The Quiet rebellion of Micro Habits

Lately, I have been reflecting about life. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I get up early, get a warm glass of water and just stand on my balcony. One can enjoy the view of a beautiful lake, the lush greenery of palm trees and the quiet silence of January mornings in Bangalore. Every day I did this made me realise how much I needed the silence.

We all are a part of a hectic workforce & it's very easy to forget to take care of ourselves. And no, I don’t mean it in terms of getting a haircut, having lunch with a friend or a pending vacation. I mean really building systems day in and day out which protect, soothe and nourish us.

This could look differently for everyone. A morning run, a gym session or simply reading a book. I had been prioritising being productive so badly for so long that just having peace of mind was becoming difficult. Picking my phone in the morning, answering calls, always being available without any boundaries between work and home took a toll, inch by inch day by day. I wasn’t relaxing on the weekends either. It was not work calls that kept me up but the quiet numbing hours of bingeing on Netflix, that eroded time and energy that I should have put to self care.

During one of my Instagram doom scrolls, I came across an article about a man who had lived without a phone for over a decade in Bali. What stayed with me wasn’t the extremity of his choice, but how it had slowed his nervous system — improving his memory, patience, and ability to tolerate boredom, in turn improving his brain’s longevity.

It changed the way I looked at digital detox & hustle culture. This is not as simple as cutting a few hours off your phone or reducing your doom scrolling. They are but half baked short term measures. The real solution is a complete routine overhaul with micro habits. These habits shouldn’t just help you exercise or read or work more, but also regulate your nervous system & build mindfulness. For me, it started with going to the gym 3 days a week, improving my stamina, meditating for 10 mins daily, giving a shot to hard new things & changing my diet. 

Because of these habits, I feel more in tune with my surroundings, don't feel the need to be constantly on my phone & appreciate the silence before bed time with a good book. One of the biggest things it helped me get back was my reading appetite which had been horrendously lagging due to my inability to sit still. 

The other domino effect of these habits is teaching me the importance of beginning new things. The thought of doing something hard is very easy to procrastinate. This isn't solely because I find the activity difficult, but also because I would try to achieve more and my nervous system would just perceive my ambition as danger, overwhelming me leading to a complete shut down. What helped was focussing on the joy of just doing things and breaking it into no-brainer small steps that starting didn’t feel difficult at all. 

I am still a long way from becoming the person I want to be. I am the same person who tries to plan her entire day in the morning. But slowly but surely, it is being replaced by a person who values focusing on herself, on being mindful of taking the view in front of her, not just the view she wants for her life. 

It won't be an instant makeover but without trying we won't know. My only wish this new year is this - that I face the ambiguity that life throws at me with quiet perseverance & a mental fortitude which does not fear anything.