I love learning about habits, behaviours and discipline. Now I would love to add compassion because, despite all the books I’ve read, they do nothing if they are not attached to some form of compassion. Building habits is more related to the journey than how they look after you have built them. Every morning ,there is a moment, still a little battle with myself, to do, eat and go where I think I would like to go. A battle that I appear to lose. Attention to the vocabulary I lose, so I thought, because that vocabulary is related to wanting to be what I thought was the best I could be, but not often being what I do so I am a failure. Nop not really, there is nothing to lose most of the time, there is mostly a big gap between my expectations and what I am. Compassion seems to be the tool that reminds me that most of the options are amazing and full of life. My days in reality are full of decisions, deciding between great options to do what I want to do and self-love is a great option when planning things or when I get derailed from them. Preparing for challenging moments is also a great way to find good consistency in my practices. Understanding our own chemistry is becoming part of my way to navigate my days when the goal is to find bubbles of flows in which I can build the habits I want.
Often during my days, I find myself having to make micro or macro decisions about my life. What is the price for our first showcase, $50, $55 or $65? Wow that sounds expensive, but less will not pay for the event, you are also investing so much energy in creating a great event. Love and humility come to the rescue and remind you that you want to cover your expenses and get enough profits for the end of the year, also this is our first and we can understand that we don’t really have the perfect answer, but I have the opportunity to try, giving you the opportunity to create magic so let’s enjoy it. Very often our options are all great, like all the amazing people you would love to see everyday, but you can’t because life is short and limited. Let’s at least meet a couple often enough please, and when doing so let’s treasure that moment and also appreciate the reality of everyone’s limitations. Maybe next time you are in front of a menu without knowing what you want just order anything and prepare to love it and enjoy it even when you won’t order that again, instead of creating a chart of pros and cons.
In the morning, I go do my refreshing, walk to the kitchen, drink water and prepare my coffee with a V60 method, then meditate or read a page of this book or that book (Pedro copied the title here), I do both things but I forgot the order, I think I read first, but I do not know where my secondary phone with my meditation app is so I take my phone and then I am on Instagram because I forgot what the next steps were, until it is too late I will miss something, I think reading is before meditation though. I found after observing myself, that If I write what are the things that I do first thing in the morning then I will do them. The habit of writing these few things at night is one of the best anxiety shields I have because it enhances my respect for the things I want to do in the morning. The same applies to putting my phone to charge away from me. And keeping my basic second phone handy so I can play my meditation without distracting apps and I will flow better. Because I know well that social media is not the best for my goals at the moment and because I lost my social media battle I gave up on the healthy eating habits that I am working on. Yet I am building a companion armour that reminds me that everything is fine, just jump to the next thing you want to do and enjoy and just get it done, life is good. Because once again just many good options in life.
Doing things that are hard builds dopamine, a great chemical. Social media depletes dopamine and without dopamine, Instagram is king, or fast food. So doing a few things every day that are hard has been key for my daily habits. Washing my face with cold water in the morning, exercising often and being away from my phone for a few hours are great saviors of my dopamine banks. It is interesting that we are beings with a great tool, our brain, yet we are just animals of chemistry. I am so eager to learn more simple ways to improve my life and guide it towards a better understanding where my healthy loving habits embrace and decimate my anxiety.
Gracias for reading,
Pedro