I think I am still mulling over my recent read of Atomic Habits (the audio book I listened to by James Clear.
I saw this quote the other day and it really jumped out at me. It builds on his mantra that tiny improvements made every day - or even one tiny improvement done consistently can add up to big results over time.
It echoes another recent read of mine - The 1% Wellness Experiment by the lovely
. Gabrielle writes about the concept of micro gains and presents you with a fabulous month long list of suggestions. Tiny things you can do in under 10 minutes. Tiny things that, if repeated, have the real potential to improve your well being, your mindset and your daily life. If you haven’t come across Gabrielle and her work yet, please take a look. You’ll be glad you did.To give you one example of this, I’ve been saying for ages (at least 2 months) that I really want to start learning how to give myself a Gua Sha facial massage. I suffer from a lot of stress headaches and have a very tense shoulder/neck area which I’m fairly sure would benefit from some gentle facial massage. I’m not going to lie, I also like the idea that it could improve my skin tone and reduce facial puffiness. I’ve watched YouTube videos, I’ve pinned a lot of posts and bought a little Gua Sha tool and some facial oil.
Guess How many facial massages I have given myself in the last 2 months - precisely one.
They all seem very long winded and frankly a bit of a faff after a long day, when all I want to do is to clean my teeth and go to bed.
So, deciding to implement some of the reading I have been doing - James Clear is very big on habit stacking I have decided to start small and do a short (1-2 min) facial massage every morning after I’ve cleaned my teeth. Keeping it short and simple increases the chance that I’ll still be doing it a week from now and I’ll want to do more. Rather than thinking about it, maybe doing it once and then not bothering again.
A few other micro-experiments I’m doing this week:
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