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mamakay

managing a household of 10 by the grace of God

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Daily Rhythms

Habits Shape Your Identity

January 9, 2020 by mamakay Leave a Comment

habits

Habits shape your identity and your identity shapes your habits.

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Habits are the things we do each and every day for good or bad that make up who we are. They are choices we make each day of what we do and how we think (how privileged we are to be able to have so many choices). The good (and bad) thing about habits is that we often do them without even thinking about it. That’s why it is so hard to change.

As we start the new year we can think of so many things we want to change! But come February we have completely given up the hope of changing. What if there was a different way? And it doesn’t matter what day it is. There is nothing magical about January 1st! Here are some ideas to help you be successful in changing your habits.

Decide Your Identity

According to James Clear if you want to change your habits one of the things you need to need is to change what you think about yourself. By identifying yourself in a different way you will start to do the things that that type of person does

When you think about it — your actual life and identity is made up of all the little habits you practice all throughout your day. If you think of yourself as a healthy person you will choose to do things like exercise, drink water and eat healthy foods. If you think of yourself as a reader you will spend time reading whenever you get the chance.

Start Small

Start small and you will have better success. Pick one thing you want to change. Break it down into small chunks that are easier to accomplish and give you the feeling of accomplishment to help you continue to move forward.

For example, if you want to be more active the first small step would be to put on tennis shoes each morning. Once that is your regular routine add something more like doing some stretches. Maybe buying a fitness tracker so that you are more aware of how much activity you do each day would be a great next step. Next you could walk around the block each day. Each small step helps you to establish good habits that you will be able to maintain over time.

Body, Soul and Mind

I like to group the habits I want to establish in terms of body, soul and mind. Things to consider for the Body are drinking water, exercising, eating a salad, drinking a smoothie, getting enough sleep. For the Soul: reading the Bible, praying, listening to worship music, being still before God. For the Mind: reading, writing and listening to podcasts.

Habit Tracking

Keeping a habit tracker is very motivating for me. I have used many different forms from a hand drawn chart in my bullet journal to the one included on my tending sheet in Powersheets to the Loop Habit Tracker App on my phone. Sign up below to receive a Habit Tracker I created for you. There is something about seeing my progress that makes me want to keep it going.

  • Powersheets Tending Page
  • Bullet Journal Example
  • Habit Tracking
    Bullet Journal Calendar Example

Resources for Working on Your Habits:

Being intentional about choosing your habits, making sure to start small and then tracking them can make all the difference in creating the life you want and being the person you want to be. Don’t try to do everything at once. Just pick one thing and go from there.

MamaKay

You also might be interested in reading more from my previous posts here:

January Reflections

Hello Mornings

Filed Under: Daily Rhythms, Habits, New Years, planning, powersheets, Seasonal Living

10 Things to Tell You About Journaling

March 27, 2019 by mamakay Leave a Comment

I have really enjoyed listening to Laura Tremain’s new podcast: 10 Things to Tell You. This week her episode was on journaling. I knew I had to come on here and tell you my ten things about journaling!

  1. Journaling is one of my favorite things! I have found that I process things best through the process of writing. When I was 10 years old I started keeping a journal of some sort when my mom gave me my first journal.
  2. I use various methods and notebooks for my journaling. Everything from a pretty spiral bound notebook, hardback & softback moleskins, Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks, a specific gratitude journal, a one line a day notebook and various notebooks my husband brings home from work.
  3. Facebook makes a great journal of sorts. I post to share with others but also as a memory book for our family with posts and things I want to remember. The Memories portion of Facebook works wonderfully. I have 9 years of recorded memories that I can see every day. Someday maybe I will have one of those books made that includes your posts so that I will have it in physical form. But for now this is such an easy way for me to document our lives.
  4. The journal I most consistently write in is my prayer journal. I find that I can concentrate better when I write my prayers down and it also makes it easier for me to look back and see where God has been faithful throughout my life.
  5. A new practice I have added in the last few months is to write morning pages. Although its rarely first thing in the morning I try to spend some time at least a couple times a week just free form writing. The idea is to write for a certain amount of time or pages about whatever comes to mind without filtering. Just getting thoughts on paper.
  6. I used my bullet journal to write any lists, things I want to track, ideas that I want to come back to. The bullet journal makes it so much easier for things you want to be able to find again because it uses an index to track everything. I love my Leuchtturm 1917 notebook for this.
  7. Many years ago I was inspired by Ann Voskamp to keep a Gratitude Journal in her book A Thousand Gifts. I’m not as consistent with this as I used to be but I love to pull out my notebook and list as many things as I can think of that I am grateful for.
  8. I love the idea of keeping a One Line A Day journal. Last year I bought one and have been very random in using it but like Facebook it is a great way to be able to look back through time and remember what was happening in your life.
  9. I have tried using Evernote and OneNote to have an online journal that was searchable but for me I really like writing it by hand instead.
  10. Journaling helps me to feel like myself. So often I don’t even know what I think or feel about something until I start writing it down. When its been too long since I have written I feel myself slipping away but just a few minutes with a pen in hand makes all the difference.

Some of my favorite tools for journaling:

My Favorite Pens
1000 Gifts Journal
Bullet Journal

One Line A Day Journal

Filed Under: Blog, Daily Rhythms, Journaling Tagged With: 10 Things to Tell You

Seasonal Living

November 27, 2018 by mamakay Leave a Comment

Do you find yourself pushing through each day expecting yourself to have the same energy each day? Do you change what you are doing based on the season? Do you allow for an ebb and flow in your days? How do you plan your time? Are you accomplishing the things that you want to? Do you make a plan in January but find that by March it is all lost in a blur? Seasonal Living can change all of that!

I want to help you live your life in such a way that you can accomplish the things you want to do and still get the space your soul needs to breath and revive. Seasonal Living recognizes that there is a time and a place for everything. Ecclesiasties chapter 3 reminds us:

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

Our current culture seems to tell us that we must always hustle and that everything must be done all at once. But if you live that way you will yourself burn out.

Let me teach you how you can arrange your life in such a way that you will feel productive and operating out of a place of restoration instead of exhaustion. Seasonal Living will help you do just that.

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Filed Under: Blog, Daily Rhythms Tagged With: seasonal living, seasons

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So glad you stopped by. I am a Christian wife and mother of 8 in the middle years. My kids are aged 4 to 20 and just about every 2 years in between. I write about our life as a big family, what God is personally doing in my life, food and books.

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