Healthy Habits Suck by Dayna Lee-Baggley

Author:Dayna Lee-Baggley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: snarky self help;cravings;binge eating;change health behaviors;exercise;behavioral health;shame;tools for habit change;make healthy choices;health behavior change
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Published: 2019-06-04T00:00:00+00:00

Mindfulness Takes Practice

There are many ways to be more mindful, such as by observing your thoughts or by noticing your five senses. These skills are simple concepts but they aren’t necessarily easy. Many of us are used to getting caught up in our thoughts all day long in order to live our lives. We think about getting up and going to work. We think about our tasks at work and use our thoughts to get our work done. In fact, it’s often the very successful, high-functioning, and well-educated people who have the most difficult time adopting this observer perspective. Why? I think it’s because their thoughts are so useful to their work that they don’t have a lot of practice just noticing them. So if you’re struggling with being mindful, with the observer perspective, and with being in the present moment, be kind to yourself. It’s likely because your thoughts have been very useful to you. But the more you practice these skills, the better you’ll get.

You might be thinking, Great, I’m totally going to be mindful the next time I feel anxious. If that’s your plan, it definitely won’t work. You don’t plan your fire escape route during a fire. If you want mindfulness to work in a “hot,” difficult situation, you need to practice a lot beforehand. You need to know your escape route long before the rooms are filling with smoke.

There are lots of ways you can practice mindfulness. You can informally practice any of the skills we went over. For example, try noticing your five senses during an activity that you usually do on automatic pilot. Morning routines provide great opportunities because many of us do a lot of activities (like putting on socks) while on automatic pilot. When was the last time you noticed the smell of your shampoo or the taste of your toothpaste? Being mindful isn’t meant to make things take more time. In fact, it might reduce the amount of time it takes you to do things. For example, if you’re mindful while you wash your hair instead of doing it on autopilot, you won’t end up washing it twice if you forget whether or not you already washed it! Mindfulness is a skill you can improve by being more present more often.

And, of course, if you want to do formal mindfulness activities, like the leaves on a stream exercise, there’s an app for that. In fact, there are many, many well-designed mindfulness apps. If you look for an app, I recommend picking one that starts with short (say, three minutes) mindfulness activities, so you can start developing your skills from a manageable place (remember our 90 percent rule).

Practicing mindfulness activities can help you learn how to notice your thoughts and not get caught up in them (or as psychotherapists say, “unhook” from your thoughts) when it’s not helpful or they’re moving you away from your values. When your thoughts move you toward your values it can be helpful to get caught up in them (for example, I should get up and go to work.

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