Hello beautiful people,
Happy Saturday and a bucketful of joy and good vibes from me to you, I hope you have an amazing day.

This newsletter is a little longer than normal, I won’t apologize, it is after all a 2-3 minute read at the most,  so grab yourself a cup of something yummy and take a pew, as we say in England, or perhaps read it whilst lying on your back (more about that later!)

Habits. Why am I talking about habits this week?
In all honesty, I am in the process of trying to adopt a few healthier, more purposeful habits and also ditch a few that don’t serve me so well. You know me, ever bettering 🙂

I don’t think we consciously create most of our habits, and yet, they are what influence our actions and thoughts the most. Some habits help our productivity while others lead to self-sabotage.

A productive habit could be a morning ritual of gratitude journaling, or even just drinking a glass of water when you get out of bed (both on my ‘adopt habit’ list)

A self-sabotaging habit could be procrastinating on tasks that could be easily completed on the spot, mindlessly eating bread when you sit down for dinner, or reaching for the bag of chips every time you open the wine bottle (I didn’t used to do that but now they just seem to go hand in hand – this one is on my ‘ditch habit’ list).

Is it me or do most of our thoughts and actions seem to be on autopilot? I know mine are.  This is great if our habits are designed proactively, but it can also harm us in the long run, proactive or reactive. We tend to act and think based on what automatically serves our most immediate needs and what we are familiar with which can lead to unconscious decisions.

Change is in the air?
The first step to change, and building new habits is to bringing awareness to the thoughts and actions in our lives which are repetitive, because these are the workhorses of our existence. Try paying attention to these actions and their results.  
The more aware we are of our thoughts and actions, the more power we have to break the patterns that don’t serve us and replace them with something more productive.

The older our habits, the more power they have over us.

Start Small
It’s better to add a new, more positive habit before trying to destroy a negative one.
Start with something small and repeat it on a regular basis. Consider using your smart phone or an alarm at the same time of the day.

For example, I have recently adopted the new habit of drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning, as soon as I wake up. I have also stopped looking at my phone as soon as I wake up (other than to use my alarm).
WHAT is THAT important that we can’t take 5-10 minutes upon waking to gather our thoughts, set our intentions (or whatever) for the day and clean our darn teeth before our time is no longer our own and we sell our soul to whatever is on the end of our mobile phone?! SERIOUSLY PEOPLE, IT’S A THING!

Habits can be our friend or foe, creating awareness around them is the key to success. Adopt or ditch and burn, the choice is ultimately ours.

Zoë x