At the risk of sounding prescriptive, I decided to make my first post of the year about the habits I’ve come to recognize as central to maintaining my well-being. I have loved reading this type of post from others, but I recognize that every habit someone else engages with may not work for every person. That’s to say, please take what I’m writing here with the caveat that you should think about your own lived experience, and what is important for your well-being.
I thought about titling this, “my morning routine,” but that wouldn’t capture all of what I wanted to write about, and it would also be misleading by suggesting these are things I do every day. I do not have time to do all of these things every single day. Often, I will pick and choose, or shorten my habits to accommodate external constraints on my schedule. I have found though, that it is important for me to regularly check in with myself to see if I need more of any of the following.
With all that in mind, here are my regular habits and why I’ve found them essential.
- Having a wind down routine in the evening that allows my mind space to quiet down
- Being able to rest my mind at night allows me to wake with better energy and focus the next day. Even when I struggle to sleep, I will work to try and stay calm, centered, and to bring my mind gently back to stillness when thoughts and worries feel like they’re taking over.
- I notice that when I don’t set an alarm, this helps me to not wake in anticipation of my alarm. I recognize that I am a natural early-riser, and that not having an alarm would not work for everyone.
- Waking just before dawn
- I love waking and experiencing the stillness of early morning as I settle into a gentle movement routine. Watching the sky change from darkness to light is grounding for me. I try to also watch sunset in evenings.
- Movement and awareness of my body
- At many times in the day, but especially in the quiet and stillness of predawn, I focus on how my body feels. I’ve started to struggle more and more with chronic pain in my neck, hips, and jaw, and it’s very easy for me to not pay attention to my pain, often leading to it becoming worse.
- Once I have an awareness of where my pain is that day, I work on gently stretching and strengthening those parts of my body that may need it.
- Other habits that help cultivate body awareness for me include: balancing on one foot, doing inversions, and doing breath work. Throughout my workday, I use the ding of my visual timer to help bring me back into awareness about where the tension may be building in my body.
- Moments to pause and be still
- I have found that after my morning movement, this is the best time to pause and do a guided meditation. I’ve mentioned before that I love Tara Brach guided meditations. I like to sit for 15-20 minutes with my journal next to me in order to write down any thoughts that bubble up recurrently.
- I try to remind myself that the feeling I have after a morning meditation is one I can return to throughout my day, even as the day filled with noise and stress.
- Awareness and counteraction of restrictive patterning
- In the past, I had cultivated what I considered were “healthy habits” by restricted myself to not doing certain things until my work was done. This included things like, “no social media until I write this paper” or “no junk food until I eat a salad.” I have found that being restrictive in this way can lead to overconsumption.
- Instead, I am trying to allow for the balance of doing things I enjoy, even if I previously may have classified them as “unhealthy” or “not productive.”
- Time outside
- I have lately turned my regular walks outside into slower and more mindful walking meditations. I make a point of attending to the sound of the birds, the way the trees look against the sky, and to appreciate the stillness of having few to no other people around.
- I feel so regulated and calmed with even just one slow 15 minute walk outside every day.
- Dancing, singing, music, and joy
- I have a playlist of familiar joy-bringing songs that I like to listen to after I’ve started to come awake in the morning. I love to dance and move to them as I get ready for my day.
- Sweating and feeling physically strong
- I will ride the exercise bike–not for a certain amount of time–but just until I feel my heart rate has gotten high enough for long enough to help me sweat and regulate my energy.
- I lift weights a few days a week to maintain and build strength, especially in the areas of my body where I tend to feel chronic pain. I also try to fit in strengthening exercises that bring me joy like olympic lifting.
- Having a rotating special interest that brings excitement
- I have written before about how I tend to hyperfocus on new interests periodically. The excitement and novel curiosity I feel learning something new can help me maintain energy to do things that may not necessarily feel as novel and exciting.
- In order to decide what new thing I’m excited about, I have to listen to myself and pay attention to what it is I may want to pursue as a new special interest.
- Cleaning and tidying with the goal of reducing visual clutter
- I first heard the term “visual clutter” from a colleague while working families where parents had executive functioning disorders. This colleague explained that reducing visual clutter could help both the child and parents focus better. This was when I was starting to recognize my own executive functioning challenges, and this advice resonated with my own experience.
- I’ve since adopted an approach to cleaning and tidying that is less about making things spotless as it is about creating spaces where I can focus on what’s important and not be distracted by things that aren’t.
- Making space and time for a variety of social connections
- I’ve come to learn how important feeling connected is, especially when so much of my work as a PhD student can make me feel isolated and alone. I am planning to write about times in my life when I did not work as deeply to foster connection with others, and how I slowly came to realize the essential need I had to feel a broader scope of connection.
- The “variety” I’m referring to is about connecting regularly with close friends, acquaintances, friends of friends, etc. – having a wide net of different types of connection. I also make a point of maintaining old friendships as well having an openness to cultivating new friendships with a variety of people.
I hope that some of this may have resonated with your experience, and if anything, that it helped you to ponder what habits you find to be essential for you and why.
The Lazy PhD 