Tag Archive for: daily habits
By Meagan Matthews, BS
Do you tend to have pessimistic thoughts throughout the day? Do you wish you had a more optimistic outlook? Incorporating this one habit might be the key to unlocking a more positive headspace, and it only takes three seconds.
“The Maui Habit” was created by BJ Fogg, PhD, New York Times bestselling author of Tiny Habits and founder of Stanford’s Behavior Design Lab. It goes like this: as soon as your feet hit the ground in the morning, you say to yourself, “It’s going to be a great day.” This habit is named after the Hawaiian island of Maui because Dr. Fogg associates this island with positivity and optimism. Though it may sound too simple to make a big impact, Dr. Fogg and those who have implemented the habit can attest to the difference it makes.
“I find this practice helpful, even on my worst days,” says Dr. Fogg. “When I’m worried about the day ahead, this statement–even when I say it with a question in my voice–seems to open the door just a crack to actually having a good day.”
The Neuroscience of Habitual Positive Thinking
A key aspect of our ability to create new habits is neuroplasticity, which describes the brain’s ability to perceive, respond, and adapt to external cues. The adaptation stems from what many researchers refer to as an action-outcome association. If an outcome is negative, you are likely to change your action to promote a positive outcome instead. This positive outcome reinforces the new action, and over time, it becomes almost automated, or a habit.
Researchers have found that our thoughts can alter the relationship between brain physiology and its influence on our well-being. Positive thoughts are accompanied by the release of oxytocin, a “feel good” hormone that functions like a positive outcome. Once positive thinking becomes a habit, it can improve your overall self conception. A 2013 meta analysis of 39 studies found that repeated exposure to a form of positive psychological intervention improved participants’ perception of well-being.
So how effective is “The Maui Habit” on improving your outlook? Dr. Fogg says that the most effective habit is the one which “happens in the morning, is really easy to do, […] and makes you feel good.”
Practice of the Month:
Do “The Maui Habit” Every Morning for 30 Days
Step 1: Identify the cue.
Dr. Fogg recommends this be when your feet first touch the floor. Others prefer it be when they first look in the mirror. What’s important is that it works for you!
Step 2: In your mind, say the phrase: “It’s going to be a great day.”
When the day ahead seems to be particularly difficult, Dr. Fogg recommends saying, “It’s going to be a great day, somehow.”
Step 3: Pause to feel the positive emotions.
Take a moment to let the optimistic feelings resulting from the phrase really sink in, then carry on with the rest of your day!
You might be surprised by just how quickly this little phrase becomes automatic (it may only take a few days!) and how it starts to impact your overall approach to life. Dr. Fogg says, “With this morning practice, you are setting an upward trajectory for your day. Rather than spiraling downward, you can continue to lift.”
At the start of the year, thinking about all the changes you want to make in your life can be overwhelming. You might think, “I have to start walking every day, eat more vegetables, get more sleep, and start a gratitude journal.” With so many things on this list, it’s no wonder we end up feeling stressed and flopped on the couch eating potato chips and watching Netflix into the night by February.
Don’t worry, we see you. And we’re here to help. Rather than rely on willpower, Stanford behavior change expert, BJ Fogg, PhD, suggests the following steps to create and maintain a new healthy habit:
- Choose something you already want to do and enjoy doing (e.g., walking as exercise).
- Set the bar low to promote consistency (e.g., commit to walking to the end of your driveway and back every day).
- Anchor the new habit to something you already do every day (e.g., walk right after you drink your morning coffee).
- Redesign your environment to make the healthy habit more convenient (e.g., put your walking shoes by the front door).
- Set up a visual prompt (e.g., put a Post-it note on your computer to remind you to take a lunchtime walk).
- Allow yourself to feel good about any positive action you take, no matter how tiny.
Journal Prompt: What is ONE habit you’d like to create and maintain this year, and which of the above strategies will you employ to set yourself up for success?
A Different Twist on New Year’s Resolutions
At the start of the year, rather than answer the question, “What’s your New Year’s Resolution?”, Dr. Fogg invites us to contemplate the following:
Journal Prompt: What is ONE thing you can change in your home environment today that will have the BIGGEST positive impact on your health for the rest of the year?
