HABITS

An article by Bryce Tangvald

Bryce is a placement student working with Space to Breathe and this week he’s helped create some of the content for Well? Thanks Bryce for sharing your wisdom with us.

For Me, the place that I reflect most effectively upon my own mental health is in natural environments such as my garden. I like to practise the discipline of "paying attention", which some people might recognise as "mindfulness".

As we spend time in nature, observing the living things, plants, insects and animals, we begin to notice particular characteristics of each individual thing.

Take plants for example:

I find it amazing when I recognise the regularity of how most plants grow. It's as if they have learned this pattern of life that allows them to mature healthily.

Likewise, in our life experiences, we can take on "rhythms of life", regular practices and habits that are life-giving and affirming to our well-being. Though for humans, this process of learning may be less instinctive than for plants.

Over time we can learn to meditate and reflect toward a practice of "Taking Stock" of the rhythms of our own life.

We might begin this process from a macro perspective, as we ask ourselves, "What traditions have I returned to year after year?" 

Perhaps there are certain holidays or family events that happen at particular times of year that you look forward to.

Then, drawing our reflection closer, we might ask what monthly or even weekly practices have been personallylife-giving.

These might be recognised as feeding your Physical, Mental, Emotional or Spiritual health.

Try this …

Take your reflection to the daily level by reflecting on all of those things you do on a daily basis - maybe eating or going to the toilet or waking up. Are there some wellbeing practices you might link to these daily actions?

For example a friend of mine reminds himself that time in the bathroom can be a short time to meditate or be still.

One daily activity we do engage in is thought. Try paying attention to the minute by minute, second by second details of your thoughts. You could do this through a Mindfulness activity which we’ve shared how to do earlier (follow this link for more.)

What split second thoughts and prayers do you find yourself regularly coming back to on a regular basis? Some of our thoughts come to us almost without knowing it, like the rhythm of our breathing. Are these thoughts helpful or harmful for you?

• In each of these reflections, do you recognise patterns in these aspects of your life?

• What regular habits have been uplifting and life-giving?

• Conversely, what patterns do you find yourself wanting to leave behind?

It is helpful and healthy to acknowledge that we all pick up and carry unwanted luggage as we progress through the journey of life and to realise that it's alright to prune the unhealthy or damaging habits from our lives.

This is all part of the practice of Taking Stock in order to recognise the life-giving rhythms of our day to day practices.

You might consider developing personal meditative habit, such as the one outlined above, of asking yourself some or all of these questions on a regular basis.

You could start this week, perhaps with a pen and paper to hand to journal the things that you observe, the things from your own life that come to mind as you go through each reflection.

Why not have a go at some of these ideas and let us know how you got on.