Ease Brain Strain By Building Habits

At times like these, covid19 quarantine, physical distancing, work and home blur, zoom fatigue and fear, the brain is in overdrive.  This is incredibly taxing.  Not only does this fatigue us in every way, it leaves us with lethargy, apathy, don't-care anyway'athy--and that is so unHEALTHY.  When we use our mental energy on too many decisions with too many consequences, we make life harder than it has to be.

Swooping in--the magic of routines, habits, rewards!  By creating a routine built on habits that come easily, we can stop the mental gymnastics of decision making and begin the ease of riding on what we automatically do--no questions asked.

Consider what you do without thinking every day--from folding your hands a certain way to making coffee as soon as you walk into the kitchen--these habits are often cued.  When I walk into my kitchen first thing, I boil water for my pour over coffee.  I don't think about whether I should do it now or later.  It is the morning.  I am getting up.  I like a good cup of strong black coffee.  Then, I get it.  I like the smell of coffee, the taste, and then I settle in to my cream of wheat breakfast.  I get full for few points by adding a piece of fruit.  DONE.  Three SmartPoints later on Blue, and I am good.  This habit loop reinforces itself every day making it even stronger.  So, when life gets tough, and I am not well rested and can't really think straight (it's moving week around here)--I don't have to think.  I am running on the power of a good habit.

That's an easy one for me.  For you, consider what habit you'd like to create to make your life feel more manageable and automatic.  Is it a meal?  Is it a snack time?  Is it a fitness routine?  Is it a water consumption plan?  Whatever it may be, consider first what will cue you to do the habit.  Then consider what the habit you actually want to attach to the cue is.  Then appreciate what the reward for the habit is.  The cue and the the reward are the GLUE that make the habit stick.  Thus, saving valuable mental energy for something else, like practicing your hobbies or learning French history (that's mine) or doing a puzzle with no picture (not mine ever).

You have nothing to lose but a waste of precious mental energy, so try it and make your life more predictable, more rewarding and oh so much easier.