“Perform those actions you will never regret: actions that will ripen into future joy and delight.” - Buddha

It happens to all of us - we get caught up in our busy lives, moving from one commitment or task list item to the next, telling ourselves we "just need to get through this week, and then things will slow down a little" - until we finally look up and realize months have passed. "How are we so far into 2024?!" we cry, not realizing it's the same refrain we uttered last year, and the year before. Not realizing that it's not going to change unless we change it.

Our brains have an interesting feature called habituation, which is when we stop actively noticing things around us that are either constant or that our brains have deemed unnecessary to our every day survival or functioning. Have you ever realized that a noise has been happening in the background of your awareness (the buzz of a fan, the rumble of a fridge, etc), and the only reason you noticed it was because it's stopped? Or have you put an interrupter on your social media to remind you not to use it beyond a certain limit, but over time it gets easier and easier to just close that notification and keep on scrolling? That's habituation.

Habituation is really important from an evolutionary standpoint, because it allows us to filter out any irrelevant stimuli in our every day lives so that our brains can stay on alert for dangers in our environments, or have the capacity to notice a novel food when it comes into view. If we didn't have this filter, we'd be so constantly overwhelmed by every tiny happening in the world around us that we wouldn't be able to function! However, habituation becomes a problem when we start to tune out of life itself. This can happen when your life becomes rather routinized. For example, if you work the same hours each day and run through pretty much the same routine before, during, and after work. Or maybe if you have small children and your days are just a blur of feeding, napping, playing, walking, crying, and sleeping. We eventually turn ourselves onto autopilot and suddenly the days, weeks, and months are whizzing past and we may have almost no distinct memories of what we've done over that time. If we keep up this pace, we could easily look up to find our lives have passed us by. Depressing isn't it?

But mindfulness gives us the opportunity to continually notice the little things, to really savour the moments as they happen, so that we can reflect on them with a greater level of richness in the future. Here are a few ways to practice mindfulness, to help fight off that all-encompassing habituation, in your daily life:

Keep a journal

If you have never kept a journal in your life, this may be an intimidating prospect. What to write?! My suggestion is to start small. This isn't necessarily a journal where you're delving into your deepest thoughts, or writing the most beautiful prose. To help you fight habituation, all a journal needs to be is a log of your daily activities, and perhaps how your felt about those happenings.

Keep a small notebook and a pen with you, and start to cultivate a practice of taking it out to jot a few things down about your day whenever you have a spare moment (perhaps instead of pulling out your phone to scroll??). Writing down what's happening while it occurs solidifies it further in your brain, and distinguishes things as separate occurrences rather than allowing them to blend together day after day. This also gives you a record that you can look back on, and often reading what you've written in the past can help to stir up vivid memories of that event, conversation, etc - preventing it from being lost in the void of your fuzzy memory.

Write a gratitude list AND an anticipation list

We've probably all heard about gratitude lists by now - the 5-10 minute daily practice that is said to measurably boost your happiness and life satisfaction over time! I 100% advocate for gratitude lists, but not just because they make you happier. Taking time at the end of the day to write a gratitude list also gives you the opportunity to sit down and think back over your day, which again helps to solidify everything that's happened in your brain as separate events. I also do my gratitude list a bit differently: I write down something I'm grateful for related to something that's happened that day, rather than just a general gratitude like "I'm grateful for the roof over my head" or "my strong body." Making your gratitude specific to something that's happened that day again gives you that connection to a specific event, allowing it to stand out in your memory instead of just blurring into the rest of your day. As a bonus, you get to attach feelings of joy and gratitude to that event!

But I don't stop at a gratitude list. I also make an anticipation list - jotting down something that I'm looking forward to the next day. It might be something simple (my morning nespresso is a big one for me) or something big (maybe someone you love is coming for a visit), but taking the time to not only think about and revel in the anticipation of something enjoyable coming up, but also to write it down, allows you to stretch out your enjoyment of this activity, thus giving it the opportunity to loom larger in your awareness and memory.

Practice returning to conscious awareness.

You know that reminder to come back to your body, come back to your breath, that you may hear from a teacher over and over again throughout a yoga class? This is something so valuable to use throughout your day!

When you sit down in the morning with your cup of coffee or tea, instead of grabbing your phone to scroll (have you noticed yet that scrolling and habituation seem to go hand in hand?) or pulling out your to-do list to think about everything you have to do that day, instead just sit and savour your coffee. Notice the temperature of the coffee as your take a sip, and its flavours on your tongue. Notice your breath and how it might naturally slow down and deepen as you take this time to really notice and enjoy your morning beverage.

Do this anytime you notice yourself turning onto autopilot; especially with an activity that you tend to repeat at the same time each day. Try building several opportunities for conscious awareness into your day (maybe even write down some ideas in your journal of when you can practice this!) and take time to really be present during those activities. Whether it's a walk with the dog, a meal, or playtime with your kids, notice the unique little things while you go through these repeated activities, and these events will be much more likely to stick in your mind.

Break your routine!

Okay this is a fun one. We are creatures of habit, and often habits and routines are essential to getting through our days. However, have you ever noticed that the second half of a vacation seems to go by a lot more quickly than the first half? That's because the first half is *novel* to our brains, whereas by the time we get to the second half of the week, we've gotten used to our new routine of relaxing, beach time, reading, museum visiting, etc (whatever you choose to do on your holiday). Our brains react to things that are new, and we actually have to slow our consciousness down to absorb all the new stimuli!

So make a change in your routine every once in awhile - try a new cafe or restaurant on your break from work, or drive a new way home. Even better, take a whole day off midweek and go on a mini-adventure! Suddenly your whole week has snapped into a clearer focus and you are just that much more present for everything that's going on! Make sure to write about it in your journal :)

(Side note: I also suggest doing this during your actual vacation... on our honeymoon we spent three weeks exploring museums, ruins, and cities around Europe, and for the fourth and final week of our trip we visited a Greek island called Mykonos and just relaxed on the beach pretty much the whole time. It was such a change from the first part of our vacation that even 13+ years later I still have incredibly vivid memories of this part of our trip, while I've noticed that after awhile all of my memories of the museums, and even some of the sights, have kind of blended together.)

Mindfulness is a yogic practice that is 100% designed to be used off our mats. Just like physical asana (yoga postures) don't exist purely so we can show off our incredible flexibility and technique during a class but so that we can cultivate strong and resilient bodies that can sit comfortably in meditation and move through life with ease, the mindful awareness we practice on our mats can be taken into our daily lives and actually help improve our quality of life. I hope you'll be able to use these tips to slow down and actually live inside your life a little more, so you can savour every bit of it.