Sustaining New Patterns

Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to talk about sustaining new patterns. To create a new pattern or habit that sustains itself requires learning to enjoy the sensations and the emotions associated with that pattern. This might seem relatively intuitive, but it's often overlooked. If we want to feel intrinsically drawn to something, we need to feel good on some level, even if that good feeling is something like breaking a sweat during a hard workout at the gym.

It doesn't necessarily need to be calming and peaceful, but there's a felt sense of, yeah, I do feel energized or I feel like I'm getting something done and that feels good. So as you try to create new habits and you really want them to stick, start by asking yourself. What would feel good about doing this? Maybe try it out a few times to experiment. And then as you're going through the habit, notice what you feel during it and what you appreciate about that habit or that new behavior. This will help your nervous system associate something good with the pattern rather than subconsciously wanting to avoid it, which is the main thing that causes most of us to abandon things that we, on some level, do want to do.

Thank you for your practice. Let's settle in for today's meditation.