Heart openers for new beginnings

New beginnings are easier done when we can approach people and situations with an open heart and mind. It is not uncommon for us to build walls over time – learned behaviours and reactions that we have developed as a way to protect ourselves. However, in order to truly build the life we want, we will often have to confront and deal with these defence mechanisms to encourage openness + to invite opportunities in. The article below discusses how heart opening asanas can help you along this journey.

Just as you can practice heart opening in your thoughts and emotions, you can also experience opening the heart space in your physical body.

For many, “opening your heart” implies receptivity to love and intimacy in a romantic relationship ring on the candy and flowers. However, everyone, including single yoga practitioners, can experience heart opening in other kinds of relationships: with caring friends and family members, pets, teachers and mentors, and with our own students.

With deep introspection and honesty, you can also practice heart opening in more challenging situations, such as your relationships with difficult people or those with whom you disagree philosophically or politically. As you visualize and practice opening your heart in your various relationships, you’re learning ahimsa, or compassion, which is number one on the list of yamas and niyamas.

Know Your Physical Heart Space

Just as you can practice heart opening in your thoughts and emotions, you can also experience opening the heart space in your physical body. Your heart resides within the thoracic cavity, which is surrounded by a bony cylinder, the rib cage, comprised of 12 ribs on the right and 12 on the left; your sternum (breastbone) in the front; and the spine in the back. The bones are held together by soft tissues, including muscles large and small; cartilage between the vertebrae in the spine, between the three parts of the sternum, and as part of each rib as it attaches to the sternum; and by ligaments, which join bone to bone. There are ligaments, for example, between each pair of vertebrae, and ligaments holding each rib onto its adjacent vertebrae. Your diaphragm, the dome shaped muscle that separates the heart and lungs above from the digestive and reproductive organs below, forms the floor of the thoracic cavity.

Ideally, the soft tissues supporting the bony cylinder remain resilient for a lifetime, so the cylinder is able to expand freely with each breath and the rib cage doesn’t become a rigid and restrictive container for the heart and lungs. You might picture a stiffened rib cage like armour: The lungs won’t be able to expand completely to receive a deep, full breath; and the rigidity may also limit blood flow to and within the heart. An immovable rib cage is also a limiting factor in Pranayama and many yoga poses, especially twists (which require rotation) and backbends (which require spinal extension), because its rigidity prevents the thoracic spine from moving through its normal range of motion. The lack of thoracic extension in backbends can contribute to lower back and neck pain caused by the lumbar and cervical spine hyperextending (overarching) to compensate for the lack of midback movement.

Conscious work with the breath is one of the best ways to improve rib cage mobility, gently stretch thoracic soft tissues, and open the heart space. Any time people feel threatened, be it by pain, challenge, or pressure to perform, the need to guard or defend oneself usually results in holding the breath or breathing in shallow, erratic patterns. These defensive breath patterns cause muscle tightness in the very areas we’re trying to open, as well as gripping in the upper abdomen, which restricts the normal movement of the diaphragm. By teaching your students to practice slow, gently expansive breathing (while avoiding aggressive action, such as pushing or forcing the breath, which generates more inappropriate muscle tightness), you’ll help them start to break up rib cage rigidity and the armor of tightly gripped chest, back, and abdominal muscles.

Simple Positions to Open the Heart

To avoid setting off guarding mechanisms while practicing breathing that expands the rib cage, it’s best to use simple, pain-free positions. To open the chest and abdomen, a wonderful position is a gentle and supported backbend. Try it while lying over a rolled blanket or towel (use a smaller roll for very tight students), placing the roll crosswise under the thoracic spine (the midback, where the ribs attach) and resting the arms in an open position, with palms up. This position gently expands the front rib cage and upper abdomen with each inhalation. Keep the knees bent and place one to two inches of support under the head to help prevent lumbar and cervical hyperextension.

Simple twists invite expansion of the side ribs. Try lying on your right side, with your knees pulled up toward your chest to create a 90-degree angle at the hips. On an inhalation, open your left arm behind you while turning your head to the left. Don’t let the left arm dangle in mid-air. Place just enough support (a block or blanket) under the left arm so you feel some stretch but no pain in the chest and/or side ribs. If your midback, including the space between the shoulder blades, is tight and flat, practice Balasana (Child’s Pose) with arms overhead or beside your calves. People with stiff spines and hips may not be able to get their heads to the floor and so will need support under the head in this pose. Usually a block or folded blanket under the head provides enough height to support the weight of the head, so the neck muscles can relax.

Whether opening the chest in a supported backbend, the side rib cage in a twist, or the thoracic spine and rib cage in Child’s Pose, talk to yourself or to your students about breath patterns. Invite your inhalation to gradually become a little slower, smoother, and deeper, again avoiding any tension-producing forcefulness. Then bring your awareness to the part of the rib cage you want to open (such as the front ribs in supported backbends and the side ribs in twists). It may help to place a hand on the area so you can feel the expansion from the outside as well as the inside. Let the inhalation gently expand and open the ribs, then relax and surrender to gravity with each exhalation.

Practice breathing in each position for two to three minutes, a few times a week if not every day. You’ll be rewarded with deep relaxation, improved breath awareness, opened heart space, and if you so choose a life-altering practice of ahimsa.

Article source: https://www.yogajournal.com/teach/opening-the-heart/
Article author: Julie Gudmestad

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Self-limiting beliefs

The way we think & our attitudes and beliefs can have a dramatic effect on how we approach life and opportunities that come our way. Thoughts are strongly influenced by the experiences we have had throughout our lives and can therefore be challenging to alter. However, it can be done and if we are able to change our thinking for the better, the opportunities can be endless! The article below discusses what self limiting beliefs are and how we can work towards changing them. Take a read!

Many of us are constantly striving to grow professionally and personally in our lives. Every new year we set aside some time to establish brand new objectives and things we want to achieve. We start the year off with admirable willpower but it’s not uncommon to arrive at a point when our motivation drops off and our plans lose their lustre.

How many goals have been set but never reached the finish line? Of course, some big and small life changes could have affected your goals from coming to fruition but your beliefs and attitude play an important part in what does and doesn’t happen.

Tony Robbins once said:

“The only thing that’s keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself.”

