Routines and mindfulness

Good habits, morning routines, evening routines, work routines.... If you occasionally read or listen to anything in the self-development corner, you've definitely encountered it. 

Books like "Atomic Habits" by James Clear, "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg and others are very popular. And if you listen to a podcast in this industry, by now you know the importance of a morning routine and routines in general. 

And, as far as I'm concerned, with good reason.

Routines make it easier to give your life a certain stability. And that's nice. 

It lowers stress, increases our efficiency and thus gives us space to get busy with more essential things.

Consciously developing routines by linking small habits can be enormously helpful. It is a fantastic tool in our daily lives. It has helped me several times to break a negative spiral and also to lay foundations for experiencing more fulness in life on numerous fronts.

Last week I had a conversation with a friend about routines. And especially about how they also have an impact on the other side. After all, when you do things on autopilot, you are much less intentional. And that sometimes seems to bite with the desire to be more conscious, more mindful in life.

The joke is that, of course, this is also exactly the purpose of those routines: to perform them unconsciously. The whole purpose is that the routines creates room for the awareness on another level. And thus, in my view, the unconscious automatism does not bite with the desire to be conscious at all.

Of course, there are also a lot of routines that we (seem to) suffer from on our route to a more conscious life. I find it remarkable that then our language often changes as well. Instead of talking about habits or routines, we suddenly start to talk about automatisms or programming. 

They are just as much routines. Routines that we may or may not have consciously created in a past and are now no longer helpful.

Fortunately, nothing prevents us from then letting go of these programs.... And then consciously creating routines again that are helpful 😉

With ❤️,

Henjo