HABITS I WANT TO TAKE ON + HOW I'LL DO IT

I've been pretty good this year, I must say. I have managed to dip in and out of some habits but others just completely not stuck to. Let's be honest, in my ever desire for my own picture of a 'perfect life', I would really like to read this post back in a few months time and think 'pffttt, easy'. I don't doubt many people will read this post and think 'those habits are surreal - you'll never manage to achieve such vague things' because, partly, they're right, having no specific number goal does make things feel less easy but, in this case, these are habits that I want to introduce into my life - that means no pressure on the amount or frequency, just something where I can look back in a few weeks, months, or years, and think 'yeah, I do that every so often and that alone makes me happier'. Veering off topic slightly and into a completely different kettle of fish: you don't have to reach the goal to be happy.

Anyhow, on a much more positive note, there are some things that I have definitely put into my daily routine lately that have me feeling pretty chuffed. These are:

HABITS THAT I'M BOSSING

APPLYING BIO OIL - Hear me out; while you may think that something as idle as rubbing some oil on your hips after a shower is pretty high on the easy-spectrum, for me it has always been a ritual that has just never stuck. And, to be honest, the reason why I think it has stuck over the past few months is because I am at a very low level of body confidence, especially with a bikini beach holiday lined up, and I simply started applying Bio Oil in the hopes that my stretch marks would begin to fade and, as I'm only getting older, hopefully, prevent any more from appearing. But now, I've learnt to love the smell of it and, while I'm not completely positive that it does work so amazingly, it does give me that little sense of accomplishment.

USING FOOT CREAM - I promise this is the last moisturising related habit, but when you have had a cream ready and waiting to be used for months and months and finally, you stick it in your daily routine, there's a beautiful feeling of relief. This for me was The Body Shop Peppermint foot cream which I am going to talk about more in another blog post but, for now, I'm just here to say that I'm pretty darn delighted that I'm finally taking care of my feet.

USING MY PLANNER - I remember years and years ago getting a bit of an obsession with watching Filofax/Planner videos and desiring to have one of those gorgeous planners that everyone else had. I was on the edge of buying a Filofax (which, if you don't know, are pretty expensive) but I made the very wise decision to stay put and try out a bog-standard planner first. I picked up a fairy average on and it was only after about 3 weeks that, not only had I stopped using it after the novelty had worn off, but it had simply been lost. Understandably, I didn't buy a Filofax. A looong time later, now in the present, I am flourishing (finally) with my Dot Creates planner. I got this one for Christmas and decided to start it on the 1st of January and I can safely say that if I don't have time to use it every day (which I generally do) then I certainly dedicate the time to update it once a week. I don't know whether I've stuck with this planner because of the quality of it, but whatever it's doing, it's doing it right.

HABITS TO GET INTO

DRINK MORE - Are you sick of it yet? Reading my blog and seeing that I want to drink more liquids. Good - cus you should be. And frankly, I should be too. After an illness that kicked me up the backside at the start of January, I had about 2-3 weeks where I was in the perfect habit of drinking at least a litre of water a day which, for me, is fantastic. Now, in March, I seem to be heading right back to where I started. I definitely don't want to see the consequences of not drinking enough liquids again, so I am going to have to start being more motivated to get it done.

DON'T LET LONELINESS OWN ME - In terms of how habits go, this one is a bit of a strange one but, as someone who is currently going through a chapter of unemployment and spending a lot of the time of my days on my own, it can be quite enveloping and certainly has its effects on my mental health. I've always struggled to describe to my family and friends that 'get up and go out for a walk' or 'watch a film with a hot chocolate' isn't so easy-peasy when loneliness gets a hold of you. Being lonely might just sound like something pretty simple but it's actually a complex concoction of fatigue, lack of motivation, and anxiety. Over the next few months, however, I would like to start grabbing my loneliness by the horns and not let it stop me from filling my days doing the things that I love. This does include walking and watching films, etc. It's probably one of the most difficult habits to get into my routine, but I'd really like to introduce it.

DAILY REFLECTION - I would love to be the kind of person that sits down every evening and, after taking a lovely deep breath, writes down exactly what they've enjoyed that day, what they're grateful for, and what could be improved on. It's just such a desirable well-being activity but, the truth has it, when I get into bed at night, I'm asleep before you can even say 'reflection'.

DRAWING - A lot of you may know that I am a keen artist (my partner and I have our own Etsy Shop here) and, while recently I've been pinning quite a few art pieces on Pinterest and painting pieces to be sold on, I haven't really sat down and had a doodle, which is exactly where my artistic talents spawned from as a child. I've recently come to the realisation that art is a form of mindfulness and a fantastic way to release emotions so I really do plan on grabbing a pen and paper next time I'm full of thought and drawing whatever comes to mind.

HOW I PLAN TO GET INTO THESE HABITS

As I explained, there are many factors that stop me from taking on a habit into my daily routine and a lot of it is a lack of motivation either stemmed from mental health, lack of reasoning, or just simply no urgency to do so. This time around, with a bit more of a determination to put these things into action throughout my day-to-day life, I've come up with 3 ways to enforce these habits:

SCHEDULING TIME TO MYSELF - "Wait? Time to yourself? Didn't know just say that you experience feeling lonely?" I hear you say, and you're right, but this 'time to myself' is in the terms of taking pressures off myself. I may have to drop the apartment planning, the house cleaning, the blog post writing, and the Instagram posting every once in a while and grab that pen to draw, or put on some shoes and apologetically walk around the neighbourhood. I feel like there's often a pressure to be doing something useful and impactful, but I'm starting to realise that taking time out and having a few moments of indulgence isn't always going to make a bit life difference.

REWARDING MYSELF - If I look at my day from the start and think 'Wow I'd love to just stay in bed all day and watch endless YouTube videos about the crazy upcycling that people do with random things from IKEA' it might be an idea to look a little deeper. For instance, I know that if I do that, about an hour later I'll either be asleep and wasting the day away or just silently building up emotions in my mind of regret. So, I'd really like to start using luxuries incentives; e.g. If I go for a walk around the neighbourhood, not only do I get a breath of fresh air, some exercise, and perhaps get to listen to a new song or podcast, but I also get to reward myself with that YouTube video at the end.

ADDING A FUN ASPECT - I've just touched briefly on this in my last point, things like listening to podcasts while I walk will be a great way of making the walk a bit more enjoyable. Similarly, I've found that while I do exercising, at the moment with a hula hoop, it can get quite boring looking at a wall so I can use that time to watch a film, a YouTube video, or again, listen to a Podcast. There needs to be something fun in there if you really aren't motivated to do something - it really will make things a lot more bearable.

What habits do you want to introduce into

your routine at the moment?

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