When wanting to banish burnout and blossom it can be really challenging to know where to start. The last thing we need is more to do and yet we know that we will never change our life until we change something we do daily. The direction of our lives is decided more by the small daily choices we make than anything else and these micro steps are more influential to the person we grow into than we often realise. Habits become integrated automatically and creep into our lives so gently that they become routine. So if you want to change your life start with the micro step: changing one thing you do everyday.
Here is a list of six that I invite you to review with the intention of choosing one to start with.
- The Three Item to do list.
Make a list of the three most important tasks I want to complete today. This will keep you focussed on your priorities but more than that it will allow you to have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. It removes the sense that I never got enough done, and it replaces this with I accomplished my most important work.
- Exercise – every single day
We know that physical exercise is essential to a healthy, productive, happy life. Our difficulty in gifting ourselves the benefit of exercise or moving the body is that we think it has to be some major lifestyle change. Not at all. Try instead to not overthink it. You don’t need to run five miles or join the gym to gift yourself the benefits of exercise, Maybe go for a walk, cut the grass or weed a bit, take a long luxurious stretch, dance to your favourite song, ….. Just commit to some physical moving of the body every day, doing it your way.
- Radically reduce screen time
Screen time keeps us wired, plugged in, on, often feeding in to a constant state of low level anxiety. Our brains are hardwired for negativity. Screen time feeds this addiction and keeps us hooked. Even when we are scrolling or watching to relax the effect is often to keep us overstimulated and somewhat wired for negativity. Begin by being more intentional about what you are watching or consuming. Maybe introduce some time limits – opening up the possibility for more rest, more creativity, more internal freedom into your everyday.
- Practise Gratitude
Keep a journal, have a daily prayer or meditation practise, start a gratitude jar, or just share the best part of your day with your family or another person every single day. Do it your way but build gratitude into your day. Gratitude reframes our circumstances and drives out discontent. It focuses us on the good things in our lives. It brings intentionality and attentiveness. It more appropriately positions our attitude to the world around us.
- Write something down
Do a little writing everyday. Keep a journal , jot a few things down on a page or write about your hopes for the day, or something that surprised you , or a new thought you have had, o a feeling you want to explore. Writing is a powerful way to bring you directly in contact with your own inner wisdom. It does not matter how you do it. Where your writing ends up means far less than the impact of taking this time to jot down something has on you personally. The habit of writing words forces you to see the world in a more observant way. You will rethink conversations, circumstances, relationships. You will find yourself learning to pause, to respond rather than react to challenging circumstances and to accept and surrender that which you cannot change. Powerful resources that you can cultivate with a simple daily practise of writing something.
- Go outside
So no secret here. The ancients know it and now Western medicine and science has caught up so that we have more evidence than we will ever need that green and blue spaces bring us home to our inner calm, heal us, help us to feel connected and more at home in ourselves and in the world. You do not have to do anything special, You do not even have to believe in anything. Just gift yourself a few minutes or more everday to breathe outside in the open. Sometimes when something sounds so simple we think it not worthwhile so we think of a thousand excuses why not today – the weather, our business, we don’t feel like it.
Doing something as simple is actually a courageous act. It takes effort, but we know from ever increasing evidence that it is ever so worth it.
Where to start?
Do one thing. Commit to one of these six or another small daily action that suggests itself to you. The impact of doing this one daily action will do its work so that you will not only feel the benefit but will also move towards taking other small steps in other areas of your life.
Remember you will never change your life until you change something you do daily. Or to put it another way : change something you do daily and you will change your life.
The trick is to find the balance between being kind to ourselves and moving to where we want to be, living the life that makes us happy.
Remember the three golden threads running through Blossom – micro step, habit stacking and self compassion. If you would like to join us in Blossom check it out here https://mindfulwithdee.kartra.com/page/Blossom
Other ways to work with me
https://mindfulwithdee.kartra.com/page/supervision
https://mindfulwithdee.kartra.com/page/wisdom-garden
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