Habits and habitual behaviour

I've been doing a bit of reading about habits. Then I got to thinking whether all habits were neccessarily bad and I don't think they are. I do however, think that it is important for us to be aware of our habits. They may be having some impact on us and effecting our mental wellbeing.

I was reading an article in Psychologies magazine which said one way to confront habits is to change them. If you always sit on the same side of the bus going to work, sit on the other for a day. If you always go to the same sandwhich shop for lunch and get the same roll with the same filling, go somewhere else for something completely different for a day. These may seem small and trivial but think how bored these must be making us. The journey into work is anything but exciting; we know what we'll be looking at as we looked at it yesterday, we know who will be around us as they were probably sitting there yesterday too. Perhaps, just perhaps if we were to sit elsewhere our journey would become a fraction more interesting. We may notice a new shop we'd never seen before or see the sun rise as we're looking out onto an alternative landscape. We may be breaking someone else's habit by taking 'their' seat and therefore having a knock on effect with their journey. Imagine forcing yourself to find an alternative place to eat lunch and a different roll filling or maybe not even a roll at all. Lunchtime then becomes a bit of an activity and not as dull as it has become.

I tried this. The only habit I could think of was more of a routine. Every morning I run the shower then get my towel. By the time I get back to the shower the water is hot. I shampoo first then condition. Whilst the conditioner is on I wash my body. I shower off the soap and my conditioner then give my face a scrub. The end. I have showered with this routine for as long as I can remember. But its time effective, you may say. And you would be right. But I don't even need to think about what I'm doing so I quite often leave the shower and I still haven't quite woken up. I decided to change this for a morning. I brought my towel to the shower and waited there for it to heat. On getting in, I washed my body. Then I shampood. Then I drew a complete blank and was standing in the shower looking at all the bottles trying to think about what I still needed to do. After five minutes of standing confused, this became so ridiculous I burst out laughing. I decided just to get out. The difference from the day before was that I was now fully alert as I had really had to use a bit of brain power, I was in a great mood and my face was still dirty. A minor success.

The article then went on to tell us about a women who decided to have an 'independant day'. This meant she only did things for herself unlike her usual running around for others and making cups of tea for everyone. She found this very difficult and did not like it at all. This was a habit that she enjoyed in herself. She did however, have more time on her hands and so will consider her actions in the future to give her a better balance. This highlights that sometimes we do things that are important to us but don't realise until we stop.

All of these are minor things but fun none the less. Try changing something you do everyday. It may just give you that skip in your step you've been missing for a while. Then, challenge the bigger things. And remember, habits are not always bad.

'We are what we repeatedly do. Sucess, therefore is not an act, it is a habit. ' Aristotle