Last week I wrote about BRIGHT LINES: pre-set habits that can help you to take a solid stand in one small area of your health.
What are some of your BRIGHT LINES?
This week, diving head first (no pun!) into behavioral science, we’ll talk about keystone habits, and how bright-lining those keystone habits can be the biggest boost to your well-being.
So, what are keystone habits?
Turns out, they are quite the conundrum.
Let’s say you’ve taken a stock of your health, and determined that there are many (many, many, many) areas that can use some improvement.
Maybe your diet can be healthier. Maybe you’ve got to move more, or learn to move better. Maybe you need to attend to the matters of heart and emotions, and learn to manage your stress levels better. Maybe your sleep isn’t as awesome as it can be. And maybe your inner dialog (that often-nasty critical voice in your head) can use some more skillful management.
Turns out there are some habits that can influence every single area of our well-being.
It is just the matter of figuring out what they are.
For me, for example, the two keystone habits are meditating and spending time outside, preferably walking.
Every fiber of my being craves nature time; I am at my happiest, most vital, and most alive when I am outdoors.
Every cell in my body feels nourished when I start my mornings with the formal seated practice.
When I stick to those two, I want to eat healthier. I move more, and I also invest my time into learning how to move better. I sleep waaaaaay better. And I can manage whatever life throws at me in a (mostly) gracious and non-reactive way.
[clickToTweet tweet=”How powerful is that?” quote=”How powerful is that?”]
You are probably wondering right about now how come yoga isn’t one of my keystone habits – isn’t that a little strange for a yoga teacher? The truth is that yoga the way we see it in the west – a mostly physical practice of postures and sequences – never resonated with me much.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Instead, I’m drawn to the inward practices of yoga – deep body and mind awareness” quote=”Instead, I’m drawn to the inward practices of yoga – deep body and mind awareness”].
Nature and seated meditation (as well as any other area of life) create a perfect backdrop for developing mindfulness: I am cognizant of the way my feet touch the earth when I walk; I am aware of the way my body is breathing itself when I meditate.
Do you have keystone habits – behaviors that improve all of the areas of your well-being? You may wish to jot some of the down.
Now, what if you combine these two very powerful principles:
[clickToTweet tweet=”take your keystone habits, and bright line them so that they are locked into every day?” quote=”take your keystone habits, and bright line them so that they are locked into every day?”]
Let me know!
