Just One More ...

This week is all about indulgences (not the Papal kind), or at least becoming aware of our habits around what we indulge in. This is especially interesting for me as I’ve just come back from a “Yay I finished my course, let’s celebrate” weekend in Amsterdam, where it seems indulgence reigns supreme. As I say all too often in our workshops, “there are no coincidences.”

The takeaway from tonight’s workshop was by making ourselves more aware of what we’re doing (overeating, lighting up, worrying about what we can’t control, etc.) we can control the habits we wish to change. We might not be having that extra helping of crisps because we really want to, it’s just because we’re bored and they’re there.

I remember my wake-up call about smoking being an unconscious habit. I was living in New York. I rode the tube subway home almost every day. When I got to my stop, I’d have pulled out a pack of cigarettes and have one ready to light as soon as I got upstairs to the pavement sidewalk. One afternoon, I was about 200 yards from my flat apartment and decided to light up a cigarette. I took the pack out of my jacket, pulled out a fag smoke and put it in my mouth, simultaneously reaching for my lighter.

The glitch was that I already had a cigarette, lit and half smoked, in my mouth. I had become so accustomed to the habit of lighting up, that I wasn’t even paying attention to the cigarette I’d already started when I got out of the train.

That’s when I knew it was time to quit. I was no longer making conscious choices, just doing things by rote.

Pay attention to make sure your habits are good ones. Try keeping a journal of whatever you want to stop overdoing (eating, drinking, smoking, spending, trying to decide between British and American words). Don’t judge yourself, just start making yourself aware of when and where and why you do what you do. You’ll have a whole set of new, healthy habits in no time ... even in Amsterdam.

Bob

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