To help spur inspiration, here are sample answers from each of the seven Lifestyle Medicine pillars:
- Movement & Exercise – Get a dog!
- Restorative Sleep – Move the television out of the bedroom.
- Stress Management – Move your cell phone out of arm’s reach from your bed to prevent late-night scrolling.
- Healthful Nutrition – Keep fruit in a bowl on the dining table for convenient healthy snacking.
- Gratitude & Purpose – Frame a photograph of someone who makes you smile and place it next to your work computer.
- Cognitive Enhancement – Place a good reading lamp beside a comfortable chair to promote nightly reading.
- Social Engagement – Schedule a weekly walk with a friend (two-for-one!).
“It’s important to remember that habit formation is a practice-and-revise process,” says Dr. Fogg. “You probably need to try out various new habits to find the ones that work for you. Think of it like trying on new shoes. If the first selection doesn’t fit you, that’s okay. Just keep going and try others. Find what works best for you.”
If you’ve already given up on your New Year’s resolutions, you’re not alone. Studies show that 88 percent of resolutions are broken within the first two weeks of January, and 95 percent are abandoned by the end of the month. Many people start a protocol on January 1st, stick with it for a couple of weeks, but then drop off and feel like a failure.
Stanford behavior change expert BJ Fogg, PhD, shows us a different way. “Research shows that relying on willpower is not how behavior change works,” says Dr. Fogg, founder of the Stanford Behavior Design Lab. Rather than give up on your health goals after you (inevitably) get off track, Dr. Fogg recommends trying a few of the following strategies to help make your new healthy habits last.
1. Help Yourself Do What You Already Want to Do
Everyone has a part of them that wants to eat healthy and exercise and another part that wants to eat junk food and sit on the couch. We have conflicting motivations. So how can we help the part of ourselves that wants to eat healthy and exercise? Dr. Fogg recommends choosing a healthy habit that you already enjoy doing.
“If you don’t like running, don’t have ‘go for a run every morning’ as your new year’s resolution. There are a hundred other ways to be active, so pick something you already enjoy,” says Dr. Fogg.
It may be helpful to reflect on which healthy habits would work for you in a sustainable way and write down behaviors you already enjoy doing. For example, if walking on a treadmill doesn’t work for you, try walking in nature. Or if you’re not a morning person, don’t set your alarm for 5 a.m. to workout; instead plan to exercise at the end of your workday.
“Most protocols, such as strict diets, don’t work long term because they are too prescriptive,” says Dr. Fogg. “When it comes to behavior change, one size does not fit all. A new habit only sticks when it makes sense at the individual level.”
2. Set the Bar Low
The best way to create a lasting habit is to set the bar low so that you can be consistent with it every day. For example, if you want to start jogging, commit to putting on your running shoes and walking to the end of your driveway and back. If you feel overwhelmed about cleaning your house, commit to tidying up just one piece of furniture every night before bed. If you’re not motivated to floss your teeth, commit to flossing just one tooth. It might sound silly, but making the habit small lowers the amount of motivation required to complete the behavior. With consistency, the behavior becomes a habit that eventually becomes part of your automatic daily routine.
“The key is making the habit so small that you can do it even when you’re sick, busy, preoccupied, or just low motivation,” says Dr. Fogg, explaining the habit-forming technique from his bestselling book, Tiny Habits. “Let’s say the new habit is flossing. You don’t have to stop at one tooth; you can always do more if you feel like it, but it’s not necessary to feel successful. Simply put, you have a minimal habit that you do every day, and when you want to do more, then you do more.”
3. Positive Emotions Create the Habit
It’s important to recognize that habits are created when we feel successful, so the key is to make the feeling of success easier to attain (see Tip #2). As we are on our habit-forming journey, Dr. Fogg encourages us to feel proud of ourselves even for the tiniest of successes because when we feel good about a new habit, we will become more motivated to keep doing it—and eventually, willpower is out of the picture entirely.