What you tell yourself is what you believe. This can play a big role in how you see the world and how you feel. Open your mind and you will discover a belief that's preventing you from being successful. This is also known as limiting beliefs. What type of excuses do you tell yourself that is limiting you from being who you want to be or where you want to be?

What Are Limiting Beliefs?

Limiting beliefs are thoughts, opinions that one believes to be the absolute truth. They tend to have a negative impact on one's life by stopping them from moving forward and growing on a personal and professional level.

In most cases, limiting beliefs are unconscious thoughts that act as a defence mechanism to avoid possible negative or lower vibrating emotions (e.g. frustration, anxiety, anger, sadness).

These beliefs are often triggered according to specific episodes that may have made you suffer in the past. So your subconscious tries to block it by altering your behaviour which can result in negative outcomes like procrastination, conformism, overthinking, anxiety, impostor syndrome, and other reactions.

The Origin Of Self-Limiting Beliefs

Most limiting beliefs are largely developed during childhood. The author of the bestselling book The Biology of Belief, Dr. Bruce Lipton, talks about how from birth to around age seven, you operate primarily in brain wavelengths that are very close to a hypnotic state. When you are a kid, you are literally a sponge, soaking up every little thing around you in order to record "bad and good" behaviours/emotions.

This means that everyone develops beliefs from early childhood, some of which are supportive, and some of which are limiting. For instance, children who are treated as though they are loved and valued will develop the belief that they are loved and wanted. On the contrary, children who are abused or neglected will tend to develop the belief that they are unworthy and unwanted.

There are many ways to identify your limiting beliefs. A natural way of doing that is by listening to the little voices in your head. It's that voice that is constantly telling you that you cannot do, be, or have something.

Let me tell you a personal story that I went through this year. Every three months Atlassian holds an event called ShipIt — a 24 hour innovation time to work on something outside of your job description or take on something to improve your team's work.

This year I decided to participate by leading a project which I had no clue on where or who to ask to help me develop my idea. I am a very quiet remote worker who doesn't (virtually) socialise much so in order to be successful, I needed someone who had some specific programming knowledge that I didn't have. I would have to search for that person in the company. Before submitting my idea to the project board to recruit people to be part of, I instantly thought: "No one is going to care about this topic" and "This project will be a failure".

It took me a few weeks to overcome my thoughts and act upon them. Yes, procrastination is my weakness when I have to deal with something that's uncomfortable for me. Every time my team lead would ask me about this project, another thought would come to my mind: "Why (the heck) did I tell her that I was going to this? Now I have to do it." In the end, telling my co-worker helped empower me to follow through with the project.

Bottom line: I decided in my mind that since I thought this project would be a failure, I should at least try and learn from it. In the end, I not only managed to have the right five people on the project, but we also won the prize for that ShipIt. I was indeed shocked by the end result.

Let's discover how self-limiting beliefs can have a larger impact on a team.

How Do Limiting Beliefs Impact A Team's Success?

Psychologist, Robert M., describes in his research the importance and impact of beliefs in our lives. He says:

“Beliefs are like filters on a camera. What the camera ‘sees’ is a function of the filters through which it is viewing its subject. In other words, how we ‘see’ the world is a function of our beliefs and profoundly influences personality.

As a result of our beliefs, we define ourselves as worthy or worthless, powerful or powerless, competent or incompetent, trusting or suspicious, belonging or outcast, self-reliant or dependent, flexible or judgmental, fairly treated or victimized, loved or hated. Your beliefs have far-reaching consequences, both positive and negative, in your life. Beliefs affect your moods, relationships, job performance, self-esteem, physical health, even your religious or spiritual outlook.”

If teams are made by a group of people then, each of them has their own personal stories, beliefs, and values. When the team bands together, it could make or break the culture, project, or task that they are collaborating on to build and execute.

The fact is that someone's limiting beliefs can have an impact on the team because they can create a real stumbling block not for oneself but also for others. For instance, say Joana is getting closer to her project's deadline but there's no sign of that being accomplished in time. A teammate offers help, but she says "Don't worry, I got this!". There are many beliefs that could be stopping Joanna to accept help, for example, the belief of "being untrustworthy", "not smart enough", "not reliable when she said she could do it."

When you start developing your self-awareness to identify your limiting beliefs, you can take the same situation and create an opportunity for improvement. Doing so will empower you to problem solve, rather than limit yourself to grow. If everyone on the team is open to doing the same, then your team will evolve into a high-functioning team.

Leaders can also inspire their team by encouraging them to get their work done and brag about it to the whole company. The more a leader encourages their team with a positive leadership style to stretch and break through those limiting beliefs, the more effective and productive a team will become.

Beware The Pitfalls Of These Limiting Beliefs

There are two key self-limiting beliefs that can hurt your team. Let’s start breaking them down to help create a better and more productive workplace for your entire team.

"I need my colleagues to like me in order to feel loved or valued."

This limiting belief also relates to something like, "If I don't get the approval of [name/entity] , I feel [emotion] ."

When you are constantly seeking approval from others to like you, you tend to accept things even though you don't like them. It's like your mind is already programmed to say "yes" before you think that's something you like. This can lead to a great deal of stress in the relationship of your team. You are likely to blame them for anything that goes wrong as a result of you agreeing to do what they asked for. This can also have a bandwagon effect. The fear of being an odd-one-out and coupled with the belief that agreeing to someone's perspective will make a person like you can prevent you from speaking up and expressing an alternative view. Making your team blind in a situation you could have contributed to a better solution. On the flip side, it can also lead to burnout for those who don't speak up.

Try this: First, understand why you are saying yes to everything. Then, begin pinpointing the little things you can say no to before being able to say “no” to a bigger project or task. That way you can learn more about how you feel along the way without freaking out in the long run.

"It's not perfect, I need more time before I share"

Another limiting belief in the workplace is when you take too much time to deliver your work because it doesn’t feel perfect yet. This can slow down your team's productivity and potentially backfire with negative effects like depression and anxiety. If you are being critical of your own imperfections, you are probably doing the same to members of your team.

Marie Forleo wrote a whole chapter about perfectionism in her book Everything Is Figureoutable. She explains:

"Life doesn’t demand perfection. It doesn’t require you to be constantly fearless, confident, or self-assured. Life simply requires that you keep showing up."

