Habits

It can be challenging to keep on track with “healthy habits” or to change something in your routine. Whether it's implementing a new workout routine, trying to keep with some helpful movement, or choosing to eat healthier, sticking with your choices can be difficult.  

So often in my practice I see people who want to make changes but have a hard time integrating them into their life. Whether its lack of time or lack of commitment, or any other possible reason, change is challenging. But we need to create change if we want to grow and heal within our body.  

One common mistake people make with habit building is taking on too much too soon. You often want to change, and go ahead and switch around everything in your routine for a few days or a week and then you burn out or “fail” or get tired and can’t comply. Switching your entire day around is too much right away. If you want to start a healthier eating plan, and you go from eating less healthier foods to only salads and fruit and veggies all day, your mind and body will not comply. It is too much too fast, and if something out of the ordinary happens, the old habits and ways of eating will immediately take over. When patients want to make a change in their body, I encourage them to start small. We take one or two exercises that they are confident doing and focus on making time to integrate these into their daily routine. We want to give you some small “wins” to gain confidence and traction towards change. Once these small things can be easily integrated, then we can layer on more. 

Often when you are rehabilitating an injury, getting into pain management can be tough. Mentally and physically it can be taxing, so we build a plan and get specific about what, when, where, and why we are going to do this rehab or make this change. Setting out small “goals” to become habits, and getting clear on why you want to do them is key to success. What needs to be accomplished is established by you the patient with the help of a practitioner to ensure accountability and success. This can look like certain exercises for strength and mobility, a workout routine, breath work, or a number of other things. Once what is needed for recovery is decided then we can establish when and where (and how) this will take place. If you have never been one to workout before, or have no history of fitness, then we don’t want to jump into an hour fitness routine. We want to make attainable progressions to keep you on task and accountable. We can establish a time to aim to do the exercises, and the space in which it is to be done. When the time and space is established I then will even offer to people that to build the habit we need to integrate it in, and it does not have to be perfect. So if it has been established that every day at 7pm is a good time to do the rehab work, and it is going to be done in your office on a yoga mat, I will encourage you to start by going to the office at 7pm, lay out that yoga mat, and go from there. Sometimes you may not get in those exercises or workout, but I want you to at least do the act of getting to the space and time that was set aside. When we can start to prove to our mind and body that we can get to a space and time for a certain intention, that intention becomes more actionable. And over time the barrier to entry is slowly broken down. If you can establish to get yourself to that mat, and even just taking a breath, then doing the work becomes more approachable. 

You also want to establish WHY you want to make the change or start the habit. When you break down why you want to do something and why you want to create changes you can lean into this during times of less motivation. Having a solid base to rely on is crucial to shifting that mindset. One helpful tool is to write down all the pros and cons of doing something. Make your list and find what really speaks to you. Get really honest with yourself and tweeze out what you're afraid of if you do this, how it will help you, how it will help your family, and then bring this into how you want to show up in your life. To create lasting change and/ or habits, you want to find the right reasons to lean into when things change, or when life gets challenging. 

Breaking down into what, where, when (how), and why, we can start to find self-motivation and align ourselves for success to make lasting change. Start by just getting through those first steps, figure out why you want to make the change, settle out when and where you can do this and start by just showing up. Create the space, make room, determine your motivation, and give yourself grace to begin again.