Stop the 3 Habits that are threatening your health and growth
You might feel frustrated by your attempts to create new habits for 2022.
Because they are so close to your body, they can be easy to overlook or take for granted.
These three habits have been a constant companion in my healthy changes efforts.
They are likely to be cluttering up your efforts and making it difficult for you to do the same. They can ruin your best intentions and cause major problems with your New Year’s Resolutions.
These trolls are your habits, so they are very close. They can clog and tangle your brain in the ultimate mindf*ck. It is the one that occurs as an inside job.
It is very difficult to develop better habits that will last until you get rid of clutter. At least, until you start to do so. Like any knot you untie (even the hair of a troll doll), it’s best to do this as soon as possible. Once you loosen the threads, even if the knot is still there it will end. This is true for all three mental errors in your habit repertoire.
Mental Cluttering Habit Troll #1: Disowning Your Discomfort
This is when you say “they made me mad” or “I did it because so and so happened.” We all have the bad habit of blaming other people and circumstances for our stuckness.
Your mental habit is to blame others for your troubles.
Yes, they may have been egregious, absurd, or even abusive in their actions. Yet…
Once we have witnessed the behavior of another person and it has entered our sensory system, our habit reaction is .
Yes, other people should be held responsible, but you shouldn’t be complacent with how others have affected you.
Your mental software may have a bad habit that allows you to give up control over your ease, well-being and growth to other people (who might be guilty of some of the most egregious acts).
You need to change your habit of ignoring discomfort.
Mental Cluttering Habit #2: Time Addiction
The mental goblin of your mind can tie you up when it whispers (via thoughts) all manner of excuses, rationales and predictions based upon some sort of parlance of past or future.
Time Addiction can be so destructive to your efforts to change your habits. These thoughts convince you that others, you, and the things or people you want, are fixed, unchanging entities.
You will feel a lot more comfortable if you allow this mental habit to be unrestricted, unnoticed access to your attention .
This mental wisenheimer is not so smart. These thoughts don’t pass the reality test – how everything is always changing and here, now.
Consider this: How has your body, emotions and circumstances changed? Isn’t constant change the only constant?
You can become more aware of the changing natures of everything by being mindful .
This mental poison is best treated by accepting the truth of change, especially when you are being controlled by time addiction.
Mental cluttering Habit Troll #3: Addiction
This is the true clutter killer that will make your change intentions go to hell.
If your thoughts, especially about changing your habits and getting uncomfortable, center around words such as my and me and mine then you’re at the door of Excuseville, which is just outside Quitopia.
Although mental chatter is vital to our survival, myself should not be run over by a bus heading toward me or my mind making me thirsty if left in the scorching desert heat.
It is more accurate to see how you are part of a context.
You are constantly changing and your body is always changing.
The better you can be with the truth of you as a whole, not just a collection of parts that fly from one moment to another, the more powerful it is.
It’s also more likely that you will stick to the plan of getting rid of the unimportant parts and putting your best foot forward for the things that really matter at any given time.
It is better to save your self-ing for times when you can be curious, compassionate and forgiving. You will also recognize your intrinsic worth and the higher identity of doing what really matters and resonates.
These three mental troll-clutterers can be found everywhere.
They are all a part of our daily lives, but most people don’t realize how important they are.
Walden was written by Thoreau. It stated that most people live a life of quiet despair.
If you don’t learn to hear the whisperings from these three trolls, you will be among those who are quietly desperate.
The Weapons to Fight the Mental Habit Trolls
What can you do then?
You can get rid of them like other habits that are preventing you from achieving your goals for health, creativity and connection.
It is easy to see how science can help you change your habits.
- You can increase your awareness of your habits by “mapping”, which is the precise mapping of their operation in your life.
- Bring mindfulness skills with you to help you reevaluate your clutter habits and determine if they are costing or paying off.
- You can create new, more specific habits that will pay more and won’t affect your effectiveness, well being, or trajectory of growth.