I’ve Kicked A Bad Habit!
Because after all, as they say, insanity is doing the same thing over & over & expecting different results ... right?
Turns out that breaking a pretty ingrained habit is possible!
The one I’ve just broken was clearly a bad habit for me.
I realized I needed to spend more time away from “technology” (i.e., devices) - and stop looking at the Internet – Facebook, my email, etc. - at least for the morning hours.
Holee but the world is an overwhelming place these days. Yikes!
Yikes, sheesh, OMG & WTF!
So much information.
So much bad news!
I’d find that as I looked over what was on Facebook (for me an information-sharing medium, not a place to brag about my great life or trips or accomplishments or whatever), & scrolled through the tons of emails I receive (my bad for having subscribed to far too many Substacks; OMG what a daily tsunami!? An embarrassment of riches, as it were – so many articulate voices out there, sharing important information & insights, which is a delight to see! – just maybe a bit too much of a “good” thing...)
I’d feel my heart start to pound.
Palpable anxiety I could sense, right there in my body.
It was time for a change!
So. One day last week I made a new rule for myself: no Internet until the afternoon.
The Results?
It’s been great!
Life-changing.
Mood-enhancing.
Sanity-restoring.
It’s meant I’m more apt to take that daily morning walk that does so much for my spirits.
One day while out doing that, I spotted this sign:
Kinda seems like pretty good advice, doesn’t it?
I’m even accomplishing some miscellaneous odds & ends of tasks I’d been putting off for simply ages.
My moods are better.
I’m calmer. More cheerful. Less rushed. Less frantic. Less distracted. Thinking more clearly, I think...
Less obsessed with situations over which I have no control (whether there’s to be a nuclear war, for example. Not a bloody thing I can do about THAT!)
I feel a little less crazy. For the record, I believe that evil is running especially rampant at this time on Planet Earth. It takes a conscious effort for those of us awake to what’s really going on, to stay sane. It’s a daily highwire act!
For the record, I’m no Pollyanna. I’m very well-versed with how dire the state of the world is! In fact, I saw a card recently that had these words on the front:
“What a complete and total dumpster fire.”
After having a good chuckle at that, I bought the card & mailed it to a friend I knew would enjoy it as much as I had. She’s no Pollyanna either.
And...
Sure enough, when I do finally go & check Facebook & emails & take in the latest daily dose of (mostly bad) news, I quickly begin to feel overwhelmed & get that heart-pounding that warns me I’m feeling too anxious & revved-up for my own good.
Mark Twain is said to have said:
“Habit is habit, and not to be flung out the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs, one step at a time.”
This one didn’t have to be coaxed.
It was actually a very easy one to break!
Changing habits could become ... habit-forming!
And sure, I can think of a few others I could stand to ditch. Ones that might be a wee bit more of a challenge...
But there’s no rush.
I’m slowing down!
Janet
p.s. I’m also more conscious of being on the lookout for things that make me laugh. This item cracks me up every time!
A few quotations about habits I found in my voluminous Quotations document:
“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviour.
Keep your behaviour positive because your behaviour becomes your habit.
Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values...
And, keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.” - Gandhi
“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” – Jim Ryun
“Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.” – Epictetus (find more Epictetus wisdom here)
“I believe that the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality.” – Thoreau in his essay ‘Life Without Principle,’ quoted in Paul Theroux’s The Last Train to Zona Verde – My Ultimate African Safari (a great read, btw!)
“It seems we all have the tendency to move away from the present moment. It’s as if this habit is built into our DNA.” – Pema Chödrön
“Habit is often ‘simply the easiest way to be wrong again.’” – Laurence Peter in Diet for a New America
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right.” – Thomas Paine (Introduction to Common Sense 1776)
“Do-er and deed co-arise. Hence our continuity of character, bearing the stamp of repeated choice and habit. Hence also our freedom, for new options arise with each present act of will.” - Joanna Macy
This one doesn’t have the word “habit” in it, but seems utterly relevant...
“When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge.” – Tuli Kupferberg
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the one most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin
& this gem, an old favourite:
“Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.”– Karen Kaiser Clark
** There are loads of great inspiring quotations (in a long list of categories from A – Z ... well, W anyway) in this location, on my old blog site). There’s also a pretty fine bunch of good ones at the end of my recent posting Let's Celebrate What Remains! & a few other things we can still do in these fraught, fractious, difficult times