I have this habit that starts me out the same way every day – it is stubborn in its consistency. I always have big plans when I wake up but they are quickly hijacked by my need to read and check my computer – you know the usual suspects, email, site stats, facebook, twitter, linkedin. I have figured out this is a habit energy.
Habit energy used to sap me from being a good mother too. I remember fighting the habit energy of yelling at my kids when each morning, before it was in full swing, I would promise that TODAY I would be calm and would be patient and would be gentle. But then all hell would break loose and all my good intentions would fly out the window.The habit energy of needing perfect children reared its ugly head and I’d be off to the races again with crazy behaviors that even I didn’t understand.
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist who now lives in France says we must be patient with our habit energies. We must honor them, listen to them, and even love them. They have served us for many years and we should not try to be rid of them. We must listen and even speak to them. Tell them we hear them, they are our children and to disrespect that part of our selves that kept us safe as children, that were our allies and taught us many good things, will not help us move beyond them. In fact it will hinder our progress. No, we must listen carefully to these habit energies. They have much to teach.
Today my habit energy taught me to give time to the eager part of me that wants everything perfect (in the past and the future); to hear its wants, honor its voice, and then quietly put it to bed and move toward my new desire for growth, expansion, and success. So I allowed some time for the habit energy of zoning into avoidance of all new things by hunkering back to old news (internet, facebook, site stats, linkedin, twitter) – all old news, things that happened in the past; then I moved on. I listened to it and then patted its head lightly and moved to my present desire and structure for a new plan, program, and partnership.
It is exciting and scary and that is why the persistent habit energy of diving head first into the black hole of the computer is so seductive.
So when my habit energy tries to pull me away from the present this morning, I can gently listen and give it my patient ear; and once I truly acknowledge its voice and needs, I am then free to begin the new habit energy I am forming…today.
I invite you to try it too. Watch how you continue with a persistent activity that, at some point, you decided was not in your best interest any longer. Once you’ve found one, watch it for a while and listen to its voice. What is it asking for, wanting you to do? Is it a long standing habit energy? When did it help you, serve you, or save you in the past? Honor it, love it even. It is not your enemy. It has so much to teach you if you will only listen. Don’t banish it, instead befriend it, it will always be a part of you. Let it show you the way. It will show you the way.
Don’t get it? Write to me, we’ll talk.
shakeupyourlife 