Try this: Cultivate an awareness of your tendencies toward perfectionism. Instead of holding the work until you perfect it, ask your team members for feedback by using the 30/60/90 framework. That way you can move faster by acknowledging the pain points of your work and leaving behind the gritty details.

Identify, Reframe, And Move Forward

We all have limiting beliefs that stop us from achieving our dreams or even our everyday goals. In order to identify and change those beliefs, you need to work on your self-awareness muscle. The secret is to be accountable and take responsibility for the beliefs you created for yourself. Ultimately, you want to get into the practice of recognising a limiting belief and reframing it to help you take a step forward.

And if you're still encountering limiting beliefs, remember the advice of Mahatma Gandhi:

"You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

Change starts within you. Once you start, embrace your teammates to do the same, then you will see a shift in your team's behaviour and performance which will contribute to success and eventually make a difference in the world.’

Article source: A blog for teams by Trello
Author: Amanda Alvernaz

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Lifestyle tips to create a healthy gut

Our gut can influence our general health, mental health, skin, and so much more. Fortunately, if we give our gut some love, we can really reap the benefits quite quickly. The article below covers some strategies we can take to work on improving our gut ecosystem! Take a read and see how you go implementing some of the changes!

Love your gut, your second brain: advice from Registered Dietitian Jo Travers

Our gut health has the power to impact not only our physical wellbeing, but also our mental health and mood. This is due to a direct link between the gut and the brain, called the gut-brain axis.

The gut and the brain ‘talk’ to each other on a regular basis, using special chemical messengers produced by the billions of different bacteria that live in our gut. For example, among these we can find dopamine and serotonin – also known as happiness or ‘feel-good’ hormones. Although gut-brain axis communication is two-way, over 80% of the messages are actually sent from the gut to the brain rather than the other way round. So, it really does pay to give your gut some love!

As Jo Travers explains: “The gut is connected to many of the body’s organs, whether it’s through digestive enzymes or the link to the immune system, and its connection with the brain is one we can absolutely use to our advantage.

“Although scientists are still working to fully understand this two way street, it appears that the gut is attuned to the signalling and functionality of the brain and vice versa, so if conditions are less favourable in either place, then this can affect the other.”

To help us give our gut (and brain!) the love and attention it deserves, Jo has shared her top tips on how we can begin:

Get enough sleep

Sufficient sleep is something everyone needs. Found yourself resisting sleep to watch another episode of that favourite box set? This unfortunately means you may be depriving yourself of sleep which in turn, won’t help communication between the gut and the brain.

The bacteria in the gut directly communicate with the central nervous system and disrupted sleep can affect the levels of bacteria in the gut.

Manage your stress levels

Because of the unique link between the gut and the brain, mental stress can affect what happens in the gut. We’ve all had “butterflies” when we are nervous and many people who suffer with IBS notice their symptoms getting worse if they are stressed.

This mental stress can actually alter hormones that work on the gut. By practicing meditation, or any relaxing activity, you can reduce stress and help your gut get back to normal functioning again.

Nourish the gut (bacteria)

There is some evidence that what you eat can affect how you feel mentally, via the gut-brain axis. Fibre from plants feeds the bacteria in the gut that, in turn, produce chemicals to communicate with the brain.

The greater variety of plant foods you eat, the broader the range of useful bacteria your gut can support.

Include Fermented foods

Fermented foods like kombucha, kefir or other fermented milk products actually contain bacteria that can alter brain activity via signalling pathways in the gut-brain axis. The consumption of fermented food was shown to reduce social anxiety in young women.

Increase polyphenols

Polyphenols are plant compounds that are thought to be involved in the gut-brain axis. Polyphenols help gut health by encouraging the growth of useful bacteria like Bifidobacterium strains and inhibiting the growth of “bad” bacteria such as C. difficile. Eating foods that are high in polyphenols has also been shown to affect cognition.’

Article source: https://loveyourgut.com/all-entries/love-your-gut-week-2021-registered-dietitian-jo-travers-shares-her-tips-on-the-gut-brain-axis-and-how-to-nurture-it-for-good-gut-health-happy-love-your-gut-week-2021/

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Nourishing your gut

Our guts are very complex and often can be temperamental. Many people learn to persevere with tummy troubles, however, there is a lot we can do to support the health of our gut!

Read the article below to learn about some of the foods our guts love.

Probiotics

Our gut contains billions of different microbes which help to digest our food and produce useful waste products that reduce inflammation and bolster immune function. When the microbes are out of balance, we may experience symptoms such as constipation, diarrhea, digestive discomfort and even poor mood.

Probiotics are defined as ‘good bacteria that confer a health benefit to the host’. They are powerful microbes and can help re-balance the gut. They are found in fermented foods such as kimchi, kefir and yogurt. However, not all fermented foods are made equal. Look for those labelled to be ‘raw’ or have ‘live cultures’ – they are usually kept in the fridge to control the level of fermentation.

Probiotic supplements are also readily available containing different strains of bacteria, but evidence as to their benefit is limited. Research is pointing toward there being no single ‘one-size-fits-all’ blueprint of the perfect gut bacteria population! The blueprint of your ideal gut microbiome is influenced by all sorts of factors, from the way you were born to your lifestyle, your genetics or even where you live.

Fibre and prebiotics

Fibre is the indigestible part of food that makes its way intact through the stomach. There are two types – ‘soluble’ and ‘insoluble’. The insoluble fibres are more well-known. They provide bulk to stools to help keep you regular. Soluble fibre on the other hand helps keep blood sugar levels stable by slowing down the release of sugar from food during digestion, thus maintaining energy and mood throughout the day. It also helps you feel fuller for longer, making it useful in appetite and weight control. Fibre is found in all plant-based foods and can be purchased as a supplement, usually in the form of psyllium husk powder.

Some types of fibre are called ‘prebiotics’ as they are fermentable fibres that feed our good gut bacteria. Some of the best sources of prebiotic fibres are asparagus, raw onion, raw garlic and Jerusalem artichoke.

Good gut health improves nutrient absorption, supporting hormone production and playing an essential role in regulating mood. It also results in reduced inflammation and improved immune function.

