The Art of Change Making

How many of you know you should change something in your life - whether it is your job, your home, your eating habits or workout routine - but you just don't do it?

How many of you have been willing to change a habit or routine, but never got to do it and feel quite frustrated about it?

Changing a tiny habit in your life can be the most difficult task ever. Whatever it is: giving up smoking, reducing the number of coffee cups, adding 10 minutes of meditation in the morning, going for a walk at lunch time, going to bed earlier... Any change, as tiny as it may be, can be scary. Even if your mind wants to do it, you might experience some inner resistance. Why is that?

The inner shift

The first reason I think is the inner shift that needs to take place. When you have to change a daily habit, it means you are changing your deep core values. Suddenly, something different and/or new becomes more important to you and you cannot ignore it anymore.

Take a step back and meditate on it: is this really what you want? Does this new habit make you feel good on the inside? Do you feel aligned with it, does it just feel right? If yes, you are on the right track.

But if you feel that this new habit is just something socially expected from you, or that suits someone else's expectations, but is not defined in your own deep core values, then here you have the answer. You can't make sustainable changes if you don't do them for yourself.

Raising your standards

Most of the time, when that inner shift happens, it is because you are raising your own standards. Athletes have high expectations of themselves, and cannot consider being unfit and not being able to move their bodies around. This is all in their inner values and the standards they set for themselves.

Changing a habit starts with changing your priorities. If YOU become your highest priority, before work and before anyone else, you will be able to do any change that is required in order to feel good and energized again.

Raise your standards high. Being your own priority doesn't mean you are a selfish self-centered person. This is what we have been told for too long. How can you give to others what you don't have? By making sure you are doing the right things for yourself, your energy levels rise, you become a better you with much more love, time, happiness and compassion to give.

Step by step

Don't start with massive changes, all at once. A step-by-step approach is much more sustainable and gives you time to adapt to a new lifestyle. Decide to do one tiny change over one week or two. Then, when it feels comfortable and you don't even think about it anymore, add a second change, and so on.

For a new habit to become fully integrated in your daily routine, you need to do it for at least a month non-stop. Some discipline might be required at the beginning. But I can guarantee that it is truly worth it.

The body-mind-soul connection

What I personally realized as I was changing my lifestyle is that we cannot dissociate the body from the mind and soul. Some people work out non-stop but never meditate, never take a step back to figure out what is emotionally happening inside of them. And for some people it is the opposite.

This separation creates a big gap inside of yourself. It is all about balance. Exercise but rest. Be creative and productive but also be mindful and present. Socialize and see people, but have your own quiet time as well.

You are not a body. You are a beautiful soul in a beautiful body.

Take care of both and make yourself a priority. It is never too late to start.

In Love and Happiness,

Stephanie