about Habit Stacking.
Mindfulness can also be an important part of habit formation but also breaking unwanted or unhelpful habits. Habit stacking mindfulness can help you cultivate new, positive behaviors and break unhelpful, automatic patterns. Mindfulness works by bringing awareness to behaviors that have become automatic, allowing you to pause, observe the underlying triggers and sensations, and make a conscious, intentional choice about how to respond – whether that is to adopt a new habit or break an old one. This could be as simple as taking five deep breaths after drinking a glass of water. Dr Craig spoke to us about using mindfulness to build new habits. Check it out here.
Habits can be a tricky thing to navigate, but they play a big role in both your physical and mental health. Although some habits may be harder to make (or break) than others, the key is perseverance not perfection.