Wholegrains

Wholegrains are an excellent source of fibre and resistant starch. Grains consist of 3 parts – the inner germ, the middle endosperm layer and the outer bran. Most grains in the supermarket are refined and are mostly made up of just the starchy endosperm. Whole grains have all 3 layers intact and provide much more than just starch. They also contain more fibre, protein, healthy oils, vitamins and minerals.

Resistant starch

While most starch is quickly broken down into glucose and released into the bloodstream for energy, resistant starch is harder to break down and acts more like a fibre. It makes its way into the large intestine to be fermented by the gut bacteria, serving as a prebiotic. Resistant starch selectively feeds the good gut bacteria and helps rebalance the gut.

Resistant starch is found in lentils, oats, underripe bananas, cooked then cooled pasta, rice and potatoes.’

Article source: https://tghd.com.au/powerful-food-to-feed-your-gut/
Article author: The Gut Health Dietitian

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Building & maintaining healthy habits

Building habits and equally breaking habits can be a challenging process with many ups, down & possibly multiple attempts. Generally, approaching habits with a plan and some forethought can set you up for success. James Clear, author of New York Times bestselling book ‘Atomic Habits’, outlines below how you can track your habits and why this approach is beneficial.

If you want to stick with a habit for good, one simple and effective thing you can do is keep a habit tracker.

Here's why:

Elite performers will often measure, quantify, and track their progress in various ways. Each little measurement provides feedback. It offers a signal of whether they are making progress or need to change course.

Gabrielle Hamilton, a chef in New York City, provides a good example. During an interview with the New York Times, she said, “The one thing I see that consistently separates the chef from the home cook is that we taste everything, all the time, before we commit it to the dish, right down to the grains of salt. We slurp shot glasses of olive oil and aerate them in our mouths as if it were a wine we were trying to know. We taste the lamb, the fish, the butter, the milk before we use it… we chew salt to see how we like it in our teeth, on our tongues, and to know its flavour, its salinity.”

For the chef, tasting the ingredients tells them whether they are making progress toward their desired end goal. It provides the immediate feedback they need to get the recipe just right.

Like a chef improving a recipe through trial and error, we often improve our habits through trial and error. If one approach doesn't deliver the desired effect, then we adjust—like a chef tweaking the amount of an ingredient.

However, there is an important difference between getting feedback while cooking a meal and getting feedback while building a habit. When it comes to building a habit, feedback is often delayed. It's easy to taste an ingredient or to watch bread rise in the oven. But it can be difficult to visualize the progress you are making with your habits. Perhaps you've been running for a month, but you still don't see a change in your body. Or maybe you managed to meditate for 16 straight days, but you still feel stressed and anxious at work.

Habit formation is a long race. It often takes time for the desired results to appear. And while you are waiting for the long-term rewards of your efforts to accumulate, you need a reason to stick with it in the short-term. You need some immediate feedback that shows you are on the right path.

And this is where a habit tracker can help.

The Habit Tracker: What It Is and How It Works

A habit tracker is a simple way to measure whether you did a habit.

The most basic format is to get a calendar and cross off each day you stick with your routine. For example, if you meditate on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, each of those dates gets an X. As time rolls by, the calendar becomes a record of your habit streak.

To make this process as easy as possible, I created the Habit Journal, which includes 12 habit tracker templates—one for each month. All you have to do is add your habit and start crossing off the days.

Placing an X on each day is the classic look. I prefer something a little more design-oriented, so I shade in the cells on my habit tracker. You could also use checkmarks or fill your habit tracker with dots.

No matter what design you choose, the key point is your habit tracker provides immediate evidence that you completed your habit. It's a signal that you are making progress. Of course, that's not all it does…

Habit tracking is powerful for three reasons.

1. It creates a visual cue that can remind you to act.

2. It is motivating to see the progress you are making. You don't want to break your streak.

3. It feels satisfying to record your success in the moment.

Let's break down each one.

Benefit #1: A habit tracker reminds you to act.

Habit tracking naturally builds a series of visual cues. When you look at the calendar and see your streak, you’ll be reminded to act again.

Research has shown that people who track their progress on goals like losing weight, quitting smoking, and lowering blood pressure are all more likely to improve than those who don’t. One study of more than sixteen hundred people found that those who kept a daily food log lost twice as much weight as those who did not. A habit tracker is a simple way to log your behaviour, and the mere act of tracking a behaviour can spark the urge to change it.

Habit tracking also keeps you honest. Most of us think we act better than we do. Measurement offers one way to overcome our blindness to our own behaviour and notice what’s really going on each day. When the evidence is right in front of you, you’re less likely to lie to yourself.

Benefit #2: A habit tracker motivates you to continue.

The most effective form of motivation is progress. When we get a signal that we are moving forward, we become more motivated to continue down that path. In this way, habit tracking can have an addictive effect on motivation. Each small win feeds your desire.

This can be particularly powerful on a bad day. When you’re feeling down, it’s easy to forget about all the progress you have already made. Habit tracking provides visual proof of your hard work—a subtle reminder of how far you've come. Plus, the empty square you see each morning can motivate you to get started because you don't want to lose your progress by breaking your streak.

Benefit #3: A habit tracker provides immediate satisfaction.

Finally, tracking feels rewarding. It is satisfying to cross an item off your to-do list, to complete an entry in your workout log, or to mark an X on the calendar. It feels good to watch your results grow and if it feels good, then you’re more likely to endure.

Habit tracking also helps keep your eye on the ball: you’re focused on the process rather than the result. You’re not fixated on getting six-pack abs, you’re just trying to keep the streak alive and become the type of person who doesn’t miss workouts.

Habit Tracker Ideas

Alright, those benefits sound great, but it's not necessary to fill your habit tracker with every habit that makes up your day. In fact, if you're already sticking to a habit, then it seems like extra work to me to track it as well. So what should you measure in your habit tracker?

Habit tracking can help kickstart a new habit or keep you on track with behaviours that you tend to forget or let slide when things get busy.

In Atomic Habits, I recommend using the Two-Minute Rule, which suggests you scale your habits down until they take two minutes or less to perform. You can track whatever habits you want in your habit tracker, but I recommend starting with these super small habits to make sure that you are at least showing up in a small way each day. I'll share some examples below and break them out by daily, weekly, and monthly habits.

