Healthy Microhabits

This month’s Teaching Balance theme is Self-Embodiment, where we explore becoming more present to and in tune with our physical bodies. As a gentle and sustainable way to move toward healthier choices, this week’s talk and practice invites you to reflect on some tiny, painless ways to bring healthy microhabits into your life.

Transcript

Hey there everybody this is Kristen from Teaching Balance and I am here with you with this week's mindfulness meditation practice and we are now in a new month and our new month has a new theme and that theme is self embodiment. Now this is one of the four elements of a balanced teacher or being in balance from my teaching balance themes and it's not as self-explanatory as I think it would be preferable for it to be but the idea behind self embodiment of is really being very in tune with your body feeling very connected with your body and a very large component of that of course is taking care of your body and doing whatever it is that your body might need to keep it moving and working and functioning and you know some people often will think of the body as like you know the vehicle for the brain you know it gets me from here to there gets me from where I need to go but of course it's so much more than that and so what I thought would be a fun way to start off this month focusing on self embodiment is to talk a little bit about healthy micro habits. Now here's what I mean by that. One of the things that I hope comes across with all the various invitations that I offer to you is that it's not this like preachy you know this is the way it has to be do this do that and all of that kind of thing that's never really what I'm aspiring to convey. What I am aspiring to convey instead is just some food for thought some things to reflect on and honestly all of that comes from my own personal journey of personal development of trying to be physically well trying to be mentally well and just to you know be happy and content and okay and so it's really interesting because I've talked about this in the past sometimes when we talk about body stuff and physical health a lot of people have this like pushback immediately because it's like there's this immediate assumption that what we're talking about is that kind of message that we hear so much from the media about you have to look like this and do that to be desirable and this and that and you know all this kind of stuff. I'm not talking about that at all. I'm really just interested in opening up a dialogue regarding making choices that are healthy so that you can do what's important to you. You can sustainably do your work and sustainably you know be with your family and be you know active to some degree picking up a toddler like just all of those sorts of things and then honestly for me being in my 50s now there's also something to be said for for reflecting on the value of health when it comes to living well as our body naturally begins to age. Now that was a big intro but I want to talk about micro habits so here's the the idea behind this. Instead of having this invitation to reflect on your health and to think about ways that you might be able to enrich it in some way improve it in some way whatever word you want to use it doesn't have to be a big deal. It doesn't have to be this like I'm going vegan or I'm giving up sugar or I'm gonna train for a marathon. Not that all of those things aren't wonderful and worthwhile I'm talking about micro habits of the sort that I mean you've heard these kinds of things before maybe you just park your car a little farther away from the door at work at the store at whatever or maybe you just not even give up but shift your dessert that you have you know after dinner or whatever it might be like tiny tiny micro habits. The thing that I love about playing with this idea of micro habits is that they're not threatening and they're not overwhelming and because they're so minor there's no need to resist it you know what I mean so even if I say I'm trying to give another example of a micro habit this is silly but like I'm gonna practice they talk a lot about as you get older the value of balance physical balance you know as I'm preparing my coffee I'll stand on one leg you know what I mean it sounds a little silly but here's instead of me giving you some sort of you know on the spot laundry list of examples my invitation to you is reflect on what are some of those little micro habits that you can integrate into your life maybe a little bit more water a little less caffeine you know you get the idea so that is my invitation to you to reflect on what feels accessible what feels easy for you to adjust slightly in a way that of course while it feels easy and effortless because it's a micro habit over time it has a you know a what's the word cumulative thank you cumulative effect that I think can be really helpful and that we can build on so that's my intro wow that was long okay let's get started you know of course that meditation is extremely healthy make sure this is still going yeah because there's a lot of reasons but certainly because it allows us to honestly I kind of feel like the big one the big reason is it helps us to get back in the driver's seat of our mind that really feels like the best summative argument for why meditation is valuable to me at least taking those deep breaths which of course has health benefits allowing our nervous system to down regulate back to its homeostatic state which of course is healthy and supportive and then of course developing this metacognitive awareness being aware of what's going on in our minds and knowing we can pull ourselves out of it we can shift and make choices and not necessarily get yanked around by whatever thoughts du jour seem to be most dominant in our minds at any given time allow yourself to settle in dropping into your body and if it's interesting to you doing a check-in I was having some lower back pain earlier it seems as though it's lightened up slightly as you do that scan of your body having a real quality of non-judgment you're just observing and noting you're not trying to fix anything either you don't need to stretch or shift and if there is perhaps areas of discomfort like I was just mentioning resisting any temptation to tell yourself the story about it or what you're gonna do about it at least for these seven or so minutes that remain just being gently present to it that's the part that makes it restful we're taking a break from fixing and adjusting and assessing and deciding and instead we're just resting at least for right now so let's take a little time just to settle in noticing where the mind is and if it's helpful before we come back to the present moment come back to arresting our attention on our anchor almost taking a little bit of a mental snapshot of whatever images were in your mind in that moment whether it was planning something or remembering something or list-making or whatever it might be almost take a still shot from the movie of your mind you could say take a good look at it and just kind of set it down on the metaphorical table you can always go back to it later and then come back to where we are this last minute and a half or so of our practice. I have to be honest I was kind of thinking about lunch in the last minute and a half or so so I think I talked a lot at the beginning so I'll just wrap it up thank you as always for taking this time for yourself and thank you for allowing me to accompany you on this journey and I look forward to seeing you next week take care bye