High five!
Today I wanted to share with you a simple idea to help you in your journey with your regular movement practice and with any other habit that you want to incorporate into your life.
It’s really easy to do but may not necessarily come naturally to you. Like most things worth working towards, it might take a bit of practice, but if you persevere it will really help you to cement a practice or other habit into your routine,
It starts with the idea that emotions create habits.
When we feel good about doing something it sends a positive message to our brain, making it so that we want to do the thing again. This can work the other way too - if we feel terrible after doing something our brain will try and protect us and stop us doing that thing.
So, it is possible to reinforce and solidify your movement practice in your brain by attaching a positive emotion to it.
One way to do this (even if it sounds a bit cheesy) is to give yourself some positive feedback when you have done the practice - ie a high five to yourself in the mirror, or a fist bump to the air and saying “whoop whoop” out loud! Even a “yes” or a “go me!” will work. Find something that resonates with you and give it a try.
I love a good high five - I use it a lot with my clients in the gym (air-fives during the pandemic!) and my partner and I love to do them, particularly when one of us has cooked a delicious dinner (it’s usually him - thanks babe! <3)
So I use a “self-five'' regularly after my strength practice (in the mirror if I can) and I recently incorporated the fist bump as a celebration when I started to incorporate a short standing meditation at the start of my practice. I struggle to stand still so this is hard for me - the fist bump really helps!!
It might feel a bit weird and silly to start off with, so keep practicing it and it will start to feel more natural.
Think about how athletes regularly give themselves a celebration when they succeed - a footballer celebrating a goal, a runner with their arms in the air as they cross the finish line first or a more subtle mini fist gesture a tennis player makes when they hit a good shot. They may not even be conscious or deliberate about it but each time they do it they are reinforcing that it feels good and they want to do it again.
If you are a performer, how does it feel when the audience applauds or even cheers for you at the end of your piece? Good, huh? Whilst I’m not suggesting that audience admiration should be the only motivator for performance, it can certainly help us feel inspired to do it again! Imagine how it would feel if we were to give ourselves that celebration post-performance too. We are too often our own worst critic!
I would love to hear how this one works for you - let me know in the comments if you have your own way of celebrating after a practice or another behaviour or activity you do regularly. If this is new to you, give it a try and let me know how it goes!