Common daily habits to track:

• journal 1 sentence

• read 1 page

• meditate 1 minute

• do 1 push up

• stretch for 1 minute

• write 1 thing I'm grateful for

• make your bed

• wake up by [TIME]

• go to bed by [TIME]

• take a shower

• floss teeth

• weigh myself

• take medication

• take vitamins/supplements

• play [INSTRUMENT] for 1 minute

• contact 1 potential client

• prioritize to-do list

• say “I love you” at least once

• put all dishes put away

• take a walk outside

• call mom

• walk the dog

Notice that most items on this list can be completed in two minutes or less. Make your habits so easy that you can stick to them even on the hard days.

For something to become truly habitual, you need to repeat it frequently. As a result, most habits are daily. But it can also be helpful to use a habit tracker for various weekly or monthly routines. These behaviours won't become “automatic” like tying your shoes or brushing your teeth, but a habit tracker can remind you to complete them nonetheless.

Common weekly habits to track:

• publish blog post

• vacuum

• take out trash/recycling

• do the laundry

• water the plants

• tidy up your bedroom

• write a thank you note

Monthly habits:

• review finances

• transfer money to savings account

• pay off credit cards

• pay bills

• deep clean the house

You can also use a habit tracker to simply count how often you do something. For example, if you want to keep track of how many days you travel for work each month.

Other ideas:

• days spent traveling

• conduct weekly review

• conduct monthly review

Finally, you can use a habit tracker to measure what you don't do. I call these “habits of avoidance” (that is, behaviours you are trying to avoid).

Habits of avoidance:

• no alcohol

• no Netflix

• no online purchases

• no soda

• no sugar

• no caffeine

• no smoking

Again, the Habit Journal offers a proven template and the fastest way to create your habit tracker. No need to spend an hour drawing your own grid. Just write your habits down and you're ready to go.

How to Get in the Habit of Using Your Habit Tracker

Despite all of the benefits, a habit tracker is not something that makes sense in every situation or for every person. Many people resist the idea of tracking and measuring. It can feel like a burden because it forces you into two habits: the habit you’re trying to build and the habit of tracking it. That said, nearly anyone can benefit from habit tracking in one form or another—even if it’s only temporary.

What can we do to make habit tracking easier?

First, manual tracking should be limited to your most important habits. It is better to consistently track one habit than to sporadically track ten. I tend to keep my habit tracker simple and limit it to my three or four most important habits.

Second, record each measurement immediately after the habit occurs. The completion of the habit is the cue to write it down. (This is a twist on the “habit stacking” approach I discuss in Chapter 5 of Atomic Habits.)

Here's the basic formula: After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [TRACK MY HABIT].

For example:

• After I hang up the phone from a sales call, I will mark the “call 1 potential client” column.

• After I finish meditating, I will fill the “meditate for 1 minute” column.

• After I put my plate in the dishwasher, I will complete the “put all dishes away” column.

Basically, what we are talking about here is getting in the habit of using your habit tracker. These little rules help you remember to pick up your habit tracker and mark off another accomplishment.

How to Recover Quickly When Your Habits Break Down

Finally, I want to discuss what to do when you fall off the wagon.

Every habit streak ends at some point. Perfection is not possible. Before long, an emergency will pop up—you get sick or you have to travel for work or your family needs a little more of your time. Whenever this happens to me, I try to remind myself of a simple rule:

Never miss twice.

If I miss one day, I try to get back into it as quickly as possible. Missing one workout happens, but I’m not going to miss two in a row. Maybe I’ll eat an entire pizza, but I’ll follow it up with a healthy meal. As soon as one streak ends, I get started on the next one. I can’t be perfect, but I can avoid the second mistake.

Generally speaking, the first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. As I write in Atomic Habits, “Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.”

Too often, we fall into an all-or-nothing cycle with our habits. The problem is not slipping up; the problem is thinking that if you can't do something perfectly, then you shouldn't do it at all.

Sure, a perfectly filled-in habit tracker looks beautiful and you should strive to achieve it whenever possible. But life is messy. In the long run, what matters is that you find a way to get back on track.

How Long Do I Need to Track My Habits?

One of the most common questions I get is “How long does it take to build a habit?”

You'll see all kinds of answers: 21 days, 30 days, 100 days. One popular answer right now is 66 days because there was one study that found that, on average, it took 66 days to build a habit. However, even within that study the range was quite wide depending on the difficulty of the habit.

I find that people are really trying to get at something else when they ask, “How long does it take to build a habit?” What they often mean is, “How long until it's easy? How long until I don't have to put much effort in anymore?”

Look, all habits get easier with practice. But this line of questioning ignores the real purpose of building better habits in the first place.

How long does it take? The honest answer is: forever. Because once you stop doing it, it is no longer a habit.

A habit is a lifestyle to be lived, not a finish line to be crossed. You are looking to make small, sustainable changes you can stick with for years. And a habit tracker is one tool in your toolbox on the road to behaviour change. It is an effective way to prove to visualize your progress and motivate you to show up again tomorrow.

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Practical techniques for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

What influences the way we think and behave is very complex. From our environment, the way we grew up, social media, what we watch, who we spend time with - these things can all shape us in one way or another. However, our feelings, reactions and behaviours are ultimately up to us and they can be changed. The article below outlines Cognitive Behavioural Therapy - what it is, how it can help us to explore/ modify our thoughts & behaviours, and techniques we can implement.

Even if you’re relatively unfamiliar with psychology, chances are you’ve heard of cognitive-behavioural therapy, commonly known as CBT. It’s an extremely common type of talk therapy practiced around the world.

If you’ve ever interacted with a mental health therapist, a counsellor, or a psychiatry clinician in a professional setting, it’s likely you’ve participated in CBT. If you’ve ever heard friends or loved ones talk about how a mental health professional helped them identify unhelpful thoughts and patterns and behaviour and alter them to more effectively work towards their goals, you’ve heard about the impacts of CBT.

CBT is one of the most frequently used tools in the psychologist’s toolbox. Though it’s based on simple principles, it can have wildly positive outcomes when put into practice.

What is CBT?

