Back to School + Thoughts on Healthy Habits

It’s that time of year again-back to school!  Whether you’re a mom, a relative of school-aged kids, an employee at a school or university, a student yourself, or simply noticing all the school supplies showing up at your favorite stores, it’s hard to miss the transition back into the school year.

Regardless of your involvement with school, there are a few ways we can use this change of the season to benefit us on our health journeys:

Take advantage of the “Clean Slate” phenomenon to start new habits.

When we experience a change (a new season, a move, a new rhythm of life), we can use this “Clean Slate” to our advantage, as it is an excellent time to begin new habits.  Why?  Those new habits are more likely to stick!  We associate new habits with a fresh season of life, which helps our brains recognize that this is simply our new normal.  For more information on this topic, check out the post, “So Fresh and So Clean”.

Cultivate grace and patience for yourself.

If you are directly affected by a new school year, you may find your summer routine thrown for a loop!  Recognize that it is normal to be a bit shocked when your day-to-day schedule suddenly changes, and most likely, becomes much busier!  If you find it’s difficult to maintain the healthy habits you developed this summer, take it as an opportunity to show yourself grace and patience.  Give yourself the opportunity to get used to your new schedule, and time to figure out what habits you’d like to keep or change now that you’ve switched into school mode.

Revise your habits or routine to fit your current life situation.

Michael Hyatt and his daughter, Meghan Hyatt Miller, talk about this process on their podcast for high-achieving leaders.  Though many of their recommendations are applicable to running businesses, they can also be useful when we look at our personal routines.

They discuss when we are revising or creating new routines, we should begin with the outcome we want in mind.  For instance, what healthy habits do you want to incorporate during the school year?  Once you know this, you can think about what needs to be true for you to successfully implement those habits now that the school year is underway.  Then, you can “reverse engineer” the process, which is essentially working backward from the outcome you’d like to see, thinking through all of the aspects of your new school schedule, and creating new habits or routines that fit into that schedule and help you reach your desired outcome.   They also encourage listeners to remember that you may have to go through this new routine several times before you find something that actually works.  This is another reason to have grace and patience for ourselves as we set out to create new habits and routines.

As you embark on a new school year (or watch others do so), thinking of it in terms of an aide to reassess and/or begin new healthy habits, rather than something that is detrimental to your summer healthy habits, can enable you to take advantage of this new season of life.

Cheers to your best school year yet!

Written By: Brittni Paris, SFC Blogger and Wellness Coach

Sources:

Hyatt, M., & Hyatt Miller, M. (2018, August 14). Engineering Success:  How to create with the end in mind. Lead to Win Podcast. Podcast retrieved from https://michaelhyatt.com/podcast-engineering-success/

Photo Credits:

Photo by Renan Kamikoga on Unsplash

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash