If you want to make mindfulness a habit, you have to first undersrtand how habits are formed in the first place. Habits are tied to a trigger or a cue, a routine and then a reward. To create a mindfulness habit you’ll need to create a new habit loop. Making mindfulness a habit is no different.
To make mindfulness a habit, first, think about what reward you’ll get from doing so. I don’t mean in a physical sense but a mental one. Mindfulness exercises are calming, relaxing and give you a sense of peace. What are you trying to achieve by practising mindfulness on a regular basis? Why are you doing it?
After all, you’ll likely not stick to a habit if it’s something you’re getting nothing from. Let’s assume your goal is to find a sense of calm from practising mindfulness. With this in mind, we can go about identifying the first step of making mindfulness a habit.
Choose something small to do each day
Note: there’s no use aiming for something too big right off the bat. Instead, aim for something small you know you’ll be able to do each day without fail. You can practise mindfulness for 2 minutes and then scale up when you feel more comfortable. All habits can be scaled down to make them more achieveable. Find easy mindfulness exercises here to make your life easier.
1. Trigger/cue
A habit routine takes place because of a trigger. For example, you may eat a packet of biscuits if you leave them in view on your kitchen side. Simply entering your kitchen in the evening, for example, can trigger a behaviour.
Your environment shapes your triggers.
If you want to make mindfulness a habit, you need to make things as easy for yourself as possible. This means setting yourself up for success by giving yourself obvious cues to practise mindfulness. You must make your environment into a place that encourages your new habit to happen.
You can do this by using mindfulness apps that will send you notifications at certain times or by leaving a mindfulness journal by your bed. You can make things even easier for yourself by building a mindfulness exercise into your existing routine. For example you can leave a mindfulness journal at work so you’re triggered to do something mindful before you start working.
2. Routine
Once you make your triggers obvious and easy to identify, you’ll then need to actually perform your mindfulness exercises. Luckily, many mindfulness exercises are quick and simple to follow which means you won’t have to alter your current daily routine too much to fit them in. The key is to do a small mindfulness exercise that is so easy that you really don’t have any excuses but to do it. From there you can build up to doing more exercises if you want to.
The best way to fit your mindfulness habit into your day is to set a daily time for your new routine and to stick to it. If you know when and where you’ll be doing your mindfulness exercise you’re more likely to do it. For example, you could spend five minutes after you wake up doing something mindful before you start your day.
3. Reward
The reward you get from perfrming your habit keeps you going. Its the whole reason you perform your habit in the first place. Your reward completes the habit loop. Once you get used to performing your new habit you’ll find that you will have clear cues, routines and rewards in place. The more you stick to your mindfulness habit, the easier it will become and before you know it, you won’t see it as a habit but instead something that you just do. This is the ultimate goal.
How to make mindfulness a consistent habit
Hopefully the reward you get from making mindfulness a habit will encourage you to keep it up however there are a number of things you can do to stay consistent. After all, mindfullness won’t become a habit if you do no do it regularly!
1. Download an app
One of the best ways to keep a mmindfulness habit is to download a mindfulness app that will notify you every day at a specific time. The Smilng Mind app is a brilliant mindfulness app that is free to use and comes with lots of easy mindfulness execises that are guided and unguided. You set a reminder to wake up at a specific time each day so why not do it with mindfulness?
2. Listen to podcasts
One of the best ways to stick to a habit is to stack smaller acompanying habits around it. The more involved you feel in a subject, the more you get used to it. Listening to podcasts about mindfulness is a great way to tie yourself over to your next exercises. Rather than only going one mindful thing a day, why not listen to some tips and tricks you can try out? The reason why podcasts are so great is because they can be listened to anywhere. For example, you probably listen to music in your car so try replacing thet with a mindfulness podcast. Here are the 7 best mindfulness podcasts.
3. Join a community
Joinging a community can help you to stay on track. There’s plenty of Facebook and Reddit forums you can join to get new ideas and find out how other people incorporate mindfulness into their lives. Seeing other people doing what you’re doing can help to inspire you. It’s also nice to know you’re not on your own whilst you’re trying to build a personal habit.
4. Identify wasted time
When creating a new habit, it’s always helpful to identify wasted time in your day that you could use towards your new habit. Start by analysing everything you do each hour of your day. A lot of your time will be spent working or commuting but what about the rest of your time? Do you spend a lot of time in the evening watching TV? Could you use one of those hours doing something mindful?
‘Wasted time’ is the time you spend doing things that aren’t productve. Even if you carve out an extra 10 minutes during one of these hours, you can begin stacking your mindfulness habit. The more involved you become with your new habit the more likely you are to sticking to it.
Sean C is a writer, passionate about improving one’s self by maintaining healthy habits and doing the things that make life more meaningful.