“This simple idea is that our unique patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving are significant factors in our experiences, both good and bad. Since these patterns have such a significant impact on our experiences, it follows that altering these patterns can change our experiences” (Martin, 2016).

Cognitive-behavioural therapy aims to change our thought patterns, our conscious and unconscious beliefs, our attitudes, and, ultimately, our behaviour, in order to help us face difficulties and achieve our goals.

Psychiatrist Aaron Beck was the first to practice cognitive behavioural therapy. Like most mental health professionals at the time, Beck was a psychoanalysis practitioner.

While practicing psychoanalysis, Beck noticed the prevalence of internal dialogue in his clients and realised how strong the link between thoughts and feelings can be. He altered the therapy he practiced in order to help his clients identify, understand, and deal with the automatic, emotion-filled thoughts that regularly arose in his clients.

Beck found that a combination of cognitive therapy and behavioural techniques produced the best results for his clients. In describing and honing this new therapy, Beck laid the foundations of the most popular and influential form of therapy of the last 50 years.

This form of therapy is not designed for lifelong participation and aims to help clients meet their goals in the near future. Most CBT treatment regimens last from five to ten months, with clients participating in one 50- to 60-minute session per week.

CBT is a hands-on approach that requires both the therapist and the client to be invested in the process and willing to actively participate. The therapist and client work together as a team to identify the problems the client is facing, come up with strategies for addressing them, and creating positive solutions (Martin, 2016).

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Cognitive Distortions

Many of the most popular and effective cognitive-behavioural therapy techniques are applied to what psychologists call “cognitive distortions,” inaccurate thoughts that reinforce negative thought patterns or emotions (Grohol, 2016).

There are 15 main cognitive distortions that can plague even the most balanced thinkers.

1. Filtering

Filtering refers to the way a person can ignore all of the positive and good things in life to focus solely on the negative. It’s the trap of dwelling on a single negative aspect of a situation, even when surrounded by an abundance of good things.

2. Polarised thinking / Black-and-white thinking

This cognitive distortion is all-or-nothing thinking, with no room for complexity or nuance—everything’s either black or white, never shades of grey.

If you don’t perform perfectly in some area, then you may see yourself as a total failure instead of simply recognising that you may be unskilled in one area.

3. Overgeneralisation

Overgeneralisation is taking a single incident or point in time and using it as the sole piece of evidence for a broad conclusion.

For example, someone who overgeneralizes could bomb an important job interview and instead of brushing it off as one bad experience and trying again, they conclude that they are terrible at interviewing and will never get a job offer.

4. Jumping to conclusions

Similar to overgeneralisation, this distortion involves faulty reasoning in how one makes conclusions. Unlike overgeneralising one incident, jumping to conclusions refers to the tendency to be sure of something without any evidence at all.

For example, we might be convinced that someone dislikes us without having any real evidence, or we might believe that our fears will come true before we have a chance to really find out.

5. Catastrophising / Magnifying or Minimising

This distortion involves expecting that the worst will happen or has happened, based on an incident that is nowhere near as catastrophic as it is made out to be. For example, you may make a small mistake at work and be convinced that it will ruin the project you are working on, that your boss will be furious, and that you’ll lose your job.

Alternatively, one might minimise the importance of positive things, such as an accomplishment at work or a desirable personal characteristic.

6. Personalisation

This is a distortion where an individual believes that everything they do has an impact on external events or other people, no matter how irrational that may be. A person with this distortion will feel that he or she has an exaggerated role in the bad things that happen around them.

For instance, a person may believe that arriving a few minutes late to a meeting led to it being derailed and that everything would have been fine if they were on time.

7. Control fallacies

This distortion involves feeling like everything that happens to you is either a result of purely external forces or entirely due to your own actions. Sometimes what happens to us is due to forces we can’t control, and sometimes what it’s due to our own actions, but the distortion is assuming that it is always one or the other.

We might assume that difficult co-workers are to blame for our own less-than-stellar work, or alternatively assume that every mistake another person makes is because of something we did.

8. Fallacy of fairness

We are often concerned about fairness, but this concern can be taken to extremes. As we all know, life is not always fair. The person who goes through life looking for fairness in all their experiences will end up resentful and unhappy.

Sometimes things will go our way, and sometimes they will not, regardless of how fair it may seem. 

9. Blaming

When things don’t go our way, there are many ways we can explain or assign responsibility for the outcome. One method of assigning responsibility is blaming others for what goes wrong.

Sometimes we may blame others for making us feel or act a certain way, but this is a cognitive distortion. Only you are responsible for the way you feel or act.

10. “Shoulds”

“Shoulds” refer to the implicit or explicit rules we have about how we and others should behave. When others break our rules, we are upset. When we break our own rules, we feel guilty. For example, we may have an unofficial rule that customer service representatives should always be accommodating to the customer.

When we interact with a customer service representative that is not immediately accommodating, we might get angry. If we have an implicit rule that we are irresponsible if we spend money on unnecessary things, we may feel exceedingly guilty when we spend even a small amount of money on something we don’t need.

11. Emotional reasoning

This distortion involves thinking that if we feel a certain way, it must be true. For example, if we feel unattractive or uninteresting in the current moment, we think we are unattractive or uninteresting. This cognitive distortion boils down to:

“I feel it, therefore it must be true.”

Clearly, our emotions are not always indicative of the objective truth, but it can be difficult to look past how we feel.

12. Fallacy of change

The fallacy of change lies in expecting other people to change as it suits us. This ties into the feeling that our happiness depends on other people, and their unwillingness or inability to change, even if we demand it, keeps us from being happy.

This is a damaging way to think because no one is responsible for our own happiness except ourselves.

13. Global labelling / mislabelling

This cognitive distortion is an extreme form of generalising, in which we generalise one or two instances or qualities into a global judgment. For example, if we fail at a specific task, we may conclude that we are a total failure in not only that area but all areas.

Alternatively, when a stranger says something a bit rude, we may conclude that he or she is an unfriendly person in general. Mislabelling is specific to using exaggerated and emotionally loaded language, such as saying a woman has abandoned her children when she leaves her children with a babysitter to enjoy a night out.

14. Always being right

While we all enjoy being right, this distortion makes us think we must be right, that being wrong is unacceptable.

