Do You Believe There are Good and Bad Habits?
…maybe you will change your mind
Let us start of by understanding that the concepts of good and bad are human assigned. We in different cultures define things as good or bad. It is a label that we assign to help us process them faster.
Usually things that we can process faster eventually become automatic. Once they become automatic they are then labeled as habits.
So stop and think about that for a minute. We label things to help us process them faster to the point of them becoming automatic.
This morning when you walk into the bathroom, out of habit you will reach for the toothbrush, squeeze some toothpaste on it, and on automatic brush your teeth.
Do you remember the experience? Did you enjoy it? (Why do I sing the ABC song to my 2 year old?)
Your “good habit” of brushing your teeth is so automatic that you have become completely unconscious during it. You like the end result BUT your thinking has stopped. You are unconscious doing it.
Why do I need to be conscious to brush my teeth?
Animals do things based on instinct and often without thought. They do things unconsciously.
We are humans and within us is the ability to do things consciously. That might be our greatest strength which has now become our greatest weakness.
There is beauty to doing things consciously.
Imagine the automatic process of eating. What if for the moment before we ate we stopped, became conscious of the food in front of us, touched it to sense whether is it for us or not, showed our gratitude to the food that will become a part of us shortly, and then sloooooooowly experienced each small bite.
Everything can be done at this level of consciousness. It requires that pause and conscious intent to be present at the moment and out of automatic habit mode.
Have you ever seen people operate on a conscious level? Recall when others looked refined and wonderful to you in the past? When they walked, talked, or acted in a way that was memorizing. They were doing that consciously. They were full of thought…thoughtful. They were not behaving like a machine.
To you they appeared as beautiful human beings.
There is a lot of new science that teaches us that by developing good habits and routines we will reserve our willpower for the decisions that truly matter. What if the only decision that really matters is to be conscious? Instead of making things automatic we should stop and feel them whether they are good for us.
What does that mean?
Imagine if for a moment you felt hungry and in front of you was a plate of food. You devour it. BUT afterwards you felt sluggish and very sleepy. Was the food really good for you? Most likely not.
A conscious eater would have looked at the food, touched it, showed gratitude for it becoming its energy, consumed it slowly while appreciating it, and lastly benefited from its energy.
That is consciousness. That is beauty. That is art. (I got so much work…)
My four cents.
