Make yourself comfortable and close your eyes if that feels right for you you might like to take a few deep breaths in through the nose,
Filling up the belly and then slowly out through the mouth feeling the support of the surface beneath you allowing yourself to settle into this moment allowing yourself to be here now today we'll reflect on the central ideas from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear this is a book I found really powerful so I have no affiliation,
I've got no interests here I found it powerful and felt called to share some of the central messages so that we can collectively meditate on how they might support us and the book's really about how small habits,
Small changes repeated consistently can and do lead to really remarkable changes over time so this is the opposite of get skinny quick,
Get rich quick,
Find love in 30 days this is about sowing seeds,
Tending them,
Watering them and looking after them every day and then watching something remarkable happen as they grow we'll begin with the understanding that every action we take no matter how small contributes to shaping who we are taking a moment now to reflect on the consideration that every choice you make is a vote for the type of person you wish to become perhaps as we move into this meditation you might like to consider what positive changes you'd like to make in your own life or what positive habits you'd like to form in your own life and we can then reflect on those using some of the central messages in the book bring it to life and make it real for you as mentioned the author really tells us in many different ways and with lots of supporting evidence that small habits done consistently can and do compound over time into something really powerful so taking a deep breath into your belly and as you breathe out really releasing any pressure to achieve immediate or short term results you are planting very special deeply personal seeds today that will grow with patience and care habits are not about willpower and the book explores the notion that habits are more about the systems that support them so the author encourages us to design environments to think about putting things into place that make good habits easier to follow and bad habits harder to maintain so reflecting for a moment with each in breath imagine creating a space or making it easier to support the life you want to live and the habits you want to create and with each out breath releasing unhelpful environments or patterns that no longer serve you so with each in breath thinking about how you can create a space that supports the habits you want and with each out breath considering and releasing the environments or patterns that no longer serve you the book explores the idea that an effective way to change habits is to focus on who you want to become,
Who you wish to become not just on what you want to achieve so you might want to become the type of person who takes care of themselves and their health and well-being rather than someone who wants to lose 50 pounds so thinking now about the kind of person you want to be is this person for example healthy,
Focused,
Calm,
Productive,
Financially responsible?
With each in breath reaffirming that you are that person with each in breath telling yourself with every small habit you practice you are becoming that person who are they?
They are you,
That's who they are you are on your way,
It's about the journey one small step in a positive direction every day and even when you take a couple of steps back because life is lifing you get back on track and keep moving in the right direction and then over time your trajectory your end location,
The place that you land is where you want to be another idea in the book is the idea of habit stacking and I really like this so I hope I do it justice it's presented as a simple but effective method to make a new habit stick and the idea is that by linking a new habit to an existing one you can create a chain of positive actions and it reduces the effort of the new habit so thinking now about one habit you already do regularly it might be brushing your teeth,
Making a morning coffee or tea or getting ready for bed in a particular way and now imagine adding a really small positive habit either right after it or right before it so it might be reading a page of a book taking time to stretch,
Practicing gratitude performing a particular task and with each breath visualize how this new habit can flow either before or after the one you already do so see yourself doing them one after the other let's now move on to thinking about the power of consistency because progress isn't always obvious in fact it's rarely obvious,
Particularly to us the ones making the changes but small actions taken repeatedly and repeatedly is the important word here that's what creates lasting results but to do that it's about allowing yourself it's about us allowing ourselves to trust the process even when progress seems slow and we can't see any change reflecting now on how incorporating small meaningful changes in your routine can and will lead to profound positive changes with each in-breath drawing in the energy of small positive habits and with each out-breath planting these habits like seeds in your soul repeating the following affirmations either quietly,
To yourself or out loud I can make small meaningful changes that will transform my life I trust the process,
I know that consistency leads to growth every action I take is a vote for the person I want to become I stack new habits into my existing routines and this makes positive change easier I design my environment as far as possible to support the habits that serve me best and above all I am patient,
Persistent and give myself a whole lot of grace so I hope that was interesting I certainly enjoyed creating it and thinking about how to share the ideas that have helped me and I'm going to do this with other books so do have a look out on my profile and let me know what you think,
Let me know what you think of this and my other practices but overall thank you so so much for taking your time,
Your precious time to practice and consider some of these ideas with me today have a great day
