Changing The Pattern: Rewiring Lifestyle Habits For Personal Growth & Lasting Change

Have you ever felt that your life seems to be a bit off kilter? Maybe on paper your life looks great, yet somehow you feel you’ve lost your zest or perhaps even struggle with your emotional or mental health? Maybe you’re just feeling stuck in an outdated version of yourself! If so, well then this changing the pattern blog is for you! We are dedicated to creating lifestyle shifts that restore and sustain a sense of true well-being. In this series we will focus on uncovering our unhelpful patterns and provide actionable steps to rewire lifestyle habits for improved, long-lasting, health unique to you.

Changing the pattern is about identifying lifestyle habits that have outgrown their purposefulness. However, that’s not the entire story! Learning and growing does not always come from our head, a guru, a book or blog, but from the experiences we have themselves.

As a counselor and yoga life coach, many clients have come to me to sort through their pain, but in reality are running or trying to escape it. But the way out is often going through it…leaning into it… in order to find the lessons within it. Learning -and for that matter, life- is a spiritual process of discovery, filled with twists and turns, ups ad downs, unexpected surprises, confusion, hurts, curiosity, and mistakes. If allowed, we can trust this process or the experiences we go through, to reveal the lessons we need and that guide us on the path toward growth. Not easy, I know!

“If you don’t like the road you’re on, start paving another one” ~ Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton’s words have described a great philosophy for living your best life! But how do you start to pave another road? Or decide what path to take? Or know if you even need to be forging a new direction?By using the core principles in changing the pattern, you design lifestyle habits tailored for your personal growth! By focusing inward, on individualized lifestyle improvements, based on observation and inquiry of personal experiences, you can support and sustain meaningful growth and life transformation.

Unplug and Reset: Digital Detox for Mental Clarity

In today’s internet frenzy, the idea of “healthy living” has promoted a culture of relentless searching for the next best thing, or to heal what ails you. It can be overwhelming in this vast sea of information and sales gimmicks. This frenzy encourages you to look outside of yourself for answers in order to feel better. I know I have fallen victim to this myself, constantly searching for the next, best, magic elixir, protocol, technique or alternative, natural and holistic approaches to look and feel better.

I’m not saying that this wellness ideal is ill-natured in and of itself, but when we flit from one thing to the next searching for answers, we miss the most important ingredient…introspection.

Our aim with changing the pattern is to minimize the overwhelm with a less is more approach. We simplify by prioritizing our personal -body, mind & soul- goals and look within for real answers. I challenge you to detox from digital media and spend some time within yourself…observe…reflect…and uncover real answers!

Rewiring unhelpful lifestyle patterns requires self observation or self-reflection and awareness. The answers cannot be found outside of ourselves. Our inner landscape holds the secret and is the magic that sends us down the path to true well-being.

Once revealed, we dive deeper inward, to begin to unravel those things that keep us stuck. Then the rebuilding can begin. But fair warning, the following information may sound simple, but gaining proficiency over your thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and actions is not easy! Proceed with curiosity rather than judgement, courage rather than fear, and compassion for yourself and the experiences that have brought you to this point in your life. Let the observation begin!

Rewiring Habits Beginning With… Life Satisfaction

As we begin this journey, let’s pause for a moment and reflect on our current state of life satisfaction. Use the following template from the works of Ed Diener to consider your starting point. This will begin to give you insight into your current nature.

So…what did you discover? Maybe you discovered certain areas in your life that could use a little tweaking. Maybe you discovered that although on paper your life looks pretty good, in reality you don’t feel that great about your life. Confusion and guilt surrounding this may amplify your distress as well. This is what I term a life disconnect -or knowing something is not right or something seems to be missing. It’s a feeling of being out of sync with life. So what exactly does out of sync look like?

Out of sync symptoms signals the need to take a look at your lifestyle habits…

The above descriptions of “out of sync” living are just a few examples that point to a need for change -and quite possibly you may be experiencing some of these symptoms and so much more! These are the surface indicators that point to the necessity for a deeper dive inward.

Now that you have some insight, I’d like to suggest an valuable activity for documenting your journey… the action of journaling. Take time to write down thoughts, insights, questions, and so on. Use the prompts given throughout this blog series to assist in uncovering what lies within.

Journal Topic: 1. What are your thoughts regarding your life satisfaction 2. In what ways do you feel out of sync with life? What do you hope to get out of action of self inquiry?

A change in patterns leads to a change in life!

Well Done! You have just completed your first step in identifying who you are, uncovering your inner sparkle, and beginning to craft the the next best version of yourself! Stay tuned for the next post where we will dive deeper into current habits and begin to make substantial changes in life satisfaction.

Looking for more? Use the contact button above to see what else we offer and how we can help you find your inner sparkle. Did you find this helpful? Share it with friends and on social media so others can benefit as well!

I’ll see you at the next edition!