Since the 1st of October, as you know, “habits” have been on my mind. In particular, I am thinking about what it would do for me to go back to my habit of writing regularly. This post is a perfect example of why I want it back. I started writing today’s post several times and each time erased it. Until I had erased several false starts, I had no idea that what I really wanted to write about tonight was the “habitual” (those things we do every day without even thinking about them... on “automatic pilot”). I adore that excitement of discovery! When words start appearing that you didn’t know you were thinking before they appeared on the page!
Earlier today I listened to an interview with Mark Williams, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology at Oxford on the topic of mindfulness. As this was the first lecture in a month-long, online “Mindfulness Summit” (I shared the link on my Facebook page a few days ago), he was talking about the basics of mindfulness—where and how one can start to be more mindful through the day. Given my current musings about habits and how to build them, his idea of “habit releasers” grabbed my attention. A “habit releaser” is something we can do that “turns off” our automatic pilot—interrupts a habit we may not even realize we have. His idea is that we can make small, deliberate changes to daily habits with full awareness of our action in order to live more “mindfully”… in order to be more fully conscious of the present moment, and the choices we make throughout the day… or don’t make.
For example, who chooses which hand they use to brush their teeth? For most people, this is a pretty automatic routine. So what if one day you decide to use the other hand to brush your teeth? A “habit releaser” converts a habitual task into a conscious experience. Some other examples he gave were already familiar to me: If you find yourself walking along, lost in thought, looking at the ground. Stop! Look up at the sky or the trees… really look at them… take a few slow, deep breaths—pause and be fully present in and aware of your surroundings. Or what about deciding on the spur of the moment to go to the movies without checking first to see what is playing… just showing up and picking a movie that is about to start. Or deliberately turning off the TV when a program you chose to watch ends. Even if you turn it back on 30 minutes later to watch another program you decided to see. Here is part of his text:
Okay, so habit releasers are addressing one of the issues that much of our automaticity, our automatic pilot is shown in the fact that we do the same thing day in and day out in the same way. You know, we brush our teeth with the same hand and we put the other hand in the same place, wherever that is. I mean I don’t know if you know exactly what happens to your left hand when you’re brushing your teeth with your right. It’s amazing to know. But so it takes a very simple situation to say, But what if I deliberately just for a day or two do it differently. So for example sitting in a different chair at the table at home or in your lounge or sitting room or drawing room, or on the bus or on the cab you always sit on the left hand side or the right hand side, at the back or the front. Maybe just do something different. See what you notice about doing things different. So they can be as small as that.
If you are interested in knowing more about mindfulness, or listening to Professor Williams’ interview, you can find it here until the end of October: http://themindfulnesssummit.com/sessions/mark-williams/
I think I will go brush my teeth with my left hand and see what happens.
Going back to the question of building habits, here’s a next step:
See you tomorrow!
kate
Earlier today I listened to an interview with Mark Williams, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology at Oxford on the topic of mindfulness. As this was the first lecture in a month-long, online “Mindfulness Summit” (I shared the link on my Facebook page a few days ago), he was talking about the basics of mindfulness—where and how one can start to be more mindful through the day. Given my current musings about habits and how to build them, his idea of “habit releasers” grabbed my attention. A “habit releaser” is something we can do that “turns off” our automatic pilot—interrupts a habit we may not even realize we have. His idea is that we can make small, deliberate changes to daily habits with full awareness of our action in order to live more “mindfully”… in order to be more fully conscious of the present moment, and the choices we make throughout the day… or don’t make.
For example, who chooses which hand they use to brush their teeth? For most people, this is a pretty automatic routine. So what if one day you decide to use the other hand to brush your teeth? A “habit releaser” converts a habitual task into a conscious experience. Some other examples he gave were already familiar to me: If you find yourself walking along, lost in thought, looking at the ground. Stop! Look up at the sky or the trees… really look at them… take a few slow, deep breaths—pause and be fully present in and aware of your surroundings. Or what about deciding on the spur of the moment to go to the movies without checking first to see what is playing… just showing up and picking a movie that is about to start. Or deliberately turning off the TV when a program you chose to watch ends. Even if you turn it back on 30 minutes later to watch another program you decided to see. Here is part of his text:
Okay, so habit releasers are addressing one of the issues that much of our automaticity, our automatic pilot is shown in the fact that we do the same thing day in and day out in the same way. You know, we brush our teeth with the same hand and we put the other hand in the same place, wherever that is. I mean I don’t know if you know exactly what happens to your left hand when you’re brushing your teeth with your right. It’s amazing to know. But so it takes a very simple situation to say, But what if I deliberately just for a day or two do it differently. So for example sitting in a different chair at the table at home or in your lounge or sitting room or drawing room, or on the bus or on the cab you always sit on the left hand side or the right hand side, at the back or the front. Maybe just do something different. See what you notice about doing things different. So they can be as small as that.
If you are interested in knowing more about mindfulness, or listening to Professor Williams’ interview, you can find it here until the end of October: http://themindfulnesssummit.com/sessions/mark-williams/
I think I will go brush my teeth with my left hand and see what happens.
Going back to the question of building habits, here’s a next step:
- IMAGINE yourself fully into your new habit. How is life different?
See you tomorrow!
kate