March/April 2002
Feature Articles
Holistic Health Q & A
by Karen R. Raymund
Of PMS, premenopausal weight-gain,
and osteoporosis.
What is... Psychotherapy?
by Charles Larsen
Of various schools of psychotherapy
and what to expect and look for.
EnergyUpDate
by David Findlay
Articles on the theme "Good & Bad Habits"
Teaching Good Habits
by Barbara Bedingfield
A Waldorf teacher's viewpoint on how
adults should teach children the importance of good habits.
Mother Of All Bad Habits
by Aman Motwane
The habit of chasing illusions rather
than seeing the world as it is and dealing wih reality.
It's All Habit
by Patrick Plaskett
Using the mechanism of habits to get
the results in life that we want.
Improving Your Game
by Rev. Pat Cross
The effect habits have on our lives.
Using good habits to accentuate the positive.
The Fewer the Better
by Lisa Raphael
Letting go of habits and, instead,
living fully conscious of our thoughts, feelings and actions.
Changing From The Inside
by Rev. Linda Lou Kearns
Having the courage to be completely
honest, getting "out of the box."
Peace of Mind
by David Hunt
"A Course in Miracels" approach
to habits.
The Essence of a Habit
by Daniel DeFrank
How to replace negative habits with
life enhancing ones using the power of our thoughts.
Habits, Physical and Mental
by Betty Perry
Of behavior patterns and patterns of
thought. How they affect our lives.
It's All Habit
by Patrick Plaskett
Would you believe that almost everything you do is habit? You may think of habits as activities like smoking or jogging every morning. Habits actually go far beyond these simple examples. If you are liberal or conservative, impatient or patient when waiting in a long line, these are habit too. Once you really see this, you can be free to keep the habits of thought and action that serve you and change the ones that don't.
Any routine is habit. It can be a routine thought or a routine action it does not matter. There are certain neurological pathways that are established: in the same situations, we do the same things. Some of these habits can be on a very base level, such as habitually reaching for the gearshift in a car in the same place you always do, regardless of what vehicle you are in. Some habits can be more complex, such as always being an optimist or a pessimist. Or you may feel either a positive or negative feeling when confronted with a particular person or situation. It's all habit.
We like to think that we are living our lives being fully conscious of everything we do, fully awake at all times. This is hardly ever the case. We do mostly the same things every day, and most of it is habit. Our conscious minds are pretty much along for the ride, mere witnesses to it all. If we eat a burger or a salad for lunch today, it is a good indication that we ate a burger or a salad for lunch yesterday. Our conscious minds are witnesses to all of this internal and external activity, and we tell ourselves that we decided to do this or that. We like to believe that we are always completely rational, that every thought or action is the result of a rational thought or decision. In fact, you could see anyone do anything and ask them why they did it, and they will almost never say, " It's just habit."
Although we are on automatic pilot most of the time, this is not necessarily a bad thing; our lives are far too complex for us to think about everything we do before we respond. Therefore, I don't have to think about whether or not to stop for a red traffic signal, or whether I should put on my socks before my shoes. The foundation of a successful life is largely the development of habits that give us the results that we want. Good habits can free our attention for truly important things or new situations.
How do we develop the habits that we want? First of all, it is necessary to acknowledge that the habits are not you. Think of habits as computer programs that run on their own whenever the appropriate situation arises. Habits are mere phenomena which have you at the center of the activity. Try this: if you habitually get annoyed in a particular situation, you don't have to say, "I'm annoyed," but instead say, "It's annoyed," or "Annoyance is happening." This will help you distance yourself from your habits. Consider the phenomenon of rain. We say, "It's raining." Rain simply happens, given the right circumstances, just like your habits. You don't have to get your identity involved, or identify with the habit. Once you begin to get a real feel for this or a real taste of the reality of this then it becomes easier for you to change any habit that you want to change and use all the other useful ones as wonderful tools.
Unless your life is proceeding exactly as you wish and you wouldn't change a thing, you might want to get rid of some habits or take on some others. How is this done? You may have heard that bad habits are easy to start and hard to live with, while good habits are hard to establish and easy to live with. First of all, what makes a habit good or bad? Shakespeare wrote that nothing is good or bad except for the thinking that makes it so. I would say that a good habit is one that gives you the result that you want, while the bad ones give you what you don't want. So, be clear about what you want. Make that principle the measuring stick as to whether a habit is good or bad.
Next, what makes it difficult to get rid of a bad habit or take on a new one? Consider the principle of inertia. This principle is that a body at rest or in motion will continue in the same state unless a certain amount of energy is put upon it to change. Habit is full of inertia. You might say that the earth goes around the sun out of habit. Fortunately, it takes less energy to change our lives than it would to change the orbit of the earth. This energy can only be mobilized by desire, or the power of wanting. We all have will, but without the power of wanting, the will is not mobilized.
You can most easily replace a bad habit or institute a new one through the power of the imagination. Remember that bad habits are replaced, not erased. Imagine the results that you want. Increase your wanting and mobilize the will. Exercise the imagination. You may paste pictures to your refrigerator, write positive affirmations on your bathroom mirror, use guided mental imagery or hypnosis... whatever. Imagine your new future as vividly as possible. Be sure to include some emotional content to it, so as to feel the anticipation of the correction that you want in your life. Anything that you exercise in the imagination will be able to be exercised in the material world much easier. Don't identify yourself with your habits. Imagine what you want, and create a better life as your habits become your servants and not your masters.
Patrick Plaskett is a member of the Florida Association
of Professional Hypnotists and holds a bachelor's degree from USF. He can
be reached at the Center for Healing in St. Petersburg FL. (727) 381-9101.
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