......habits

Yogis,

The January meditation program is in full swing and we are now on day 12. I named it A New Year….A New Habit because the only way meditation works is if you actually do it! Every day. Which means that it has to become a habit. There can’t be a daily decision.

It got me thinking about habits. What are your habits? Those of you who have been reading these writings for awhile know that I have a lot. Early morning running for 35 years. Daily meditation and Friday night ‘time for me’ for 12 years. Drinking a chai tea latte each day for at least 10 years. Herbal infusions for 8 years and now oil pulling for about a year.

Once I decide on something I want to do I don’t have much trouble making it a habit. I choose it and do it. I have always been fairly disciplined even though I don’t think of myself as rigid. I just want it, so I do it. On the other hand, if there is something that may sound persuasive in words, or I see others do it and think I should, it might not stick. The key differentiating word is ‘want’.

Often, we believe we want to do something but in in reality we wish we were doing it. There is a huge difference. For example, I believe I should eat apples. I think I want to eat apples. I buy apples. They rot. Over and over. I wish I loved eating apples, but I clearly don’t ‘want’ to eat apples. This works the same for those habits we wish we didn’t have.

I was a nail biter my entire childhood. A habit. I thought I wanted to stop and tried many remedies including the foul-tasting nail polish. Nothing worked. Then one day at work when I was about 27, Dave, a coworker, looked at my nails and said, “You really shouldn’t bite them”. Time stopped. At that moment I chose to stop. That was it.

We are habitual beings. A silly example. There is a class that I have been going to that has yoga in the

title but is more about weights and squats. A new body challenge which I am enjoying. Everyone picks up two 3 lb and two 5 lb weights when they arrive, and then at the end you have to put them back on the racks.

The 3lb weights were always on the left and 5lb on the right. Well, for some reason they switched them about a month ago. It’s a total disaster! Half the students do it right and the other half in reverse. Two weeks ago, they put a big sign pointing to where the weights go. Do you think that helped? Nope. I keep picturing the poor person who has to sort them at the end of each night.

Friday night I noticed that I ‘want’ to put them in the right place, so I place them mindfully. Not sure everyone else is feeling the same way. The studio may be forced to switch back as habits are hard to change. But they can indeed be changed with will…..not thinking.   

They say it takes a month to form a new habit. I say it only takes a moment.

Once a stake is firmly planted in your inner ground that this is what you want, the rest will fall into place.

Otherwise, it is only a wish…..

Notice the difference,
SARAH