Pathwalking 278
Breaking the routine is hard.
When you have set up habitual ways of doing things, it is tremendously difficult to change them.
We don’t recognize all of our habitual behaviors as habits. When we think of habits, we think of things like smoking and drinking and chewing off our fingernails and so on. But any routine we do on a regular basis is a habit.
Oftentimes, when we get stuck on the path we are trying to traverse, or having issues with conscious reality creation, we need to identify and change bad habits.
The thing is, “bad” is a relatively subjective term. Many of the habits we deem as bad are extremes. Many of our other habits that are bad are simply unhealthy, unproductive, often poor behaviors that sabotage our progress or hold us hostage in some way.
I have been working on changing my morning routine. I want to get to the gym. I have started to get up earlier, and set the coffee maker on a timer every night. I have been working to shift away from my old routine of get up, make coffee, go online, putter about for an hour or two, then go to work.
Breaking from routine is challenging. There is often comfort in routine. Like an old bathrobe you luxuriate in, routine is soft and familiar and safe.
Many of the self-help themed books I have read and listened to describe how, to make changes and get where you want to be in life, you have to get uncomfortable. You need to do things that are not the norm, that break your routines and patterns and create new behaviors and habits.
I need to step berating myself and using poor self-talk when I do not reach the goal I am setting. I need to let every day stand all on its own, because then the next day has the potential it needs to be different, and to represent the changes I need and want to make.
Pathwalking is about choice. I have chosen a path I want to take. However, more than just choice, I also have to look at what I do from day to day along the way. If, as I frequently have written, the journey is as important, if not more important, than the destination…then every action while on the journey should not be ignored, and needs to be considered.
Pathwalking is not easy. There are days I face my choices and become flustered, uncertain, even displeased and distressed. Why am I doing this? How come this is taking so long? Why doesn’t this seem to be working? Will I ever run out of questions?
Life is all about learning. I am learning new things every single day. There is always something new to learn, something more to understand and to discover. Quite probably the best way to learn is to ask questions. Questions bring us awareness, and awareness is key to conscious reality creation.
As I write this, I am perfectly aware that I am feeling frustrated. I am not where I want to be, and I cannot see how or when this situation might change. I am feeling blah, feeling defeated, tired, distressed and unhappy. I am questioning many things about my existence, and I am not seeing answers.
Yet I know that I need to persist, to break through this moment. I can choose to let this negative feeling linger, or I can seek out a means by which to overcome it. I can wallow in self-pity and annoyance over not making the change to my habits I want, or I can move past it, and I can shift my focus to positive things.
I am affected by weather. Grey skies tend to bring down my mood. I am affected by politics. I cannot even begin to describe the largely negative emotions I feel over the current situation in the USA and elsewhere. I am, like everyone else, affected by the world around me.
Like working to change my habits, I get to choose whether to allow these outside influences to dominate my thoughts and feelings…or to acknowledge them, find a healthy means to release them, and then move on. Maybe I need to type out a long and angry rant about things…maybe I need to find a punching bag to beat. Maybe I need to scream and shout and push out the negative feelings.
If I am not succeeding at making change, I need to acknowledge that, then work on letting it go. Once I release it, and only after I release it, I can work to build something better.
Breaking the routine is hard. Life is generally made up of many different routines, so imbedded in our days that we seldom even see them. Getting free of them is tricky, because first you have to see them for the ineffectual habits that they are. Then, you can’t hold onto the ways they make you feel bad if you want to change them. You have to find a way to release, to let them go…and then you can move forward.
We all have good days and bad days. The challenge is allowing negativity to linger and continue to bring us down…or to find release, and seek out better. Breaking the routine is a challenge, but I believe the end result, even if I cannot currently see it, will be totally worthwhile.
What routines do you need and want to break in your life?
This is the two-hundred seventy-eighth entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas and my personal experiences in walking along the path of life. I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-blog and share.
The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here.
If you enjoy Pathwalking, you may also want to read my Five Easy Steps to Change the World for the Better.
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