Changing Habits

I have always heard that our potential is vastly greater than what we believe and, in many cases, it is our habits that stop us realising that potential.

We tend to do the same things at the same time on most days and on most weekends.

For example, imagine changing your watch to the opposite wrist for a few days. You'd be amazed how often you'll automatically check the wrist you normally wear your watch on. Our body and mind often operates on auto-pilot mode! While many of our habits are supportive of our well-being, unfortunately others are not.

Time for change?

Springtime, more than New Year, seems to be the time when we make an effort to change our ingrained habits although some can be very hard to change. There are many sayings which indicate that the most important thing is taking that first step. 'A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step', 'a good start is half the battle', 'getting out of bed on the right side gets the day off to a good start'.

We may be planning to change our morning coffee for some healthier green tea, or our breakfast tea and toast for porridge with blueberries and chia seeds, or our 'walk in, watch the news' to 'walk out and walk fast for twenty minutes'.

What can you do to make the change easier?

What can we do to support ourselves release these old 'ball and chain habits' which are holding us back? Knowing that it only takes 21 to 28 days to change a habit can be a great help. Three weeks has an end in sight and we can see ourselves doing without that chocolate biscuit or morning croissant for that length of time.

With more serious addictions it may be helpful to join a twelve step group or to seek the help of a counsellor. There is great wisdom too in the maxim 'one day at a time' – in other words, not trying to change the habit for life but 'just for today' do without the glass of wine, the chocolate éclair or the cigarette.

Help when feeling stressed

We may be feeling a little stressed while letting go our old ways but the herbal remedy Avena Calm may 'hold our hand' (so to speak) in the first few weeks and Craving Essence from the Jan De Vries range could also be something helpful.

I've often heard it said that munching sunflower seeds can help when cutting the smoking habit and that green tea can be a healthier replacement as our morning 'pick me up'.

It just takes one small step to get started

Whatever habit you want to change, start today with that one small step. If we fall down today, we can start all over again tomorrow and, in a few weeks, we'll feel all the better for having made that change and be confident that we can now change any habit we want to change.