How many of us find it challenging to maintain a constructive, consistent andhappy approach to self-care? I know I can find it hard to stick to regular habits and practices, especially at the start of the year with the pressure to maintain ‘new’ resolutions.
The incredible spiritual guide and teacher, Giselle la Pompe-Moore, talks us through accessible, straightforward and tangible ways to help create and maintain happy habits on the Happy Place app. She shares a huge amount of expert knowledge via meditations on the app from how to ‘create your reality’, to ‘get your balance back’ and to ‘own your moment’.
Listen on your way to work, set aside 10 minutes during a frantic work day or make time before you go to bed for impactful, uplifting words from Giselle on the Happy Place app.
You're known for a relatable approach to wellness that feels very accessible – what this an active decision when creating your practices and ethos?
Wellness doesn't make any sense to me unless it's for every single being on this planet. My great-grandmother who lived in Trinidad, was an advocate and practitioner of wellness, and also lived in poverty, working several jobs at a time to feed her ten children. For her, as it is for me, it is our birthright to be well, irrespective of our backgrounds, and for that to be true it has to be accessible and do-able, it has to be how we approach the entirety of our lives, not this cute additional extra. It isn't a luxury, it's a necessity. When our definition of wellbeingcomes back to the roots of us finding balance on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level; it really is about us finding wholeness instead of shooting for self-optimisation and perfection, which the wellness industry continues to perpetuate. Wellbeing can't only be about the green juices, expensive retreats, under-desk treadmills, and productivity calendars; it's also about community, seeking joy, access to healthcare, breathing deeply, laughing until your ribs ache, finding pockets of nature and seeing life with child-like wonder and curiosity.
How do you make time for wellness in your own life... what tips can you give our readers?
What has really helped me, is releasing the idea that wellness is something I have to make time for, instead, in all senses of the word, it has to just simply be a seamless part of how I live my life in all areas. Often, that means taking off the name tag of wellness and seeing it as a softer, more reflective and quieter approach to living life. Instead of marking off two hours for self-care once a week and judging yourself if you don't do it, see how it feels to incorporate mini moments of that each day. Wellness isn't only about exercise and nutrition; try looking out of the window when you're in a taxi instead of checking emails, if you have zero desire or time to get in a ridiculous amount of steps, walk around your neighbourhood and just notice life happening, take yourself for a delicious hot drink in a cafe with a book, breathe on the toilet for a few minutes, think about what brings you joy while the kettle boils, thank yourself for being here when you wake up each morning. Take the pressure off and let it be how you live your life; make wellbeing yours.
Typically January is a popular month for New Year’s resolutions, but people often struggle to maintain them throughout the whole year. How does making a ‘habit’ instead of a New Years resolution help us stick with our intentions?
When it comes to creating a habit over a resolution, still sit with your 'why' first, explore why you're even doing it in the first place. If you notice yourself saying, 'well, I think I should', that's not enough of a reason to make you both enjoy doing it and also stick with it. Instead of thinking your way into it, feel your way into the habit. If you want to make some time for yourself, because you've been prioritising everyone else or you want to feel more at peace, or build coping mechanisms for a busy, stressful life, those intentions behind the habit, are the precious reminders to keep going, keep trying and also to know that you're not in competition with yourself. If you miss a day or if it feels like a struggle, that's okay, be gentle and keep showing up. Going in with the mindset of 'just for today' is a breath of fresh air, and then doing the same thing tomorrow, when tomorrow gets here. We're so out of practice with just being with ourselves, that starting a habit of remembering how to be with ourselves, for a few minutes each day, is one of the most compassionate things we can do.
It can be difficult to start a daily habit... What are your tips for longevity and ensuring habits become part of daily life?
Going into it assuming that it will be difficult, that you'll probably miss some days, you might resent doing it and wonder why on earth you decided to do this; can actually be the most liberating way to begin. It takes the pressure off and allows the crucial room for you to realise that you're a human being, just trying to do your best. If we go into it in any other way, we're no better than a micro-manager over our heads, seeing if we're doing our jobs. This is your choice, it should feel like one. In a world that constantly pushes us to do more, to keep going, to push and be productive; just being present, still, moving slower and being with ourselves, is a revolutionary act. See it that way. A daily habit becomes a gorgeous gift back to yourself, that you aren't doing to self-optimise or to reach any kind of metric, it is simply a reward for you existing. It is time back, chosen and dedicated for you, to find this chaotic world a little easier to be in. We don't create habits to be a 'better' human, you are divine just as you are, we do them to find more balance and a sense of wholeness. Let those be the reasons why you keep going, you deserve it, because you exist, plain and simple.
Can you share some examples of happy habits that you use on a daily basis?
My daily habit is labelled as, 'creating time to be with myself', and underneath that, I give myself the grace of doing anything that fits in with that. The ones I consistently do and have done for the last 10 years or so are a short meditation, and some form of writing or journalling, and repeating some affirmations to gas me up for the day ahead, one I've been repeating at the moment is, 'I am a force'. I always focus on what feels good, so this time to be with myself also looks like solo dates, dancing barefoot in my room with my wireless headphones, yoga and witnessing the many mundane but magical joys that exist all around us if we choose to look out for them.
Happy Place App is available to download on iOS from www.happyplaceofficial.co.uk/app/. Giselle La Pompe-Moore, author of Take It In is ameditation teacher, speaker and multidisciplinary artist.