EP17: Habits = Freedom

This is winning with wellness, a podcast about inspiring the wellness warrior in you. If you're feeling lost or alone in your wellness journey, or looking for new ideas and inspiration, you are in the right place, a place you can learn about all things wellness, in business life and living your host, Jenny rice, we'll be bringing you inspiring stories and practical tools to improve your overall wellness, personally and professionally. Imagine what living a life of wellness would be like. Thank you for joining us today.

Hi, everyone, welcome to another episode of winning with wellness, I am so thrilled to be here with all of you and to have so much gratitude for those of you that are listening and tuning in sharing, liking and loving this podcast is truly is a labor of love. And I couldn't do it without you. So thank you so much. I'm really excited to dig into a topic that keeps coming up with my clients, and all the people that I'm connected with your holistic earth. And that's really digging into discussing why habits can hurt us, or why they can help us. So one of the things that we want to realize and think about as we move forward into discovering our habits and looking at them, why they're really important. And what they've done for me over the past habits used to hurt me, I will be honest with you, I didn't always have the best habits, I found that I would lean into a habit that didn't serve me well. One of them would have been maybe having a glass of wine when I got home from work or, or grabbing those chocolate chips. The key thing is, is understanding why we have habits and how they happen. So to you know, on this talk, I really want to dig into to understanding that not all habits are bad. And that how can we use a habit that maybe isn't serving as well and shifted. So I love to save and share with people all the time habits equal freedom. And what I mean by that a lot of people think What do you mean habits and getting into habits equal freedom, because habits actually take no motivation. It's something that we do naturally. And it becomes part of our routine. So it frees up time and energy in our mind. So that we are moving in and doing things that we want to continually do for example, you for those of you that are listening, I've just picked up my bottle of water. Every single day, I start my day by drinking water because we spend our evenings. Without water, we're sleeping, we're usually extremely dehydrated when we wake up and our body is in a state of scarcity. So we need to actually plenish our bodies with water. This wasn't a practice that I always did. And I didn't realize until I started implementing it the importance of what it does and how it nourishes my body to get my day started. I don't even think about it anymore. I constantly drinking water and using it as a source to fuel me and move me forward. But at one point in time, drinking water was an actual chore and effort and I had to stay motivated. So habits actually create freedom for us in in whether it's how we schedule, whether it's what we eat, whether it's how we drive to work, all these things are our habits that we implement into our lives. Many of us are trying to change habits. And I'm going to invite you to remember one thing, a lot of habits are developed over time, some of our habits, I've turned 50 this year, some of my habits I developed for 50 years, so it takes time to shift and change a habit. So I really want to dig into also understanding, you know that when a habit isn't serving us, it doesn't mean that we need to dispose of that habit completely. We just might need to shift the outcome and and how we're, we're celebrating our habit, if that makes sense. So like I mentioned a few minutes ago was you know, I'd have a really rough day at work and a long day at work. And the first thing I would do when I get home I put the key in the door be like oh, I want a glass of wine. And that result wasn't serving me drinking wine was not serving me but the actual habit of coming home from work to slow myself down to sit and relax for a few minutes was that's the reward I was seeking. It actually wasn't the the wine. So in order to change that habit, I started changing when I came to the door I put the key in. First thing I would think about is oh I just want to sit and relax for a few minutes before we get into making dinner and prep food and let let home life become overwhelming. I realize, okay, I can still have that moment. But let's shift it to a cup of nice warm herbal tea. So I started changing the dialogue that was happening inside my mind. And I would move into the conversation of having with myself, hey, Jenny, wouldn't it be great to get home and have a beautiful cup of tea, so I was still getting that reward, that reward of relaxing. So that's what I'm talking about when I talk about shifting and changing your habit to suit you in a healthier way.