“Most people are so hard on themselves, and they use guilt and shame to establish new habits, but that doesn’t work,” says Dr. Fogg. “They think that identifying their short comings rather than their successes will help motivate them. What works better is finding every excuse to seeing you’re doing a good job so that you continue doing the new habit.”
Also, many of us have heard that it takes 28 days to establish a new habit, however, this theory has been debunked. Dr. Fogg says that if we feel successful at a deep and authentic level, even for the tiny version of the behavior, the habit can form at a much faster rate.
4. Anchor Your New Habit to an Existing Habit
If there’s a habit that you already do every day (I see you, coffee drinkers), you can anchor your new habit to the original one. Dr. Fogg calls this “anchoring” because you’re tying a new habit to something already stable in your life. This technique has also been referred to as “habit stacking”.
Regardless of what you call it, this is what you do. Identify something you already do automatically and then perform the new habit afterward. Here are some examples:
After I make my coffee, I meditate
After I turn on the faucet for my nightly bath, I floss my teeth
After I press “start” on the microwave to heat my lunch, I do 20 jumping jacks and 20 squats
After I turn on the television when I’m done with work, I hop on a stationary bike
Write down a few of the habits you already do automatically and see if you can anchor a new habit after them. The anchoring technique provides a great way to incorporate many new habits simultaneously into your daily routine.
5. Try to Change Together, Not Alone
We’ve all heard of the concept of “accountability buddies,” but Dr. Fogg says this strategy actually works. So, if you have a friend with the same health goals as you, it would be wise to sync up your efforts. For example, if you want to walk for 30 minutes daily, finding a friend to walk with can help you both become consistent. Also, since we now know that positive emotions help establish new habits, try and find a walking companion who adds laughter or interesting conversations to the experience so that you associate walking with feeling good.
Also, Dr. Fogg explains that changing together is especially important in certain domains, such as sleep (i.e., going to bed and waking up at the same time as your bed partner), nutrition (i.e., eating similar meals with other members of your household), and media use (i.e., how much television you and your family watches every night).
“We can change alone, with a friend or partner, or even with a group,” says Dr. Fogg. “If you want to change as a household, I invite you to hold a family meeting to discuss one behavior change the entire family can agree on for the entire year. Changing with others can make establishing new habits easier and potentially even fun.”
This blog is part of our Nutrition newsletter. If you like this content, sign up to receive our monthly newsletter!
Making a bowl that has a mix of veggies, protein, grains, and fats can ensure you’re eating a meal that has balanced nutrition. While the specific ingredients can be changed to fit your personal preferences, below is the basic structure Nutrition Scientist Marily Oppezzo, PhD uses to create her own bowls:
1. Make your bowl half vegetables:
- Either raw or cooked, make vegetables the base of your bowl. While the exact measurement will depend on the size of your bowl, you can aim for roughly 1 – 2 cups of veggies.
2. Add your preferred protein:
- On top of your vegetables, add about ½ cup chicken, fish, tofu, or beans of choice.
3. Throw in some salad greens:
- In addition to your vegetables, throw in about 2 – 3 cups of your favorite leafy greens. This is a great way to increase the volume of your bowl without losing control of the total amount of calories.
4. Be wary of dressings:
- Limit dressings and vinaigrettes to only 2 – 3 tablespoons as the primary ingredient is often sugar. As an alternative to traditional dressing, try adding some salsa or a drizzle of olive oil with some lemon.
5. Personalize your bowl:
- This is the fun part! You can control the flavor of your bowl by topping it with fresh herbs, fruit, whole grains, avocado, and/or a handful of nuts and seeds. You may also want to add a scoop of pickled veggies or 1-2 hard-boiled eggs.
With time, creating your favorite bowl mixtures will become intuitive. Until then, we have prepared a graphic that you can screenshot or print to help you plan your bowls.
How to Enter: “Make Your Own Balanced Bowl” Contest!
-> Create your own Balanced Bowl
-> Write the title of your bowl (which includes your name, like “Sharon’s Super Salmon Bowl”) on an index card
-> Take a birds-eye-view photo of your bowl and title
-> Post the photo to your Instagram and/or Facebook page or story
-> Tag your photo @StanfordLifestyleMedicine
(Alternatively, you may email the photo to lifestylemedicine@stanford.edu to enter the contest)
-> We will feature all the bowls on our Instagram and Facebook stories and select the BEST BOWL during the week leading up to the Super Bowl!
