My 2016 New Year's Resolution - Gym For the Mind

Posted by Chewy Loh on

Typically, at the beginning of every new year, health fitness clubs and yoga centres see membership increase the most. New year it seems, have the magic of instilling in us renewed hopes and aspirations, as well as the determination to make good changes in our lives.

Sweng and I recently signed up subscription for Headspace, an app that guides you in meditation. Both of us have been using the free version of the app for some time and like it enough to subscribe to the new version to get more contents.

The guided meditation is voiced by Headspace founder Andy Puddicombe, who used to be a monk. The app has gained quite a success and became a global phenomenon, winning over even well-known personalities such as Richard Branson, Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose.

Meditation has been practised for a long time and its benefits on brain functions were proven scientifically - it speeds up brain processing capability, lessens anxiety, increase immunity, decreases pain and fosters rapid memory recall. It even reduces the risk of heart diseases.

And not just physically, meditation also contributes to our emotional well-being. Long-term meditation helps to increase mindfulness and in turn has a positive effect on happiness and interpersonal relationship. These benefits are helpful towards building meaningful social relations, makes us more focused and attentive in work as well as being more creative.

Now, knowing the benefits of meditation is one thing, actually doing it and keeping the habit is quite another. Back to the topic of New Year's resolutions, why are they infamously difficult to keep? These are a few main reasons I have gathered:

Why New Year's Resolutions Are Often Broken:

  1. We simply set too many of them.
  2. There is a lack of specific plan to execute.
  3. There is an inertia to change (even when we know the benefits of the change)
  4. Lack of determination causes new habits to break easily.

How I Plan to Make My New Year's Resolutions work:

1. Make one resolution at a time - to create and sustain a habit of meditation.

2. Be specific - meditate twice a day, once in the morning, and once before bed.

3. Broadcast my resolution - by telling everyone in this blog. ;)

4. Have a program to help keep it going - The Headspace app I signed up has a tracking system and various levels to spur me to go further.

5. Buddy up - my husband Sweng signed up Headspace too so we can encourage and keep each other on track.

6. Constant reminder - I have set time alert to remind me to meditate. I have also read that successful people meditate and I want to be like them. So I will put a picture/pictures of some of these people who meditate at my work desk to remind myself of this intrinsic reason.

I wish you a memorable and blessed 2016. May all that you wish for come true.

I would like to leave this post with one of Yoda's famous lines:

do-yoda

References:

  1. Scientific Benefits of Meditation - 76 Things You Might Be Missing Out on
  2. 4 Best Scientifically Proven Benefits of Meditation
  3. 20 Scientific Reasons to Start Meditating Today
  4. Man Behind Meditation App Goes From Monk to Millionaire
  5. Your New Year's Resolutions Are Doomed Before You Even Begin - Unless...
  6. The Science Behind Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions
  7. The Science Behind Why We Break New Year's Resolutions

 


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