So one thing that's really important is, you know, let's talk about why positive habits matter. A couple things that it does for us. And I share this from a place of grace, because I wasn't always, like I said the best at doing these things. And when we actually start implementing strategies to build new habits in our lives, it helps us move into a place of rebuilding trust with ourselves. So for example, if if you were somebody that woke up one day, and you're like, I'm going to run every single day, seven days a week, and I'm going to run 5k, every single day. sounds impossible in my world right now. By day three, when you haven't run, you're eroding your trust with yourself. Because by day four, you're like, Oh, I don't want to run I don't want to run because the goal was so expansive, it seems unmeasurable. So creating those positive reinforcement and celebrating and digging into those moments are extremely valuable, because it helps you rebuild trust with yourself. So stand in it, get comfortable with, you know, trying and experimenting, but those little things will be a really big step, when you build trust with yourself. positive health habits, like I said earlier, really helped us stay in a place of, of movement. So it takes a lot less energy, like I was sharing, to stay motivated, because it's a habit, I don't have to think about it. So I'm actually conserving energy, it's way healthier on our mental health. Because I'm not having to think about always pushing myself into action, or I'm not always thinking about I didn't do it, I didn't do it best part is, is it puts us in a place of achievement. So those positive habits really are about celebration and moving through. So it's really important that you realize that habits and changing habits does not happen if you don't start with a plan. And many of us have probably started out doing, you know, a new year's resolution at some point in our lives, and realized by January 15, that it's just not going to happen. The key is when you're thinking about creating a plan around changing your habits, I mean, invite you to really stick with one habit to start with, and really creating a positive change around it. So I use the example of my personal experience about changing from drinking wine to drinking really nice, beautiful cup of tea. But it's that shift, that positive change and the habit that you shift it from a potentially a negative habit to a positive one is where the rubber, rubber really meets that road, where you get your traction and where you really start building trust for yourself. So it's one of those things that I would really consider you guys when you're looking at changing your habits is what are the habits that you're doing really well right now that maybe don't have the best outcome for you look at shifting those, that's a great way to really build into that. I'm going to invite you not to compare yourself to others. comparison is a killer of all things. We're all on our own journey. We're all doing everything in our lives in our own way we beat to our own drum. So it's really important not to compare your success or what you might perceive as a failure with somebody else. And I would really, really invite you to get excited to see what this potentially can can do for your in change and optimizing your living and your performance in your in your life. It's really a valuable, valuable tool when we look at it. So you know, why would you want to change your habits into a positive or why do positive habits matter?

Let's let's talk about that for a minute. good habits bring you closer to your goals. That's that's the bottom line. good habits bring you closer to your goals. good habits, reduce wasting time. good habits like Got a shared replace motivation. So again, you're you're gaining more energy and more traction. good habits build a foundation for life. So we really want when we talk about habits, we're talking about habitual behavior that's going to spread throughout your whole life and change your whole life, believe it or not going from drinking wine to tea, I actually don't drink alcohol at all anymore. And I'm not saying that has to be your journey, I'm just inviting you to consider where could this possibly lead you. So it's starting with that one habit. So I invite you to set a goal. This is all you got to do. There's just three simple things, set a goal, make sure that you have a solid goal, and you're clear on how you're actually going to succeed. Okay. So again, I use the example of jumping into your running shoes and running five K's seven days a week, chances are that that goal isn't realistic if you don't have the space in your schedule to actually accommodate that. So set an achievable goal and construct a habit plan. Okay, so instead of making loosely constructed plans, such as I need to exercise daily, like I mentioned, really dig into, okay, after work, I'm going to change into my workout clothes, and I'm going to go for a 30 minute run, and I'm set, make sure your clothes are laid out. So right after work, it's the first thing you don't do get really clear on constructing the plan to change the habits. So I made sure that there wasn't wine in the house, and that my tea and everything I needed was ready for me when I came home. So it was easy. The key thing is, is when you're changing a habit, the easier you can make it on yourself to step in, the easier it's going to be, which is really exciting. And to me this, this third piece is one of the most vital pieces of all things, just get really clear on why you want to create or readjust this habit. What is the goal behind it? What is the benefit, be very specific on your why it will really help you keep on track, I'm going to encourage you to get to below the surface level. So you know, it's the same thing as constructing that habit plan we were just talking about, I need to exercise daily. That's too vague. So let's say for example, my health journey and what I've been doing and working towards I want to live a really long, useful life. This isn't about wrinkles, useful where my body can move, and my body can function at optimum. Because it's really important to me that if I'm ever blessed with grandchildren, that I'll be able to be the one that's running up and down the waterpark with them or flying off a roller coaster with them are doing all of those kinds of things. I want to be super fit, and super active so that I have mobility when I'm older. That y for me is way more motivating, then what size my jeans are. So I want you to get really curious about why you want to change this habit. What's your really core seated rooted purpose?