This blog is part of our Gratitude & Reflection newsletter. If you like this content, sign up to receive our monthly newsletter!
Spiritual practices do not have to take place in a church; therefore, every person lives with spirituality in some way. Individuals connect to their spirits and create meaning through various activities, including religious rituals, but also through music, art, or exercise.
“Spirituality, broadly, is the way that we find purpose, connection, belonging, and dignity as human beings,” says Bruce Feldstein, MD, BCC, Stanford Lifestyle Medicine Head of Gratitude and Reflection. “People find it in various ways–it’s not important where you find it; what’s important is just to get started looking for it.”
Dr. Feldstein is a board-certified chaplain at Stanford, where he directs Jewish Chaplaincy Services serving Stanford Medicine and an Adjunct Clinical Professor in the School of Medicine. He sees spirituality as the critical element missing from most lessons on healthy aging from elementary to medical school. His experiences as an Emergency Medicine Physician turned Clinical Chaplain inspired him to create the Spiritual Fitness ToolKit, which helps individuals cultivate well-being by exploring rituals for meaning, purpose, and connection.
“A spiritual practice is as essential to cultivating well-being as physical fitness or nutrition. However, our ‘spiritual fitness’ is typically not discussed as concretely as these other aspects of health,” says Dr. Feldstein.
Four Questions a Day Exercise
The Spiritual Fitness ToolKit opens with a reflection exercise titled “Four Questions a Day.” To develop habits of gratitude and reflection, Dr. Feldstein recommends spending ten minutes of quiet time at the end of the day to contemplate these four questions, one at a time.
The Four Questions:
1. What surprised me today?
2. What touched me today?
3. What inspired me today?
4. For what am I grateful?
Start by asking yourself the first question, What surprised me today? Reflect backward on your day until you come to the first thing that surprised you. Make a note of it in a little journal or on a file on your smartphone. It’s important to write it down. Then do the same with the other questions, one at a time. (This exercise is drawn from research on gratitude and from the teachings of Rachel Naomi Remen MD, originator of the Healer’s Art course.)
After a few weeks of practice, you may begin thinking about these questions throughout your day. Eventually, you may find yourself noticing moments of surprise, being touched, inspiration, and gratitude as they occur. This heightened awareness can allow you to see and respond to situations in your life with “new eyes,” and bring elements of emotional well-being into your everyday experience.
“The Four Questions exercise could be essential in two ways for people getting started,” says Dr. Feldstein. “It can help develop a capacity for increased emotional awareness and encourage people to become reflective practitioners in action.”
Dr. Feldstein suggests committing to this practice for at least three weeks to develop a new habit, and for 90 days to create a new lifestyle. He also suggests engaging in the daily writing activity with a friend to promote connection and enjoyment.
Sharing Moments of Gratitude
An extension of the Four Questions practice is Sharing Moments of Gratitude, another valuable practice in the Spiritual Fitness Toolkit .
Feeling gratitude within oneself is one part of the experience. When we feel grateful for something wonderful in our lives, we can share our appreciation of others by saying or doing something for someone else. Doing so expands the experience of gratitude to those around us.
Sharing gratitude can be done in many ways. Most simply, we can say, “I really appreciate what you just did. Thank you so much.” This is most powerful and the positive experience is mutual and immediate. We may also send a thank you note, or offer a small gift.
One of Dr. Feldstein’s favorite practices is to produce small moments for gratitude at the end of each conversation, discussion, or meeting.
“I often ask my patients or people I am with ‘What can I wish for you today?’ I listen with openness, take in what they say, then respond genuinely with an open heart. This is a practice for offering a blessing. It is one that produces mutual gratitude,” says Dr. Feldstein. “It is a simple practice you can incorporate into any conversation or interaction and greatly encourages connection, healing, and finding peace.”
So, dear reader, what can the Stanford Lifestyle Medicine team wish for you today?