We may believe that being right is more important than the feelings of others, being able to admit when we’ve made a mistake or being fair and objective.

15. Heaven’s Reward Fallacy

This distortion involves expecting that any sacrifice or self-denial will pay off. We may consider this karma, and expect that karma will always immediately reward us for our good deeds. This results in feelings of bitterness when we do not receive our reward (Grohol, 2016).

Many tools and techniques found in cognitive behavioural therapy are intended to address or reverse these cognitive distortions.

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9 Essential CBT Techniques and Tools

There are many tools and techniques used in cognitive behavioural therapy, many of which can be used in both a therapy context and in everyday life. The nine techniques and tools listed below are some of the most common and effective CBT practices.

1. Journaling

This technique is a way to gather about one’s moods and thoughts. A CBT journal can include the time of the mood or thought, the source of it, the extent or intensity, and how we reacted, among other factors.

This technique can help us to identify our thought patterns and emotional tendencies, describe them, and change, adapt, or cope with them (Utley & Garza, 2011).

2. Unravelling cognitive distortions

This is a primary goal of CBT and can be practiced with or without the help of a therapist. In order to unravel cognitive distortions, you must first become aware of the distortions from which you commonly suffer (Hamamci, 2002).

Part of this involves identifying and challenging harmful automatic thoughts, which frequently fall into one of the 15 categories listed earlier.

3. Cognitive restructuring

Once you identify the distortions you hold, you can begin to explore how those distortions took root and why you came to believe them. When you discover a belief that is destructive or harmful, you can begin to challenge it (Larsson, Hooper, Osborne, Bennett, & McHugh, 2015).

For example, if you believe that you must have a high-paying job to be a respectable person, but you’re then laid off from your high-paying job, you will begin to feel bad about yourself.

Instead of accepting this faulty belief that leads you to think negative thoughts about yourself, you could take an opportunity to think about what really makes a person “respectable,” a belief you may not have explicitly considered before.

4. Exposure and response prevention

This technique is specifically effective for those who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD; Abramowitz, 1996). You can practice this technique by exposing yourself to whatever it is that normally elicits a compulsive behaviour, but doing your best to refrain from the behaviour.

You can combine journaling with this technique, or use journaling to understand how this technique makes you feel.

5. Interoceptive exposure

This technique is intended to treat panic and anxiety. It involves exposure to feared bodily sensations in order to elicit the response (Arntz, 2002). Doing so activates any unhelpful beliefs associated with the sensations, maintains the sensations without distraction or avoidance, and allows new learning about the sensations to take place.

It is intended to help the sufferer see that symptoms of panic are not dangerous, although they may be uncomfortable.

6. Nightmare exposure and rescripting

Nightmare exposure and rescripting are intended specifically for those suffering from nightmares. This technique is similar to interoceptive exposure, in that the nightmare is elicited, which brings up the relevant emotion (Pruiksma, Cranston, Rhudy, Micol, & Davis, 2018).

Once the emotion has arisen, the client and therapist work together to identify the desired emotion and develop a new image to accompany the desired emotion.

7. Play the script until the end

This technique is especially useful for those suffering from fear and anxiety. In this technique, the individual who is vulnerable to crippling fear or anxiety conducts a sort of thought experiment in which they imagine the outcome of the worst-case scenario.

Letting this scenario play out can help the individual to recognise that even if everything he or she fears comes to pass, the outcome will still be manageable (Chankapa, 2018).

8. Progressive muscle relaxation

This is a familiar technique to those who practice mindfulness. Similar to the body scan, this technique instructs you to relax one muscle group at a time until your whole body is in a state of relaxation (McCallie, Blum, & Hood, 2006).

You can use audio guidance, a YouTube video, or simply your own mind to practice this technique, and it can be especially helpful for calming nerves and soothing a busy and unfocused mind.

9. Relaxed breathing

This is another technique that will be familiar to practitioners of mindfulness. There are many ways to relax and bring regularity to your breath, including guided and unguided imagery, audio recordings, YouTube videos, and scripts. Bringing regularity and calm to your breath will allow you to approach your problems from a place of balance, facilitating more effective and rational decisions (Megan, 2016).

Some More CBT Interventions and Exercises

Haven’t had enough CBT tools and techniques yet? Read on for additional useful and effective exercises.

1. Behavioural experiments

These are related to thought experiments, in that you engage in a “what if” consideration. Behavioural experiments differ from thought experiments in that you actually test out these “what ifs” outside of your thoughts (Boyes, 2012).

In order to test a thought, you can experiment with the outcomes that different thoughts produce. For example, you can test the thoughts:

“If I criticise myself, I will be motivated to work harder” versus “If I am kind to myself, I will be motivated to work harder.”

First, you would try criticising yourself when you need the motivation to work harder and record the results. Then you would try being kind to yourself and recording the results. Next, you would compare the results to see which thought was closer to the truth.

These behavioural Experiments to Test Beliefs can help you learn how to achieve your therapeutic goals and how to be your best self.

2. Thought records

Thought records are useful in testing the validity of your thoughts (Boyes, 2012). They involve gathering and evaluating evidence for and against a particular thought, allowing for an evidence-based conclusion on whether the thought is valid or not.

For example, you may have the belief “My friend thinks I’m a bad friend.” You would think of all the evidence for this belief, such as “She didn’t answer the phone the last time I called,” or “She cancelled our plans at the last minute,” and evidence against this belief, like “She called me back after not answering the phone,” and “She invited me to her barbecue next week. If she thought I was a bad friend, she probably wouldn’t have invited me.”

Once you have evidence for and against, the goal is to come up with more balanced thoughts, such as, “My friend is busy and has other friends, so she can’t always answer the phone when I call. If I am understanding of this, I will truly be a good friend.”

Thought records apply the use of logic to ward off unreasonable negative thoughts and replace them with more balanced, rational thoughts (Boyes, 2012).

Here’s a helpful Thought Record Worksheet to download.

3. Pleasant activity scheduling

This technique can be especially helpful for dealing with depression (Boyes, 2012). It involves scheduling activities in the near future that you can look forward to.

