Micro-Habits
We tend to believe we’ll be happy when certain conditions are met or when we’ve achieved this or that… but that’s a common myth. We don’t have to hope that we’ll feel better someday. We have more control than we think. We can take the reins and discover what we can do now - small things that can boost feelings of joy or content.
Choosing happiness and joy sounds cliché and laughable, and it does take more work than flipping a switch. But the good news is that we can increase our joy, sustainably! Joy is something we define internally, we connect with a feeling inside and then find things and do things that directly connect to that feeling.
Micro-habits bring bite sized portions of that to us. They are realistic, actionable everyday behaviors and activities. They get embedded into the neural wiring in our brains and trigger a positive emotional response. (That’s the technical way to say ‘We feel good and joyful!’) So when we repeat behaviors they create a reward system in our brains, and if we are consciously adopting positive micro-habits and mindfully paying attention to the pleasant effects, they become a positive feedback loop that touches into joy!
Awareness of how something makes us feel good can help us develop new positive habits. And with consistency and commitment to these micro-habits, they remap your brain to feel more joy; then we find ourselves moving through the world more easily connecting into positivity and happiness. And the ‘micro’ part, is what really helps it last.
Findings from several different scientific fields increasingly confirm what life experience and spiritual traditions have been telling us for thousands of years: that joy can begin within us when we choose to do even a tiny action in the direction of joy, and make a habit of it.
At first, these small bites of joy may be temporary, but they are used as building blocks to create a deeper sense of personal value, meaning and purpose, learning and growth, as well as a sense of belonging. If our actions and life decisions don't mesh with our deepest values, unhappiness is rarely far behind. One way to look at this, could be to rank the importance of four core values and write a brief account of how they show up in your life. Then you can return to this list to help you make hard decisions, to steer yourself back toward contentment, and ultimately find more purpose and happiness in everyday life.
These micro-habits are very individual; it could also be things like getting out in nature, finding things to be grateful for, or doing small acts of kindness for yourself or others. Remind yourself of what you value most in the world, then take stock of whether or not you're living for them. But regardless, if you take the moment to connect in to what might bring you more joy, you are moving towards a more sustainable well-being.
