How to cultivate new habits

Thinking, doing & being

These three actions are quite different yet very important with learning, let me explain why.

If you are a driver, can you recall your early days? I remember my driving instructor would teach me how to read the road as well as listen to the engine whilst changing gears. I was taught how the engine worked and also the safety measures to take if I was stranded on the road side. Taking all this information in initially was full on! However, the area which I recall provided the greatest amount of focus was finding the bite point between the accelerator and the clutch whilst sitting on an incline at a junction. It was really important to sense and feel the bite point, listen to the engine and when it was safe to drive onto the road, doing so without using too much accelerator and avoiding a quick release from the clutch. At the time, I had to think about every action, as well as know the rules and etiquette of the road.

Then as time progressed like you, I was able to develop my driving skills further and started doing rather than it just being academic. This was when things began to sink in because you and I are able to link the thinking with doing.

Fast forward many years and we are all being a driver. What does this mean? When you are being a driver, your conscious mind has moved to one side and allowed your subconscious mind to take the driver’s seat! Think of all the little idiosyncrasies and processes you do when you get to your car, get in and start driving. Everything you do is second nature. It is amazing how your brain creates this very methodical way of learning. Did you know that you can create this methodical way of learning to create new healthy habits?

I would like to share my favourite quote is from Dr Wayne Dyer,

“It all begins with how you choose to think.  When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

I love this quote because the emphasis on change comes from us, individually. It begins with your thinking and the way you feed your mind because synapses or neural connections reveal Your regular pattern of thoughts. Have you consider your thoughts? Are they positive? Are they looking for the good in others and yourself? Do you look for faults in others and yourself? Do you gravitate towards negative conversations? Do you thrive on positive conversations and company? Could you consider your subconscious mind as fertile soil? What do you allow to grow? Could you change this for healthy content which will flourish in the figurative fertile soil of your subconscious mind?

If you have read my previous blogs, you will recall I wrote a three part series on how to boost your brain. Within the 3 parts I discussed how your brain loves novelty and to be curious! Your brain literally lights up with excitement to new things and each of your 5 senses are integrated with this new feeling and experience. Once it has integrated that information, your amazing brain dissects it and takes lessons from it, categories it, analyses it, examines it and files it away for future reference.

Variety is the spice of life!

Variety and moving out of your comfort zone is so important to grow and develop. When you take steps to grow and learn, you are keeping your mind and body fresh and active. When your brain continues to learn new things such as how to reduce pain, how to increase mobility, how to recalibrate and reset your posture, the neurons involved in these processes are having a party in your brain! They are loving the new, rich material which continues to wire nerve cells together and create a healthier, more resilient brain and body.

Neuroplasticity is the process where the brain has the ability to continue rewiring and creating new circuits or connections. As well as positive changes occurring in your brain with the creation of healthy new habits, your body also has the ability to adapt and change. Pain scientists refer to your body as bioplastic, meaning that your body has the ability to adapt and change, working in harmony with the action of your brain and how they translates into your body. That is why in Somatics, we refer to your whole being as a Soma. Everything is closely connected and heavily influences each other, they cannot be separated.

Slow down and notice

Within my clinical practice and with clients online, I am always encouraging people to slow down their movements and notice the subtle feedback or sensations when they are releasing tension from their muscles and improving their mobility. For many years, due to different situations, scenarios, events and circumstances, people can develop muscle tension, tightness and pain. It is only when pain becomes a daily battle or the conversations around surgery begins, that people start wondering what else they can do to improve their health and wellbeing.

When clients begin learning the Total Somatics Approach to Health and Wellbeing, they are encouraged to begin creating new habits. When they begin creating new habits, they have to become conscious over what they are doing. They notice the subconscious actions that are trying to over-ride their conscious movements, mindset shifts and postural changes. Interestingly, many clients will comment on their internal perception of the speed they are moving. They are conditioned to doing everything big and fast, however to learn to how go slower, work smarter, not harder can initially be a challenge. When I am teaching Total Somatics to clients, I am teaching them to start unifying the mindset and mindfulness principles taught within the online program with how they move, stand and sit. When they learn these skills, they are allowing themselves to take on the methodical learning process of creating a new way of thinking, doing and being. Everybody is on their own personal practice and so it will vary depending on the individual and whether they create a regular Total Somatic Movement Practice.

Taking action!

Would you like to create healthy habits? In order to change your habits, you have to change your thoughts and feelings. Do you want to feel well? Do you want to feel what is it like to wake up with reduced pain and increased mobility? Are you fed up feeling the way that you do and having the thoughts that you do? When you feel you want to change, that’s when action happens. From working with clients over the years, when that light bulb moment hits, you know people are determined to change their state. When they start feeling shifts, even if they are in chronic pain and initially it is only small, they are beginning to feel the changes and their entire soma is loving the fact that thanks to neuroplasticity and bioplasticity, their health and wellbeing is no longer set in stone. Instead, they have control over how they feel and what their future plans entail.

FREE online workshop

Would you like to know how to reduce pain and move freely? I am holding a FREE online workshop on Sunday 26th July. Within the workshop, you will learn why you have recurring pain and why your posture is changing. You will learn how you can reverse this with your internal processes of bioplasticity and neuroplasticity with Total Somatic movement. Within the workshop I will guide you through a gentle somatic movement class to release tension in your back, shoulders and hips. If you would like to join me live or receive a recorded link of the workshop, email workshops@totalsomatics.com.

Are you not too sure what Somatics is? Download my FREE ebook entitled, “Somatics - What is it? How can it help me?”

As you have read in my blog today, implementation is very important. It is great to take in facts and knowledge, however this workshop will provide you the opportunity to actually put the theory into practice. You will be able to sense and feel what is it like to soften your muscles, reduce pain and move freely. You will be creating the methodical learning process from thinking to doing to being. Imagine how excited the neurons will be firing off in your brain as you allow all these new sensations, movements and feelings flood your amazing brain

TITLE: Reduce Pain & Move Freely with Total Somatics
DATE: Sunday 26th July 2020
TIME: 7pm Australian Eastern Standard, 10am British Summer time, 5am Eastern time
TO JOIN: Email workshops@totalsomatics.com and I will send you a zoom invitation. If you would like a recorded link of the workshop, please specify in your email.
LOCATION: The comfort of your own home

I look forward to sharing this amazing work with you!
Take care,
Heidi Hadley xx
www.TotalSomatics.com

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