Sunday Journal Post

Writing down a plan helps “craft self-discipline into a habit.”  

- Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit
 

In a Scottish study about willpower, scientists examined the recovery efforts of people who had hip or knee surgery. All the patients had been through rehabilitation at the hospital and were told about the importance of exercise for their recovery. However, the post-surgical patients who wrote down specific rehabilitation plans for the week started walking almost twice as fast as those who did not. The plan-writers got in and out of chairs, unassisted, almost three times as fast and achieved tasks like laundry, cooking and dressing more quickly, as reported in Charles Dughigg’s The Power of Habit. 

The patients who had not written a plan “never thought ahead about how to deal with painful inflection points. Even if they intended to walk around the block, their resolve abandoned them when they confronted the agony of the first few steps,” Duhigg shares. Putting a plan in writing—referred to as designing willpower habits—seemed to be a way for the patients to coach themselves through difficult stages of a goal.
 

What’s a habit would you like to build? Write down a specific plan about how you will accomplish it.

 

Sunday Journal Prompt

 “Everyone should have a place where you can go to feel safe and happy.”

 

– Dr. Nancy Mramor, psychologist 

 

Dr. Nancy Mramor, a psychologist who leads workshops on achieving happiness, advocates for all people to have a place to go to feel safe and happy. “It may be a place you can physically visit or, at times, even just imagine, but it must be a respite that recharges you,” she says in an article on www.livehappy.com.

The Scioto River near my home is one of my happy places. I purposely take the scenic route to work, avoiding the highway and instead driving along Riverside Drive. My commute takes an extra 15 minutes, but the rewards are high. During each season, I feel more at peace while I anticipate the day ahead. Even though I’m in my car instead of outside in nature, it seems like I can breathe more deeply when the water is in sight. Beautiful old homes, some with horse farms, align one side of the road, and the river flows on the other side. Often I’ll spot people in row boats, motor boats and canoes enjoying the setting. One winter morning I delighted in seeing a group of deer, including two fawn, walking across the frozen river toward shore. 

 

What or where is one of your happy places? How can you adjust your day or your week to visit it regularly—in person or through your imagination?   

 

 

Sunday Journal Prompt

 “Suppressing what we want to do but don’t do depletes [our energy].”  

- Dr. Michael Burke, Mayo Clinic School of Medicine

When we don’t do what we want to do but instead do what (we think) we are supposed to do, we feel drained. And when we feel drained, we’re more likely to choose unhealthy behavior. Stress or trauma compound this, making it more likely that our impulses take over—be that eating junk food, skipping the gym or downing more wine than we intended.

Is there something you secretly have always wanted to do or would like to get back to doing? Did you draw as a kid but later squelch that desire? Does learning to play guitar interest you? Would you prefer to work for a non-profit company instead of your current job?

 

 

What interests you that you might be suppressing? How can you take steps to work it into your life?

Sunday Journal Prompt

Thinking Time

I’ve been told that my paternal grandfather enjoyed his “thinking time,” time alone to reflect on his life. I thought of this during a recent airplane flight. While I had a magazine article assignment and student recommendation letters to write, I didn’t open my laptop, nor did I read. I did nothing but stare out the window and think.

 

My mind wandered from daily things like my to-do list and plans for the coming week to reflections on the significance of my son’s high school graduation and thoughts about a side business idea. Soon I let my mind focus on clouds that resembled the “snow rollers” created by gusty winds in our neighborhood a few winters ago. During the plane's descent, I seemed to go into a meditative state, mesmerized by the quilt of farmland beneath me. After landing, I felt more energized than I had in days. 

 

 

How often do you simply give yourself time to think? How can you work it into your life this week?