For example, you may write down one activity per day that you will engage in over the next week. This can be as simple as watching a movie you are excited to see or calling a friend to chat. It can be anything that is pleasant for you, as long as it is not unhealthy (i.e., eating a whole cake in one sitting or smoking).

You can also try scheduling an activity for each day that provides you with a sense of mastery or accomplishment (Boyes, 2012). It’s great to do something pleasant, but doing something small that can make you feel accomplished may have more long-lasting and far-reaching effects.

This simple technique can introduce more positivity into your life, and our Pleasant Activity Scheduling Worksheet is designed to help.

4. Imagery-based exposure

This exercise involves thinking about a recent memory that produced strong negative emotions and analysing the situation.

For example, if you recently had a fight with your significant other and they said something hurtful, you can bring that situation to mind and try to remember it in detail. Next, you would try to label the emotions and thoughts you experienced during the situation and identify the urges you felt (e.g., to run away, to yell at your significant other, or to cry).

Visualising this negative situation, especially for a prolonged period of time, can help you to take away its ability to trigger you and reduce avoidance coping (Boyes, 2012). When you expose yourself to all of the feelings and urges you felt in the situation and survive experiencing the memory, it takes some of its power away.

5. Graded exposure worksheet

This technique may sound complicated, but it’s relatively simple.

Making a situation exposure hierarchy involves means listing situations that you would normally avoid (Boyes, 2012). For example, someone with severe social anxiety may typically avoid making a phone call or asking someone on a date.

Next, you rate each item on how distressed you think you would be, on a scale from 0 to 10, if you engaged in it. For the person suffering from severe social anxiety, asking someone on a date may be rated a 10 on the scale, while making a phone call might be rated closer to a 3 or 4.

Once you have rated the situations, you rank them according to their distress rating. This will help you recognise the biggest difficulties you face, which can help you decide which items to address and in what order. It’s often advised to start with the least distressing items and work your way up to the most distressing items.

Here are some of the most popular workbooks and manuals for clients to use alone or with a therapist:

• The CBT Toolbox: A Workbook for Clients and Clinicians by Jeff Riggenbach;

• Client’s Guidebook: “Activities and Your Mood” by Community Partners in Care;

• The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook for Anxiety: A Step-by-Step Program by William J. Knaus and Jon Carlson;

• The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook for Depression: A Step-by-Step Program by William J. Knaus and Albert Ellis;

• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Skills Workbook by Barry Gregory;

• A Course in CBT Techniques: A Free Online CBT Workbook by Albert Bonfil and Suraji Wagage.

There are many other manuals and workbooks available that can help get you started with CBT, but the tools above are a good start.

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5 Final Cognitive behavioural Activities

Before we go, there are a few more CBT activities and exercises that may be helpful for you or your clients that we’d like to cover.

1. Mindfulness meditation

Mindfulness can have a wide range of positive impacts, including helping with depression, anxiety, addiction, and many other mental illnesses or difficulties.

The practice can help those suffering from harmful automatic thoughts to disengage from rumination and obsession by helping them stay firmly grounded in the present (Jain et al., 2007).

Mindfulness meditations, in particular, can function as helpful tools for your clients in between therapy sessions, such as to help ground them in the present moment during times of stress.

2. Successive approximation

This is a fancy name for a simple idea that you have likely already heard of: breaking up large tasks into small steps.

It can be overwhelming to be faced with a huge goal, like opening a business or remodelling a house. This is true in mental health treatment as well, since the goal to overcome depression or anxiety and achieve mental wellness can seem like a monumental task.

By breaking the large goal into small, easy-to-accomplish steps, we can map out the path to success and make the journey seem a little less overwhelming (e.g., Emmelkamp & Ultee, 1974).

3. Writing self-statements to counteract negative thoughts

This technique can be difficult for someone who’s new to CBT treatment or suffering from severe symptoms, but it can also be extremely effective (Anderson, 2014).

When you (or your client) are being plagued by negative thoughts, it can be hard to confront them, especially if your belief in these thoughts is strong. To counteract these negative thoughts, it can be helpful to write down a positive, opposite thought.

For example, if the thought “I am worthless” keeps popping into your head, try writing down a statement like “I am a person with worth,” or “I am a person with potential.” In the beginning, it can be difficult to accept these replacement thoughts, but the more you bring out these positive thoughts to counteract the negative ones, the stronger the association will be.

4. Visualise the best parts of your day

When you are feeling depressed or negative, it is difficult to recognise that there are positive aspects of life. This simple technique of bringing to mind the good parts of your day can be a small step in the direction of recognising the positive (Anderson, 2014).

All you need to do is write down the things in your life that you are thankful for or the most positive events that happen in a given day. The simple act of writing down these good things can forge new associations in your brain that make it easier to see the positive, even when you are experiencing negative emotions.

5. Reframe your negative thoughts

It can be easy to succumb to negative thoughts as a default setting. If you find yourself immediately thinking a negative thought when you see something new, such as entering an unfamiliar room and thinking “I hate the colour of that wall,” give reframing a try (Anderson, 2014).

Reframing involves countering the negative thought(s) by noticing things you feel positive about as quickly as possible. For instance, in the example where you immediately think of how much you hate the colour of that wall, you would push yourself to notice five things in the room that you feel positively about (e.g., the carpet looks comfortable, the lampshade is pretty, the windows let in a lot of sunshine).

You can set your phone to remind you throughout the day to stop what you are doing and think of the positive things around you. This can help you to push your thoughts back into the realm of the positive instead of the negative.

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A Take-Home Message

In this post, we offered many techniques, tools, and resources that can be effective in the battle against depression, anxiety, OCD, and a host of other problems or difficulties.

However, as is the case with many treatments, they depend on you (or your client) putting in a lot of effort. We encourage you to give these techniques a real try and allow yourself the luxury of thinking that they could actually work.

When we approach a potential solution with the assumption that it will not work, that assumption often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we approach a potential solution with an open mind and the belief that it just might work, it has a much better chance of succeeding.

So if you are struggling with negative automatic thoughts, please consider these tips and techniques and give them a shot. Likewise, if your client is struggling, encourage them to make the effort, because the payoff can be better than they can imagine.’

Article author: Courtney Ackerman
Article source: https://positivepsychology.com/cbt-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-techniques-worksheets/