How Habit Stacking Could Change Your Life

In January this year, I went for a long-overdue dental check-up. To say I was apprehensive was an understatement. Prioritising oral health has always been important to me, and until the pandemic hit, I had always attended my regular 6-monthly check-ups like clockwork. I was just getting back on track when my mum was diagnosed with significant health issues. I delayed my January 2024 check-up until after my mid-February book launch, thinking I would book in for the end of February. Instead, my mum began the first of 5 hospital stays over the next 7 months, and my dental appointment never eventuated.

So in January this year, I bravely fronted up to see what the damage was. To my surprise, my dentist of more than 15 years said my teeth were better than she had ever seen them. By now, you are probably wondering why this is relevant.  I attribute my healthy teeth & gums to maintaining positive habits and habit stacking. These habits become even more important when you face a crisis and your life falls apart. It's your habits that can make or break you. Despite the punishing and stressful schedule of running my Pilates business while visiting and advocating for my mum in hospital, I never missed brushing my teeth morning and night, and flossing at night. I also stuck to another habit - my healthy diet.  My dentist was surprised I didn't resort to takeaways and junk foods.  Let's look at how you can use habit stacking to improve all areas of your life, including your Pilates practice.

What is Habit Stacking?

I've discussed the importance of habits and habit stacking before in my blog posts, and I can't emphasise enough how valuable this concept is if you want to achieve your goals. Habit stacking is a technique for forming new habits by attaching them to an existing habit you already do consistently. The idea is that rather than trying to build a new habit from scratch, you "stack" a new, small habit onto one you already do regularly. This leverages the automatic nature of your current habits to make the new behavior easier to adopt. The concept was popularised by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits. The basic idea is to use a formula like:

"After I [current habit], I will [new habit]."

 For example:

• After I brush my teeth, I will floss my teeth. Many times last year, after a long day at the hospital, due to exhaustion, I thought I would brush but not floss my teeth to save time so I could get to bed. Something strange happened. Each time I had almost finished brushing my teeth, I had an overwhelming feeling that I had to floss my teeth, and each time I flossed. This positive habit is so ingrained that even exhaustion couldn't stop me from flossing. 

• After I finish my morning coffee, I will do 5 minutes of Pilates foot exercises/balance training/standing glute work

The existing habit (like brushing your teeth or drinking coffee) acts as a cue for the new habit, making it easier to remember and more likely to stick over time.

The key to habit stacking is making the new habit small, easy, and something you can do immediately after the old habit without much extra effort. It works well because you’re essentially building on your existing routines and can use that momentum to introduce new behaviors. If you keep adding to the stack, you can create a morning and evening routine or any other routine that will benefit you.

You can apply this to all areas of your life if you want to create positive change and move forward in life. Just make sure you don't overstack until each habit has become ingrained. Track your progress so you can see the benefits of your work. It's ideal to incorporate small sessions of Pilates and movement into your daily life. Remember, small actions add up to big things, so think about how you can start stacking some positive habits into your day straight away!

If you are ready to start your Pilates journey to pain-free living and ageing well, email me at [email protected] .  Alternatively, you can book an Initial Assessment with me here or  take the free 10 day trial of JS Mind Body Pilates, my online studio - a library of on-demand videos, and start straight away.  It would be my pleasure to assist you in establishing the positive habit of Pilates!