Her long hair sort of reminds me of a bad habit. Not that anything is wrong with her hair. It is just that she stopped cutting it when she was 5 years old, and now she is almost 35. It has grown to great lengths. I saw this in some feed, somewhere, calling her the “real life Rapunzel.” The only thing I could think of was, “What a dang pain that must be in the shower.” Of course this, coming from me, who likes to keep my hair closely cropped to my head, so that I can keep track of everyone up there.
But, like a bad habit, think how “freeing” it would be for her to lose that hair. Not only washing it daily, but swimming, running, working on the fan belt on the engine of a car, standing near a windmill, scrubbing toilets. Oh, the list goes on. I bet she drags that hair through a little bit of everything.
Back to the bad habit. I remember when I quit smoking in 2001. Once I was finally “clear” of its hold, everything felt so free. I didn’t have to worry about constantly having a pack with me (and a working lighter). In 2001, we mostly had to go outside to smoke, which became a real deterrent. I could breathe and smell again. Yes, dropping that habit gave me new found freedoms. I don’t miss that one too often.
Getting away from addiction is an extremely big topic. I’ve been able to break two major addictions in my life, and I am the happier for it now. I’m still alive, which probably qualifies as the biggest payoff.
I just had this discussion with some friends the other night. They were talking about personal struggles with weight, and food addictions. But that is a whole other category, as we need food to survive. We have to eat. And balancing that fact, with trying to lose weight, can be an impossible hill for some people to climb. A new statistic suggests that by 2030, 50% of Americans will be obese. (American Journal of Preventative Medicine https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(12)00146-8/fulltext )
I also read about the best diets for our times. U.S. News and World Report printed the findings of this one. A panel of 25 physicians, and nutritionists, did the judging. The Mediterranean Diet got the top honors. Sorry for you KETO people. It was down at the bottom of the list, once again. The report continued: “Following closely behind the Mediterranean diet were the respected DASH, Flexitarian, WW (the rebranded name popularly known as Weight Watchers) and MIND diets. Their high rankings are a trend in the report’s results each year.” ( https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/02/health/best-diet-worst-diet-2020-wellness/index.html )
I got segued with the whole food thing, when I meant to be writing about habits. There are definitely bad habits, and we also have good habits. But is there such a thing as just “stand alone” habits, neither good or bad? My life is pretty habitual. I am a schedule person, and I thrive on routine. It is how I stay productive. But I realize it is not for everyone. I think I could have been a military person, except for I don’t like being yelled at, and I get my feelings hurt easily. But repetition suits me. My OCD makes it so. I’m always amazed at those folks who can just go and do at the drop of a hat. How freeing that must be.
And I keep getting away from the topic of habits. Which, might be telling me something. So, I’ll define it, and go. According to the dictionary, a habit is “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.”
I have to disagree with the “especially one that is hard to give up.” For instance, I used to have the habit of running 6 miles a day. I can tell you, this was very easy to give up. And, we all have the habit of brushing our teeth. But what if the health organizations decided it was pointless. I wonder how many people would continue that habit?
All of this has given me much to consider, as every person on the earth most likely has a habit.
Which, on a personal level, must be very confusing for nuns, who must wear them on both the outside and the inside.
Like the nun who said prayers every night while in the shower. She did so out of habit.
Or the other nun who refused to do laundry. She had a filthy habit.
Sorry for the puns. They, too, are a force of habit.
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“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”
― Samuel Johnson
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“We become what we repeatedly do.”
― Sean Covey,
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“It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once made the remark) that whatever you say to them, they always purr.”
― Lewis Carroll
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