Unlearning and Relearning: Forming Good Habits
I’m sure i’m not unique when I say that I’ve faced challenges over the past few months. COVID and racial tension in the country have made it difficult to continue with regular programming and has made “normal” days hard to come by. While I can appreciate that this extra time at home has given me an opportunity to cook fresher and more consistently, it has made other areas of my wellness routine difficult to keep up with. I miss my cardio classes so much! I miss the energy I get from the room and from others next to me who are also trying to push forward through a tough workout. At some point during the quarantine, that longing became a demotivating factor for me to keep going. The zoom and digital workouts stopped being enough. Honestly, I started telling myself “I just don’t want to do it”.
Over the past few weeks, I kept receiving signs that I needed to focus more and be more disciplined in order to elevate myself. These messages were coming to me through my journaling, meditations, my therapy and tarot readings. They just kept getting louder and louder. I continued to visualize my goals, what I wanted in my current life and what enhancements I wanted to see. These visualizations became clearer and clearer, but I kept hearing louder that it wasn’t going to happen if I didn’t unlearn these habits that I have allowed to settle over the last few months and relearn the habits I know I have in me to make change happen personally.
How Habits are Created
However, good habits can be difficult to create and bad habits can be difficult to break. For me, I’ve learned there are a few key factors that cancel out this difficulty.
Routine and consistency: being repetitive in the the nature of the habit you want to break and create
Accountability: an outlet, group or visual aid that holds you accountable daily while trying to form the habit
Preparation: prepare for difficult days, days when you won’t have time or will be tired. How can you ensure you’re still successful and make it happen?
So I’m doing just that. For the next 26 days of July, I’m unlearning bad habits and relearning my healthy habits that I’ve built for myself. These habits not only help me reach goals but they keep me grounded and centered as well. As someone who lives with anxiety and depression, it is important for me to stay well and ensure I keep myself active and healthy. I’ve learned that my wellness impacts my creativity as well. While I can write powerfully when I’m in a difficult space, there are times when I can’t write at all if I’m not well. I started to tell myself, it’s okay just write it next week but next week never came. Literally last night, my friend Starla shared the #MJConsistencyChallenge by Mattie James that was started the same day that I planned to start my habit challenge. Talk about stars aligning. This gave me the motivation to add this additional piece to what I had planned.
So for the rest of the month, here’s what I’ve challenged myself to:
I will workout for at least 20 of the 26 days and incorporate some active rest days that will consist of yoga, walking or bike riding
I will eat completely clean, meaning no fast food but will allow myself homemade cheat meals
I will write for 20 days with the #MJConsistency challenge
I will meditate daily in forms of prayer, written meditation and journaling
I’m so excited to see what I’m able to accomplish over the next few weeks and what is revealed to me through this journey. Something very impactful that comes from unlearning and relearning habits is that you unlearn and relearn yourself as well. I enjoy deepening my self-awareness because it literally makes me a better human and makes navigating through life easier because I understand my needs, desires and thoughts better.
What has your intuition been telling you over the past few weeks or months? What bad habits have come from these pandemic days and how can you get yourself back on course? Will you join me in unlearning and relearning to elevate yourself? We can do it together!