ICRAVE Habitual Wellbeing

Optimize your sense of wellbeing during the good times, and get back on your feet during times of intense stress or challenging life changes. 

• It is not a matter of whether we will encounter these moments, but a matter of when

In these times, we have two responses available to us:

• Let our old habits to run the show, go on autopilot and let ourselves get hooked on drama, fear, irritation or sadness. 
• Or we can rely on a daily practice in the inner technology of notice, shift, rewire to shift toward a more present, open and accepting state.

“Ordinarily we are swept away by habitual momentum.  We don’t interrupt our patterns even slightly.  With practice however, we learn to be cool when the ground beneath us suddenly disappears.”

Pema Chodran

• When you are not grounded, you can be swept away.
• How prepared are you?

By choosing to shift at any given moment, you become more present, grateful, and compassionate.

• You become more engaged in your work, your relationships, and your service to others.
• You experience the sense of joy and aliveness that springs from mastering the lifelong habit of well-being.

Pleasures begin to subside the instant they arise, only to be replaced by fresh desires or feelings of discomfort.  So goes the endless, often irrational dance of habit. 

Sam Harris

• We seek out momentary pleasure as a way to satisfy discomfort. 
• After a few seconds, the discomfort returns, often more intensely, and we begin seeking out the next momentary pleasure.

Re-source: Reshape

to give a new form or orientation to : to  shape,  form,  or  organize  again  or  anew

Just as good habits have the power to help us achieve greatness, bad habits have the potential to adversely shape our lives.

• Excessive TV watching, work, etc.

The ques that cause us to react are an inescapable part of life; however, we can change the routine.

• To change a habit, you must change the old que and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine.
• When we create these new habits, we not only introduce more new positive behaviors into our lives, we also activate and reinforce new neural connections in our brain.
  • As you embark on this process, there are two critical step to establishing your new routines:
    • Setting intentions
    • Taking action

These practices will have an impact on just about every aspect of your life – happiness, energy level, focus, stress, sleep health, and more.

• As it becomes integrated into your life, you will find yourself more at ease.
• Wake up each day with a moment to moment feeling of being fulfilled.
• Be fully engaged in the world that surrounds you.
• Be quietly content with your life and conscious of its blessing.
• In short, you be happier.

craving and resource from “Start Here” – Master the Lifelong Habit of Well-being – by Eric Langshur and Nate Klemp