Princeton Center for Yoga & Health

Orchard Hill Center
88 Orchard Road
Skillman NJ 08558

609-924-7294
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News

11/30/2020: Take Back Control of Your Life – Why Routines Give Us Power

It is getting harder and harder to keep track of the days. Why is that? The pandemic has certainly turned many of our lives upside down: loss of work or working from home, kids at home, the inability to see friends, to go out to eat...the list goes on and on and we are sure that you could add many more things without much thought.

In this world out of control, we need something, anything that will quell or desire for a sense of security, sanity and stability. There is too much uncertainty in our lives and we are breaking down.

Within a few minutes of being on Facebook or Reddit or whatever the cool kids are using today, you can find countless memes about how social distancing, self-quarantine, and staying at home is wrecking people.

"We're all going to come out of this as fat alcoholics."

"Not saying I'm overeating much - but I'm starting to get a tan off the fridge light."

"I promised myself I'd do something different today so I'm sitting on the other end of my couch."

While these are obvious exaggerations, these memes would not be funny if they did not have at least a hint of truth. Many of these memes are (in)directly based around the loss of routine and that is very telling about how people feel right now.

There is a way to snatch back control and step forward into building a future on your terms. Commit to a routine!

Routines are important for a variety of reasons and we are going to touch on a few of them today...

There are numerous benefits to a good routine and some of what you find helpful is going to be dependent on you as an individual. Jodie has a great primer on realizing your goals and creating the steps you need to take to form healthful habits and rituals by co-developing the routines that work for you and your dreams.

Now, in no particular order, here are some of the reasons that you should develop new routines.

1. Having a routine helps to develop good habits and get rid of bad ones. In the beginning, developing good habits and getting rid of bad ones is hard work and it requires conscious effort. However, as a routine develops, it becomes automatic. The example that gets tossed around a lot is brushing your teeth: because it is part of our routine, we do it without thought.

2. Routines also allow us to set aside time for rest, relaxation, hobbies, and all the other things that we want to do – FINALLLY! Even though routines take time to develop and enact, they end up freeing our time because they make us more efficient in the long run. As routines become more solidified, they help to develop skills so tasks take less time and are performed with less thought.

3. Routines help us prioritize and structure our time so that the most important things get done earlier. Routines keep us aware of what needs to be done and that we indeed get it done. With proper routines, we move from one task to another (breaks are important and can be scheduled, too) and we become more productive.***It is important to make a distinction between 'busy' and 'productive.' Busy is doing work, but productive is making progress and/or finishing things. Busy can be productive, but is not always the case. Let's take exercise for example - working out is exercise, BUT training is exercise with a purpose, a program, and a goal at the end. Much different.***

4. Developing a routine helps to build momentum. Routines that are planned ahead of time cutout the going back-and-forth in your head about choosing what to do. Decision fatigue is a very real thing and the fewer decisions that we need to make the easier it is to make a well informed decision. This reduces the need for motivation or willpower alone and redirects those finite resources towards other things.

5. Perhaps the most important result of having a good routine, especially in these uncertain times, is that they give us back a sense of control. So much of what happens in the world is beyond our control and situations like the current pandemic and potential economic crises shove that fact in our face.

So much of what we are facing is new and unknown and that is very scary. For our health and for the health of those around us, we cannot let those fears run away with us. Routines remind us that we have control and they give us the opportunity to exert that control.

Another major benefit of developing a routine now is that we are forced to focus more on the long-term. Human nature tends to lean towards immediate gratification, but these major shifts in the world today are forcing us to slow-down and take stock of what is truly important and what is absolutely within our control. THIS IS HUGE!

Once we shift focus to long-term, it will help us get to our goals faster and in a more sustainable way. There is no time like the present to take a hard look at what is holding you back and developing a plan to overcome it.

For some of us we may have issues that range from physical nagging injuries that just do not seem to want to go away, to bad habits that have been hard to break or good habits that are even harder to maintain. Maybe, like most humans, we have combination of many things.

The good news - even if our normal routines are on hiatus our new routines can complement them (or even replace them). New routines can help us fill in the gaps and holes and perhaps give us new insight into what we need to do now to create the life we want.

If you need help figuring out the direction you would like to take or advice on developing your new routine, just let us know. It is our passion to help you. Reach out to Jodie or Steven Shuster of Princeton Center for Yoga and Health and The Strength Network jodie@princetonyoga.com or team@tsn-ahp.com