Building Healthy Habits — and Sticking to Them!
Written by Beccy Candice Clarke
When seeking to introduce new healthy habits into your daily routine, it can be beneficial to move slowly, taking small steps toward bigger goals, rather than jumping in at the deep end. Change can often feel overwhelming, something that we feel a sticky kind of resistance to, so prioritizing gradual improvement over temporary extremism is imperative to success.
In this way, many small wins combine, over time, to foster expansive positive change. Long-term health and happiness is achievable when we remove the pressure and rigidity of perfectionism and extinguish that dreaded all-or-nothing mindset. It’s all about consistency and learning to smoothly course correct when we fall off track.
Here’s how…
JUST DO IT!
Taking the first step can be the hardest part. There might have been something you have been wanting to introduce into your daily routine for some time, but various blocks have prevented you from taking action - that inner critic or low self worth, for example. Making the decision to show up for yourself and move beyond just thinking or talking about all the things you want to do to better your life is step one. Once you get going and start to reap some of the rewards, you will experience more and more motivation. Ask yourself, if not now, when?
GO SLOW
Slow, consistent, incremental change paves the way to well established and successful habits. This could look like waking up slightly earlier each day in order to fit in a breathwork practice or some morning movement before your day begins. If you usually slink out of bed at 8am, don’t expect to feel bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5am. Work back in half-hour increments in order to make this new habit more achievable, ensuring that it sticks. If you want to start practicing breathwork every day, try beginning with just 5 minutes in the morning or before bed, rather than attempting an immersive 30-minute journey right off the bat.
IDENTIFY YOUR WHY
Find your means of motivation and keep reminding yourself why you want to welcome these new habits into your life. If it helps, pop up some sticky notes and keep a journal of all that inspires you. This can really help to maintain momentum if you start to feel stagnant and unmotivated. Look outside yourself and consider how these new habits will benefit others too - as an example, practicing breathwork or meditation can help you to show up for yourself, your friends and family in a calmer, grounded, more balanced and present state. This has far-reaching effects, boosting stress resilience, increasing focus and mental clarity and creating a stronger sense of wellbeing.
BE CONSISTENT
Consistency really is the key to success when it comes to creating and maintaining healthy habits. Create a system that works for you and stick to it as best you can. That being said, it’s also really important to be gentle with yourself and allow yourself to flow with the tides of everyday life. If something comes up that prevents you from carrying out your new routine, no worries! Just come back to it when you feel able to. Equally important is to listen to your body. If you are experiencing exhaustion or mental fatigue, if you are pregnant or menstruating, take a break and do whatever feels good for you in the moment. The quest for perfectionism is a dangerous and destructive one that doesn’t lend itself well to long-term habit building. Find that sweet spot between pushing yourself forward and knowing what you need to feel safe, calm and comfortable. Changing your mindset from “I have to do this” to “I get to do this” can be really helpful here. Foster an attitude of gratitude!
ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR WINS!
So often we focus on our failures or the things we are not great at and overlook our wins completely. Tracking your progress, journalling or just taking a moment every now and again to see how far you have come will go a long way in cementing new habits and realizing goals. It can be hard to see how far you have come when change is gradual, so don’t forget to check in with yourself on a regular basis. Habits and routines are supportive acts of self care that can help us create the life we desire, one gentle step at a time. In this way, we are able to crowd out unhealthy habits with healthy ones.
In conclusion, I leave you with this except from James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, which is well worth a read if you need any further encouragement!
“The impact created by a change in your habits is similar to the effect of shifting the route of an airplane by just a few degrees. Imagine you are flying from Los Angeles to New York City. If a pilot leaving from LAX adjusts the heading just 3.5 degrees south, you will land in Washington, D.C., instead of New York. Such a small change is barely noticeable at takeoff - the nose of the airplane moves just a few feet - but when magnified across the entire United States, you end up hundreds of miles apart. Similarly, a slight change in your daily habits can guide your life to a very different destination. Making a choice that is 1 percent better or a 1 percent worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over the span of moments that make up a lifetime these choices determine the difference between who you are and who you could be. Success is the product of daily habits - not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”
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Beccy Candice Clarke is a writer, editor and holistic health coach. She endeavours to expand her knowledge of physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing with continuous and dedi.cated study; aiming to break down, into a more straightforward approach, the multilayered, and often conflicting tenants of health as presented by the modern wellness industry, the Western medical system and the more intuitive, holistic philosophies of the East. Hers is an integrative, individualised approach that seeks to make health simple, fun and accessible to all.
Through her website, earthconnection.co.uk, she celebrates the great healing potential of nature, seeking to create a space for the exchange of ideas, resources & practices that will spark a greater understanding of what it is to live with reverence for our Earth.