Today’s Mandala Message: Change Your Behavior…Change Your Life
This week I’m working through Principle #34 from Jack Canfield’s “The Success Principles” entitled “Develop four new success habits a year”. I set my intention today to ponder the idea of changing my behavior. Even though I’m following Canfield’s book throughout the year, for this week I’m also including insights from B.J. Fogg’s book “Tiny Habits”. With today’s message Fogg states: “We know habits matter; we just need more good habits and few bad ones. But here we are, still struggling to change. Still thinking it’s our fault. All my research and hands-on experience tell me that this is exactly the wrong mindset. In order to design successful habits and change your behaviors, you should do three things.”
- “stop judging yourself”
- “take your aspirations and break them down into tiny behaviors.”
- “embrace mistakes as discoveries and use them to move forward.”
One behavior I would love to change is being in a constant state of hyper-vigilance which creates stress and anxiety for me…all day/night long. Up until reading Fogg’s suggestions, in particular the first one, I had been judging myself for always being in this hyper-vigilant mode. My aspiration is to be at peace with myself regardless of what’s going on around me, including being able to meditate for 20-30 (or longer) minutes a day without this anxiety running around in the background.
So the second suggestion, rather than forcing myself through 20-30+ minutes of anxiety-ridden meditation, I can start with 1, 2, or 3 minutes of just focusing on my breathing.
With regards to his third suggestion, I can just pay attention to what happens during those few minutes…may today 3 minutes is too much, or maybe listening to difference music might help, or doing a particular breathing pattern…in other words, find what works and adjust the ones that don’t.
While out on my walk this morning, I listened to half of an interview podcast with Dr. Russell Kennedy, who calls himself the Anxiety Rx. While he has his own podcast and youtube channel, (both worth exploring if you have anxiety issues), this one was hosted on the “Healthier Together” podcast by Liz Moody from July 12, 2023. During the interview he talked about grounding in the body when anxiety takes over. We tend to want to be in our heads where it’s almost impossible to solve the anxiety. He suggests being more in the body: breathing, walking, placing your hand over the area in our body (throat, chest, stomach, etc) the anxiety is resides, connecting with that part of the body, and so on. On my walk tomorrow I plan to listen to the rest of the interview.
For those who have anxiety issues, you may find this video helpful:
A good mindfulness practice would be to ponder one tiny change (habit) you can start today.
So how about you? Do you find that you judge yourself for your bad habits? To incorporate a new one, could you start with a tiny version of that habit?
“You leave
— Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
old habits behind
by starting out
with the thought,
‘I release the need
for this in my life’.”
Blessings,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
All Things Mandalas
An Invitation
I invite you to color along with me this year as part of what I’m calling “The Year of Self-Exploration and Expansion” with all of my “Mandalas of the ___” (day, week, month, year). If you’re interested in more of a self-exploration approach to coloring, check out my “Coloring Mandalas as Meditation”. You can download this mandala at MandalaoftheWeek.com.
Mandala of the Day 