Micro-Moments, Massive Shifts by Jenny Garufi

We’ve been taught big transformations take lots of time. The truth is we can create huge change in micro-moments, and not much time at all. When we send off the energy of “trying harder”, it can create judgment of ourselves and exhaustion. 

Real change can happen in the in between moments with some presence and refocusing our energy and attention. Tiny, intentional rituals create lasting neural emotional shifts. When you are gentle with yourself and begin to take these moments, you can truly notice more peace and transformation pretty quickly!

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s natural ability to change and adapt throughout our lives. Every thought we think, habit we repeat, and experience we have gently shapes the brain’s wiring. The more often something is practiced, whether it is a belief, a reaction or a way of responding the stronger that pathway becomes. The beautiful part? New patterns can always be created. Small, repeated moments of awareness, intention, or kindness literally teach the brain a new way to be. Change does not require force, just consistency and care.

These micro-moments shift reality when we practice with frequency, but do not take intensity. This is gentle work that shows us we are ready for change and are taking these moments to catalyze it.  Micro-rituals interrupt our automatic pilot. The average person has 60,000 thoughts a day, 80% negative and 95% the same exact ones as yesterday. By interrupting our auto-pilot we create safety in the nervous system and it signals the brain, “hey, something new is happening here.” This allows for subconscious patterning to be released and with it you give permission for stress and burnout to also leave your energy. This isn’t meant to judge the mind, but to show how often it runs on old programming.

A micro-moment is choosing to pay attention to what you are thinking for a small amount of time.  You can do this in the shower, as you are waking up before you leave bed, as you are falling asleep at night, at a red light, in line at a grocery store, while doing something routine like brushing your teeth, while having your first cup of coffee, or any moment you choose, “I am here now”. This is much more about being present and embodying what you are thinking versus concerted effort. Consistency matters so much more than perfection. 

Here are three small rituals you can do in these micro-moments:

1. Be conscious for one or two breaths and set one intention. This can be as simple as, “I am going to find something that makes me smile today” or “I am going to return to presence and show up for myself more and more.” This works because you are interrupting whatever your brain was telling you and choosing to set an intention of how you want your life to look, instead of returning to fear or worry. You can use this at any of the above times. The morning, before you go to bed and shower time are the most powerful. In the morning or before bed, we usually go to dread; things that were said or did, worries about the day or the world. Our subconscious is more tuned in during these times making our intention and thoughts go even deeper. In the shower you have the time where you are by yourself and you have the healing element of water which allows those intentions to go deeply into your body and energy.
2. You can use your senses to ground your mind. Tune into what you see, what you hear, what you taste at the moment. You can do this as you wash the dishes or shower, feel the water on your hands or body, think of the sound it is making, see if you smell anything at the moment (soap, etc).The senses are the nervous system’s love language. This helps reduce anxiety and mental overdrive.
3. Choosing a single repeatable phrase or question is also a way to choose what you are thinking. This allows you to shift from self-criticism to self-connection. Repeating phrases or questions such as, “Life gets to be easier and easier”, “Why do good thing always happen to me?”, or “I am so grateful for….” and fill in the blank. We’ve all had those moments where we did or said something and silently said to ourselves, “why am I so stupid?” Repeating these positive words replace that dialogue. Those are unconscious thoughts, repeating from some disempowered state but choosing thoughts is so much more powerful and can help shift our self worth and energy, which changes our reality. 

Any of these rituals can be done in less than 3 minutes. 

Force tightens the nervous system, gentleness opens the door to transformation.  When change arrives through gentle ritual rather than force, the subconscious relaxes, resistance fades and trust begins to grow. Ritual work not by pushing the mind, but by reassuring it, again and again, that it is safe to change.  Change sticks when the body feels included. The body remembers what the mind tries to force, and it integrates what it feels safe to experience. 

Transformation is truly the relationship with yourself, it invites in becoming a different, more relaxed and present person, one moment at a time. Commit to one micro-moment today and give yourself credit for remembering to take that moment. Please know that there is nothing wrong with you if you find yourself back in reaction mode instead of conscious responding. You are human, this is a process. You are already becoming, please thank yourself for any time you stop yourself from going fully down a rabbit hole or choose presence. Transformation doesn’t happen all at once; it unfolds softly, through the small moments where you choose to come home to yourself. 

Jenny Garufi is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and healer devoted to helping people create inner peace through simple, embodied practices. After healing herself from years of chronic illness, she has spent two decades sharing accessible tools for transformation. She is the author of A Short Path to Change, Soulful Alchemy, and The 3 Minute Shower Reset: 21 Days to Inner Peace, and a contributor to Sacred Stories Publishing, including Neale Donald Walsch’s God Talk. Her passion is helping people return to themselves through small, meaningful moments of presence. http://jennygarufi.com