Only Once by Cleo Wade. Habit making - I just was reflecting on the importance of how creating habits create new neural pathways in your brain. It literally gets easier to do it because your brain creates a path. I often liken this to a path in the woods. The more you travel the new path, the more the old one is grown over and the clear your new path is - which means it’s faster and easier to get there. It also means the first dozen trips down that new road you might be clearing the way, cutting away brush, seeing what’s in your way and finding your way around, over or through. That all takes time and energy. Creating new habits isn’t always easy - but it does clear the way for the life you want to be the easier life to have. You just start small. Set an intention for one thing, one small thing, and practice it for two weeks. See if it doesn’t get easier to do. Might be saying hello to someone new, might be going to the gym, might be to just take three minutes to breathe. What are the things you want? What habits do you desire to have and to have feel easier? Pick one and start today. You can do it, I promise. Little bit by little bit.
Step One:
Pick something that has been on your mind lately. When you think of a SMALL habit you'd like to start building, what is it? You can have a short list but only choose one
Step Two:
What is a small, manageable way to start that habit? What is something that is something that you know you CAN do?
Step Three:
Start today. Pay attention to the feelings that come up. Pay attention to the barriers in your way. Are they excuses? Is it fear? What is the resistance? Sometimes we need to choose a difficult thing and force ourselves to do a thing until it loses the emotional charge we give to it. Obviously this is not true for unsafe/unhealthy/traumatizing things but when it is a healthy and manageable step to take - tell other people you are doing it. This can help keep us accountable. Mark it down somewhere. It helps us to see progress.
What small step to start/break a habit will you be starting today?