This post is part of a series celebrating the release of Building Balance in Your Body & Life, my new 30-lesson audio course on Insight Timer. Find the previous posts in the series (starting Mar 2, 2022) here. If the ideas here interest you, please join the course! Go to the Insight Timer web site to listen to the first lesson for free and to join us. Just $20/US for 30 Lessons! Thank you for supporting your body, your life and my work.
“We are what we repeatedly do.” ~ Will Durant in the spirit of Aristotle
Adult life is mostly a heap of habits. The longer we live, the more likely it is that our days are made up of a bunch of things we repeatedly do. For better or for worse, our current experience is largely defined by whatever we have been doing the most up until now.
A question is, do I know what I repeatedly do? Am I aware of the habits that form my days?
How do I move? How do I think and feel? How do I talk and relate to myself and others? What do I eat and drink? How do I spend my time? How do I spend my money?
Want to know who you are? Pay attention to what you repeatedly do.
This is a gradual evolution. … We change bit by bit, day by day, habit by habit. We are continually undergoing micro-evolutions of the self. ~ James Clear
Once we’ve noticed what we repeatedly do, we have a choice. A million choices, really, about if that is, in fact, how we want to do it.
Perhaps counter intuitively (especially in a culture that is all about going big or going home), the most powerful thing we can do is take tiny, incremental steps in the direction we want to go. If you want to evolve and change, choose consistency over intensity every time.
[And a note here: these “micro-evolutions” are happening whether you are paying attention and consciously choosing or not. If I mindlessly wander through my days, I will evolve in one way. If consistently choose even miniscule steps that move me in the direction I want to go, I’ll evolve in another. We can’t control everything in our lives – far from it – and if we pay attention and choose mindfully the things we can control, changes will happen over time.]
“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” ~ John Greene, The Fault in Our Stars (Inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s “‘How did you go bankrupt?’ ‘Two ways: Gradually, then suddenly.’”)
Have you ever attempted to stay aware as you fall asleep? It’s a funny thing to notice all the tiny shifts as your body relaxes toward sleep and then *whoosh* sleep happens.
Since reading Greene’s gorgeous book, this line has stuck with me. I’ve noticed that many (most?) things happen this way: little by little, then all of a sudden.
Maybe it’s the illusion created by the accumulated tiny choices, but often it feels that after a mountain of teensy steps, my head pops up in a new place. I start with 5 squats and 10 “desk ups” (push ups on the edge of my desk) in the morning, adding one every day or so … and “suddenly” I can do 20 squats and 60 desk ups! I start writing a blog post a week in 2013 and “all of a sudden” I have a library of hundreds of posts!
You are what you repeatedly do and you are continually undergoing micro-evolutions of the self: slowly and then all at once. Here are 3 things you likely repeatedly do that you can pay attention to and, if you choose, evolve.
~ 3 Paying Attention Practices ~
For each of these practices (and any other repeated things you want to pay attention to), use a non-judgmental, curious awareness to check out how you do what you do.
1. How Do You Stand Up?
When you rise from a chair, the couch, the loo, how do you do it? Do you push down with your arms or just your legs? Do you use momentum or do you do it smoothly? When you sit, do you drop your body down or lower with control? Does anything hurt when you stand up? Is there anything you’d like to change?
2. How Do You Walk?
When you walk across the room, through your neighborhood, or along the trail, how do you do it? Do your toes point forward, turn in or turn out? Do you reach your step forward or push from behind? Do you swing your arms, rotate your shoulders or wag your tail? Does anything hurt when you walk? Do you limp? Is there anything you’d like to shift in your gait?
3. How Do You Go Up & Down Stairs?
When you climb the stairs in or to your home, at school or in your office, how do you do it? Which foot do you lead with? Do you place your foot on each tread or do you “scuff” it? Do you use the railing? If so, how? When going down steps, do you drop your weight or lower it? Does anything hurt when you go up or down stairs? Is there anything you’d like to change about the way you “stair”?
The Practical Practice section of the Building Balance in Your Body & Life course offers exercises and inquiry into awareness of and choice around our physical and life habits. This week, notice how you do what you do. And join the Building Balance course for $20/US and receive 30 Lessons to help you feel balance in your body and your life.