Mindful Habits: A Tool for Building a Practice That Lasts

“The unexamined life is not worth living”

- Socrates

How often do you exercise self-awareness?

The benefits of practicing and cultivating a self-awareness practice can have a wide array of benefits for your life. In this case, we will dive into its effects on habit forming and how leveraging this skill can begin to write the blueprint for a new you.

There are many different techniques and tools that you can use and we will talk about more in other articles. In this case, we will discuss and utilize the body scan technique for stress reduction, releasing tension throughout your body, and providing you with a little space between you and your thoughts.

Let me say that again because it’s an important concept to consider. We want to create space between YOU and your THOUGHTS. Self-sabotaging thoughts like these:

• I don’t feel like going to the gym today
• I’m tired from walking all day I got enough exercise
• I’ll just pick up something quick to eat on my way home
• I want to eat better but it’s hard
• I could never look like that so why even try?
• This is too hard I can’t do it

These are the kinds of thoughts we want to stop dead in their tracks the moment we notice them. The better we get at noticing them means we become better at reversing them before they go too far, before they become really convincing. Even better yet, stopping them before they even start.

Thoughts happen spontaneously and without our control the vast majority of the time. The goal is to be aware of your thoughts and sift through the ones that are productive and those that aren’t.

For most people and most thoughts, they are not productive and we have been designed that way. Our brains are wired to keep us alive, but they weren’t intended to make us happy. Sometimes doing something new and changing our identity feels like we’re going to die on a subconscious level.

Our habits are subconsciously trying to keep us in line with who we’ve trained ourselves to be. In order to create a new version of ourselves we need to delete and replace the old you with a new and upgraded you.

Utilize the body scan to become more aware of your internal states, especially when you are having negative thoughts and going through periods of friction around building new habits.

Don’t feel like you’re alone, we all have them and I’m included. Sometimes after what feels like a very long day, I’ll drive to the gym and just sit in my car for 15 minutes while I talk myself out of skipping my workout and heading home. There are times when really I just need a little pick me up and a quick 10-minute nap was all I needed to refocus on the task at hand. Or maybe I just needed to take 10 minutes and go through a quick breathing session and body scan to reorganize my mind and realign with my purpose and why I exercise in the first place.

These moments are the most important for habit forming and rewriting the old you and into a new you. The friction we feel in moments like these is okay and not something to run from, we want to embrace these moments and learn to conquer them so that each time they come up we give them less power over us. Until they have none. Use the body scan during these moments to reframe and reset in the moment.

Why the body scan technique?

It’s important to have tools we can use at any moment of the day so we can create an ideal internal state that helps us make better decisions and feel better doing it. Research has proven that the body scan meditation increases focus and overall well-being while reducing stress, and physical tension. Some other benefits are:

• It’s easy to learn and practice
• You will learn all the areas where you store tension, giving you some insight into where you should spend more time during your body scans.
• You’ll begin to build a stronger mind-body connection.
• Within 5 minutes you can reset your physical and mental state to make better decisions.
• It creates space between thoughts that are self-sabotaging and allows you an opportunity to insert thoughts that are more productive and truly in line with your goals and vision.

How is it done?

Begin by taking a few slow deep breaths in through your nose and out of your mouth (or nose if that’s more comfortable) to quiet your mind before beginning your scan.

First, put your awareness on your head and stay there for at least 30 seconds. Feel how much space your head is taking up in relation to your body, after a few more breaths feel how much space it’s taking up in relation to the room or space you’re in. This will help take you into a deeper state of peace and quiet, further enhancing your connection to your body and practice. Be mindful of any sensations you feel when you’re focusing your attention here. Do you feel tension, are you anxious, energized, fatigued, or any other emotions? Don’t judge what’s going on there just be aware of it and be present with it. Whatever is going on there, it’s okay.

Now that you’re non-judgmentally observing an area of your body utilize the breath to create a more idealized state. With each exhale imagine the tension, stress, or any other observation you’ve made leave your body with your breath. As a one-way exit into space, letting the universe deal with all your worries. They are no longer yours. Then repeat until you feel a sense of relief. This is something that takes time to get in tune with, while I fully believe you will notice a big difference after the first time practicing it will only get better with more time spent going inward.

Once that cycle has been repeated until your desired state has been achieved, now move on to your neck, bring your awareness there, and repeat the same process. Then move to your shoulders, chest, abdomen, and so on until you reach your feet.

The better you get you can more quickly go through this process by imagining a laser copier scanning the length of your body. Observing every body part as you go and picking up any of the same sensations mentioned before.

How does this relate to habits?

Use the body scan as a tool for self-awareness and growth. Let it give you some clarity and peace of mind during the toughest phase of behavior change.

Habit forming can be a difficult and time-consuming process. According to a study done in 2021 forming new habits can take between 59 to 70 days. If most of our decisions and actions are performed subconsciously that means for about two and a half months we need to be very aware of our thoughts and feelings in relation to this new habit until it becomes automatic. Leverage as many tools as you can in these initial stages. The only way you can fail is if you quit.

Falling off the routine is okay and even necessary from time to time, as long as you get back on track you’re still in the game. Don’t feel like all progress has been lost because you lost your streak of good days.

Whenever you start to have thoughts like this after you missed a workout or cheated on your nutrition do a body scan. Use it in moments when you’re trying to talk yourself out of going to the gym because you’re overwhelmed or tired. Allow it to calm your mind and body to refocus on the ultimate goal. Give yourself some space and grace.

Let this moment of peace provide you with a reset internally so you can regroup and start again fresh tomorrow, or better yet right now.

Summary of main points

1. Self-awareness is crucial for creating and sustaining new habits, that way we don’t let our unconscious programming dictate our behaviors.
2. Sometimes all we really need is a little break from our racing mind to refocus on what is truly important.
3. The body scan technique is a simple and effective means to give us that separation and calm us down in the process.
4. Research has shown the benefits this simple method can have on our physical, emotional, and psychological well-being.
5. Give yourself credit for taking on a new challenge, it’s supposed to be hard. Just stick with it and eventually it will become a habit.

Call to action

• Practice the body scan technique when you have some free time preferably in the evenings when you don’t have anything else going on. Let this just be the practice stages, don’t have any expectations but do your best to focus and allow the technique to have an effect. Practice it daily for a week. Once you have gotten a flow begin to introduce it into your daily life. While sitting in traffic, before an important meeting, or when you’re trying to talk yourself out of going to the gym. Let this be a tool to stop the stressful conversation in your mind and relax your body at the same time, creating a more ideal state to start fresh.