How Healthy Routines Can Resurrect Your Life

It’s a sunny and warm Saturday afternoon in April. The dogwood blossoms are blooming in your front yard. The blue skies are calling out to you: “Come outside! Soak in our warmth and sunshine.”

You want to go out for a walk, but you feel…blah. You had a doctor appointment yesterday, where the doctor recommended increasing the level of your physical activity, to enhance your health: ‘20-minute walks, thrice a day can be really helpful when it comes to keeping your cardiovascular and digestive systems healthy.’

You think about the doctor’s notes. You look outside and feel like today’s a great day to start that practice, but something’s holding you back.

Maybe it’s lack of motivation: it’s easier to stay at home and watch TV or browse social media on the phone.

Maybe you don’t feel confident that you can do it: ’20 minutes, thrice a day? That’s too much. I’ve never done that before.’

Whatever your reasons might be, you find yourself refraining from stepping out onto that open and healthy path that’s beckoning you.

…

Acknowledge the desire to go out and also, the beliefs that are preventing you from doing that. But can you take it a step further? What if you imagined yourself — let’s say, a month from today — fully and happily immersed in that daily walking practice, reaping all its benefits?

Yes, you can do that.

There’s science supporting that affirmative statement, and also, my personal experience with building and maintaining new healthy routines.

Curious about the benefits of healthy routines (vs. doing it once in a while)?

Here’re a couple:

Saves emotional resources: Research shows that when you start developing a new behavior, over time, as it becomes a habit, it requires less effort and resources from your mind: “Once a behavior becomes automatic, it is regulated by a different part of the brain that’s associated with less effort and less depletion of resources.”
So, when you’re indulging in a habit of going for daily walks (vs. going for a walk every week), you’re rewarding your body with the benefits of walking, while withdrawing less energy and effort from your mind. That’s a great gift you’re getting for free.
Saves time: Personally, I found that when I do my daily habits — like meditation — I don’t have to think about the why/when/how aspect of it. That part’s already sorted out and I don’t spend time questioning if it’s helpful, or what time to do it or which type of meditation to do. I just get into it and do it.
Boosts confidence: Every time I finish the meditation, I’m reminded that I’m capable of doing practices that help me, that I have the skills to do them on a consistent basis…and that confidence boost is good for my emotional wellbeing.

Eager to build powerful motivating routines?

Here are 3 steps to get started:

Identify what you want: Pick one aspect that you want to develop into a habit. It could be a having a healthier diet, a better sleep schedule or a hobby practiced regularly. Start with a relatively easy one so you don’t feel overwhelmed in the initial phase of building a trait.
Once you’ve chosen that, pick a specific sub-aspect: if you chose the diet, maybe focus on what you eat for breakfast currently and what you’d like to change. Try to be specific as possible: “I need to eat more protein and greens in my breakfast; I’ll start by adding spinach to my daily breakfast” is more helpful than “my breakfast needs to be healthier.”
Set a schedule: Think about how often you want to do it; in the case of breakfast, that’s likely a daily thing, but if you’re thinking about something like going for walks, maybe you want to start with ‘once a day for 20 minutes’. Find a good middle ground that’s kind and caring towards yourself, while also being motivational and powerful. As you get into the practice, you can (and will) change the schedule to take on more.
Keep track of your accomplishments: You took the first steps. Congratulations. Thank yourself for taking the initiative. One way to keep that motivation going is to keep track of your accomplishments: what you did, and how it helped you. It could be:

“Since I added spinach and eggs to my breakfast, I feel like I have more energy during the day. That’s interesting and rejuvenating.”

Having it written down builds your confidence and reminds you of the value-add that your practice is bringing. When you feel a bit unmotivated to do your practice, you can read your old notes; that’ll motivate you to go for it. You don’t have to do the journaling every day, but at-least in the initial stages, when you’re building the foundation of your habit, doing this will have a strengthening effect.

…

I’ve been incorporating several practices as part of my daily routine — meditation, gratitude, journaling, walks, listening to fun and soothing music etc. — and have realized that besides the value-add that the practices bring, there’s also a sense of structure, a pattern that starts to become a part of my life and personality.

Initial desire to build a habit →
First steps to implement it →
The goodness it brings in life →
Consistent practice to make that goodness a regular part of life →
The practice becomes a part of your personality.

…

I hope you get to a point where you’re reaping the benefits of your daily routines, while continuing to expand that list to include things that bring joy, healing and nourishment in your life.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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