How to integrate into your life good habits while using limited periods of time:
– less than 10 minutes
– 10 minutes
– 20 minutes or longer (the flow state)
A limited period of time typically means 10 minutes or less.
All habits start as a cognitive effort and become an unconscious habit.
The Less than 10 Minute Rule
Many of the things we do that are highly beneficial, take less than 10 minutes. I time them. An example is different morning stretches.
I will set my alarm for 3 minutes when I do pre-walking or running calf stretches. My mind relaxes since it knows 3 minutes is a good timing and when its over, I move on.
If I get that feeling or thought, I don’t want to do this, just before or while doing it, I ask my unconscious in a audible voice (a whisper), “Why?” As I continue the activity, I wait for the answer. 1 of 2 things happens as I wait:
First, the feeling goes away.
Second, the answer my unconscious gives is stupid.
Either way, I spend the 3 minutes doing that activity.
The 10 Minute Rule
The goal: end the 10 minute period feeling good.
Set an alarm for 10 minutes when you are doing a new task. The goal of this task is to spend 10 minutes practicing /learning this new skill without a required outcome.
The only outcome is to say, “I did this task for 10 minutes and I feel good.”
The result: within days, your brain creates a series of emotionally charged positive states (aka feeling good) because you did this task for 5 days without stop.
In the beginning, you may even feel excited when you hear yourself think, “Wow, I have been doing this for almost 10 minutes. Soon the alarm will ring.” or
“Wow, the alarm just rang. Time went so fast.” You may even feel like you want to continue. I recommend that you stop. Take another 30 seconds to 1 minute to make notes about where you stopped, but stop.
Why: you want to end the 10 minute time period in a clean break. Soon your unconscious will begin to adjust and you will notice (If you haven’t already) a positive feeling of successfully completely that task.
The outcome: Spending this amount of time doing this new task, knowing soon you will expand the time period, naturally takes you to a flow state.
Flow State
This is another way of saying, “I love doing this activity and I can forget about time when I am doing this activity.”
An example is programming. I can sit at a computer and do data analytics for hours. I typically set my alarm for 30 minutes and during that time period, to avoid eye strain, take short breaks to look a the wall or out the window, etc, but the total time of concentration for me is about 30 minutes. Yes, i set an alarm.
I have also learned to make good notes about what I did during that time period of 30 minutes.
Finally, how is this hypnosis?
It is learning how to go from a conscious, cognitive activity to an unconscious enjoyable activity that creates a habit. All of these activities become habits you do because your unconscious sends a ‘pleasure signal’ in the form of a feeling and thought (or picture) of you doing the activity and your brain receiving pleasure.