Our Daily Habits

Dear Partners in Green,

Each day it gets more frustrating. What is wrong with us? We know that this dear planet is in jeopardy, that future life here is not a guarantee. Imagine one day some lone survivors looking back on us, their ancestors, and saying “What were they thinking?”   

Maybe the problem is that we are not thinking. Maybe the problem is that we are creatures of habit. William James, American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, wrote,

“All our life, so far as it has definite form, is a mass of habits.”

Scientists say that habits are encoded in the structures of our brain and save us a lot of effort because we don’t have to relearn everything we do.  They free us to focus on other tasks.

But if a bad habit is created, you need to change it, interrupt it and install a new one, otherwise, the pattern will continue to unfold.

But fortunately, habits are not destiny. They can be ignored, changed, and replaced. I bring this to your attention for your consideration. Look at your day, your routine with your habits in mind. What are you doing mindfully, and what is just a habit, a mode of behavior that is nearly always involuntary. The term “force of habit” describes the power of a habit.

It is time, past time, for us to be mindful of our destructive habits, to push back, and finally replace them with life-sustaining ones. Judson Brewer, a psychiatrist and addiction expert, believes we can overcome bad habits by being more curious about them. Let’s become curious.

Why do we do what we do? What are with thinking, or why are we not thinking?

It is time for us to be fully present in our lives, awake and mindful for the sake of all life.

I have read that it can take only three weeks for us to form good habits. Let’s get to work!

Listed below are 15 daily habits of human beings that are slowly killing the environment.
(From: conserve-energy-future.com)

1. Excessive driving
2. Improper disposal of batteries and ink cartridges
3. Excessive use of plastic
4. Throwing food away as though it were waste
5. Using paper
6. Heating water using an electric water boiler
7. Washing one’s face with products containing microbeads
8. Eating meat
9. Flushing the toilet after each use
10. Brushing your teeth as the water runs, (and meditating in the shower)
11. Spending time in front of the screen (TV, phone, computer)
12. Habitual spending
13. Not recycling
14. Keeping electronic gadgets on when not in use
15. Online shopping

I’m sure that you would have no problem adding to that list.

Feel free to share in the Comment section.

I was surprised to come across this poem.

www.newbirth.org  (no author given)

                 The Habit Poem

I am your constant companion.

I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden.
I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
I am completely at your command.

Half of the things you do you might as well turn
over to me and I will do them – quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed – you must be firm with me.
Show me exactly how you want something done
and after a few lessons, I will do it automatically.

I am the servant of great people,
and alas, of all failures as well.
Those who are great, I have made great.
Those who are failures, I have made failures.

I am not a machine though
I work with the precision of a machine
plus the intelligence of a person.

You may run me for profit or run me for ruin –
it makes no difference to me.

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and
I will place the world at your feet.

Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

Who am I? I am Habit.

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And now for a reminder of the urgency. Listen to the children.

Wishing peace and health to you and your loved ones.

Thank you for being on this journey.

Till next time,
Beth