http://www.care2.com/greenliving/change-a-routine-to-break-a-habit.html
Change a Routine to Break a Habit
Adapted from Toltec Dreaming, by Ken Eagle Feather (Inner Traditions, 2007).
Altering routines involves deliberately breaking habits. As you break a habit, you open yourself to new behavior, new ways of looking at the world. New experience provides new knowledge. To help loosen perception, try these exercises.
1. Do something just for the heck of it. Move all the living room furniture to the middle of the room and leave it there for a few days. Rearrange it again based on feeling. Where does it feel like the sofa should go?
2. Place your left shoe on first for one week, and then place your right shoe on first for four days. Vary the exercise randomly.
3. Drive to work on different routes, at different times.
4. Every day for 20-30 minutes walk around your house or neighborhood guided only by feeling. Don’t censor where you walk by “should’s” and “shouldn’ts.”
5. Pay attention to your activities. You may discover some comfortable habits may be superficial, serving no purpose. You may also realize how habits in behavior create habits in what you perceive. If you want to perceive more, give yourself more options.
One problem you may encounter is thinking you are altering routines when you are only creating larger ones. To correct this, again use feeling.
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15 comments
add your comment »in reponse to why is it so hard to break bad habits and learn good ones? the "bad" habits are fulfilling some sort of need. However, they also have unwanted "side effects" or consequences. So, maybe to make a new "good" habit stick, we need to find a way to fully realize what we're getting out of it. For example, if I were able to get up earlier, I'd have a less chaotic, stressful day with more productive time to myself before the work day takes over. Or, in the case of exercise, it might help to list all the good feelings that come with it -- I find it helps me sleep better, reduces stress, reduces hunger, and makes me feel like I've accomplished something positive. So, it becomes less about "will power" and more about looking foward to those feelings.
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the things i have been doing don't work and hey are causing suffering. staying ina city tha ti can't afford to live in with no oppotunbity and bad people , and no decent medical care, the illegal invasion spoiled my life, yet made others rich. i deserve better than living in a third world country with all the crime, and meanness. i trusted people and they are not trustworthy, even my own relative are mean to me, including my mother, it's really bestial, i have to live in motels , i became homeless in my own city and the way it was done to me was illegal but there is nobody to enforce any laws anymore . people in los angeles really love seeing others suffer. it's real greaseball stuff
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Why is it so much easier to break habits that are good for us than those that aren't as healthy? I need to get back on track with exercise. Tomorrow I am taking the bus to work so that I have to walk 1/2 mile to my office. One small step for me. Any suggestions from others are appreciated.
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brenda.... 20 years is a long time, but when I have to change my sleeping sched I get myself up early and do things that will wear me out (something active) so I am begging for bed by the end of the day.. do that for a few days straight and you'll get there. good luck, peace be true.
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One "habit" I am having absolutely no success with is changing my sleep schedule. I worked late into the night for probably 20 years, so I am used to being awake until midnight or later, and sleeping until 9 am or later - but now I really need to be up by 6:30 am. If I try just getting up, I am useless for an entire day and cannot be like that at work. any ideas?
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I can relate with the staying away from bad people. Its important to recognize that often decent people have bad habits and if you associate them they rub off. I have a weakness for drug/alcohol use and its tough because I make friends into that sort of thing. Then its easy to get stuck in a rut or you look at those people and think, they are doing ok. However, life has been so much better since going back to sobriety and also I have learned to cope with a chronic GI problem that has forced me to step back and completely dig into my inner world and deal with alot of buried feelings and emotions. I forgot how to even feel them. Keeping in touch with my own feelings helps to recogize when they are coming from somewhere outside as opposed to internal manifestatinos. :o)
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this is a good idea. as for me i have the really bad habit of letting others abuse me verbally and otherwise, it left me in a bad position in life. I thought slavery was abolished. I have to get rid of the habit of believing people are good when they're not and to stay away from bad people; toxic orbits and protect myself, except it might be too late. too much damage has been done. people believe me there is evil in the world, thinking there isn;t is extreme folly
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Good ideas. I'm going to try them! I really believe in doing things in random ways sometimes because we do get stuck and that is not good for progress. We need to look at the world with clearer eyes and these are some easy ways to get an unobstructed view.
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I use EFT as well, and it works fabulously! I highly recommend it.
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try the library "How to break a stubborn habit"
can't rearrange the furniture throw some material ,throws ,blankets, spreads over it it will look different and give you a change.also find the weakest link in a habit .
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