What could be so demanding that I couldn't post for the last 20 days? Well, for one thing I'm getting married...like tomorrow! Just taking an odd breather in this whirlwind of last minute detail scrambling. So many things to do, so little time. I also started up the new semester. My anatomy and hard-surface modeling classes are good so far, and challenging. What else? I finished 66 days of meditating, as per my habit forming challenge! I'm still going, and the habit feels pretty natural - I haven't missed a day.
Many more things. Oops! The storm has picked up again - off to do what I can do. I am having fun in all of this, despite the stress. For now I have to go, but I will be back to blogging as soon as I can.
In one of my first posts, I wrote about my challenge to form a habit. The undertaking I chose was to meditate in the morning each day. Here I am on the 49th day in a row that I've been able to keep the daily meditation going.
How did I get to this point?
One thing that I neglected to write about in that post on habits was what my strategy to meet this challenge consisted of. Let me fix that. My solution is going to seem simple, I think, to many of you - but it's what I discovered and what I've found to work on this task.
Here's what I did:
1 - determine the challenge 2 - break it down 3 - create a plan of action 4 - take action on that plan
Determine the challenge. Determine the challenge that stands before you. Define the exact positive habit that you would like to form. I decided that I wanted to meditate each day for 20 minutes. Using the habit forming research as I touched on in the forming habits blog post as a guideline, I would continue this meditation for 66 days. I also wanted to see if I could even form a habit at all. By pairing the two goals I wanted to achieve something that I felt would help out in managing some of my ADHD symptoms. The meditation would allow me to maintain focus longer and the habit forming would become a tool that I could use to activate other skills that have been hindered by ADHD.
Break it down. Take the challenge that you have defined in detail and break it down into smaller steps. Design this break down in such a way that there is a reasonable acceleration from a little step to the max of the positive habit you want to form. I defined a goal of meditating each day for 20 min. I would do this for 66 days. To make sure I met the 66 day mark, I started at a smaller amount of minutes. Over the first month I went from 3 to 5 minutes and then from 5 to 10 minutes and finally from 10 to 20 minutes.
Create a plan of action. Create a plan of action that includes your defined challenge and the smaller steps you will take to make it work. Here is where I took everything I wanted and specified the 'how' of meeting the challenge. I made an appointment for myself to meditate each day for 20 minutes at 9 am. As a reminder, I downloaded an app on my phone (Alarm Clock Extreme) and set it for that time. I use the timer on the app so that I can meditate without having to look at the clock. Once the meditation is completed I go to my calender and physically mark and 'X' to confirm. I have the calender set up already, noted to show the acceleration from day one at 3 minutes to the max of 20 minutes which happened around day 30.
Take action on that plan. Take action on that plan that you created. Even if you can't do the actual habit at the moment - at least take immediate action to set things up that you defined in the plan. What I did was download the app and set up the calender. I came up with the concept for my positive habit in the evening. Even though it was over 12 hours until my 9 am start, by taking action right away and setting up all the little details, I assured myself that I was serious and I had everything in place to follow through with the positive habit forming.
Today marks the 30th of December. I am almost halfway through an undertaking I embarked upon 30 days ago. I am attempting to form a habit.
In this blog, Kathryn Goetzke, refers to a UK Health Behaviore Research Centre study that suggests that the process of forming habits takes 66 days. Jeremy Dean of psyblog discusses the 66 day average here, and the variables involved. He indicates that habit forming is not an easy thing, and the more complex the task, the longer it takes to form the habit. I myself have always struggled with forming any kind of habit. Even the simplest of tasks have been out of my reach.
My focus is such that daily routines are painful for me. I cannot pin them down. Everything feels scattered to me and random. I like fast cars and traffic; static. I am at my best when things are moving too fast or not moving at all. Unpredictable staccato. Opposites, contradictions, cacophony etc.
Chaos is grand but I know order serves its purpose. Better still the balance between the two. What I desire here is not an order such that would seek to dominate and control. Rather, the choice to focus on the things that I want to focus on. The things that are important to me. I said before that distraction happens and will continue to happen, but what if I had more choice over when that happened?
I already have tools that help me, but how useful would forming positive habits be to me? To anyone with ADHD for that matter? Since we are asking questions, let's ask another one. What else can be helpful to someone challenged by ADHD?
I came across this video on meditation:
What I've done here is combine two things beneficial to ADHD. The first is forming a positive habit. The second is meditation. Both work on different aspects of my concentration. So every morning I meditate and have been doing so for 30 days straight. I will continue to keep track for 36 more days. After that it should be effortless.
The meditation itself hasn't been easy. I've been trying to stay focused on my breaths but my mind wanders. Some days come easier than others. Right now I'm just trusting in the process rather than spending any time getting frustrated like I would when I was younger.
