Article for sharing - HABIT [Part 3]

Overcoming wrong Habits

Who hasn't been a slave to bad habits? Who hasn't carelessly allowed bad habits to take deeper and deeper root in his or her mind and emotions?

Improving your life--physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually--is largely a matter of changing or overcoming bad habits. It is a matter of developing new, better and more dominating habit patterns of thinking, acting and feeling.

There are absolutely fundamental requirements and essential steps that must be applied to replace a bad habit with a good one. Many lose sight of such essential steps because of heavy demands on their minds or time or because of discouragement from past failures to overcome some nagging habit or vice.

The first law of changing any wrong habit is:

1. ADMIT WHAT YOU ARE DOING, OR THINKING OR FEELING IS WRONG AND HARMFUL. It is impossible to change without taking this step. So many fail because they never, deep down in their minds, squarely determine or admit what they are doing or thinking is wrong. They will not admit to themselves that they eat too much, or drink too much or are addicted in a damaging way to some practice or thinking. They justify their present ways and refuse to see any damage they are causing to themselves or others--until serious consequences strike them.

You--not someone else--must be convinced you should change! You must want to change a bad habit!

After this critical step is taken, other essential steps are required. You must then:

2. POWERFULLY RESOLVE TO CHANGE AND QUIT THE WRONG HABIT IMMEDIATELY. Don't put off a decision. You cannot expect success with a halfhearted or weak effort. You must be strongly motivated to change. Grasp the consequences or potential consequences if you don't change.

3. DEVELOP A CHANGE-OF-BEHAVIOR PLAN. This means:
Understand the influences or situations that spark old habit patterns and avoid them whenever possible.

Develop right and positive habits or thought patterns to replace the old damaging patterns. Repeat right patterns as often as you can. These soon replace the wrong pattern of acting or feeling. You can do this if the new pattern has some great value or reward, or if failure to do so means an unwanted result.

Don't try to taper off from a bad habit. (Only a few situations might dictate differently. For instance, some physically addicting drugs could cause serious bodily harm or even death if suddenly quit. Some serious problems need the assistance and guidance of properly qualified and knowledgeable persons.) Occasionally, giving in increases rather than decreases the persistence of an old habit. Recognize and control self-defeating thought or reasoning patterns. Such thinking may be, "It'll be OK, just this once!" or, "He does it, why can't I?" or, "Why deprive myself when there are so few pleasures in life?" Resolve not to start a pattern of giving way to pressures from friends or others. This is one of the toughest challenges in habit breaking. Keep your eyes on your goal.

Don't give in to your old habit--even once. You'll refire the old habit and get hooked again. Permissive thoughts and actions do count; it is like rewelding and energizing the old cables of habit. Yet if you do slip, don't get discouraged. It is difficult to break habits, to give up entrenched sins. Most people slip from time to time in the process of struggling against a bad habit. Get started again. Failure is certain only if you give up.

4. SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP IF NECESSARY TO OVERCOME PHYSICAL HABITS. It is not possible for this article to properly cover all the various kinds of damaging habits humans can fall prey to, and to cover the special considerations that may be necessary to deal with them. Sound health and financial, ministerial or other help may be needed. Various pamphlets or books dealing with specific kinds of physical problems are available and helpful.

Article for sharing - HABIT! [Part 2]

Unique in Habits

Our individual habit patterns show up not only in how we pronounce words, but in our general attitudes and demeanor in life. It shows up in how we cope with anxiety.

Some, as a result of learned habit, develop a perpetual frown, others exhibit a quick temper, others fearfulness, hostility or suspicion. Others are habitually more open, loving, friendly and exude confidence.

We develop differing, even unique, habits in our hand, body and posture movements. Different dietary and appetite habits are acquired. We develop differing feeling habits--what makes us feel good or bad, what produces fear and apprehension and how and to whom we respond sexually.

All of these are learned. We do not inherit these specific traits.

Even repeated successes or failures in life are often a matter of habit; they result from a repeated way of responding to problems and challenges in life.

Negative Side

Habits free us to learn new things. They also make it difficult for us to change established ways of doing things, or thinking or feeling. Habits lock us into certain response patterns, so we tend to resist any change in our accustomed routine, even if it is in our best interests to do so.

Too often humans are slaves to bad habits. It takes strong character to break bad habits!

Animals could never survive for long in nature if they developed many of the bad habits humans do. We may smoke, abuse alcohol, misuse sex, pop pills, overeat, under-exercise or develop emotionally destructive feelings and remain alive, though we are still slowly killing ourselves as individuals. By these bad habits we are limiting or crippling our human potential and development.

Bad habits reinforced by chemically addicting substances--nicotine and certain drugs for instance--are very hard to shake. But habits damaging human emotions and attitudes can also be very difficult, at times even more difficult, to change.

Tragically, whole nations can get locked into wrong habits of eating, acting, thinking and feeling.

"The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half"

~ Feodor dostoevski ~

.....to be continued

Article for sharing - HABIT! [Part 1]

This simple five letter word "HABIT" have impacted each one's daily life, be it through our actions, behaviours, spoken words, our likes and dislikes. Habits can be either good or bad. Through our growing years we are always being taught to adopt good habits in life! Those who have bad habits in their life will normally have trouble of getting rid of them, says the phrase "bad habits die hard!"

Let me share with you all an interesting article related to HABIT in order to have a better understanding of it.

We're Creatures of Habit. WHY?

by Donald D. Schroeder

Without habits we could not function--perhaps even survive. That's the good side of habits. Habits allow us to perform an astronomical number of actions without significant conscious thought, effort, or undue attention--like tying our shoes, buttoning a shirt, riding a bike, walking, running, typing, remembering a telephone number, even responding to danger.

What a Habit is

A habit is a learned pattern of acting or thinking or feeling. It is not a pattern we are born with, as many lower creature responses are. Don't confuse these learned patterns with inborn or "wired-in" involuntary responses such as digesting, breathing, sweating or shivering at cold. Developing habits, particularly if they are good habits, allows us to conserve higher mental processes for more demanding tasks and challenges. By contrast, wrong habits waste human energy and limit human growth and development.

A habit starts to form when we respond to something--physically, mentally or emotionally--several times. How many responses are required to start a habit may vary from person to person or with different kinds of stimuli.

But as we respond, a pattern starts to occur, neural circuits and pathways in the marvelous human brain and nervous system are formed. Precisely what happens in the human mind and body is even now beyond the mind of man to fully understand.

Learning patterns, at first, go into the brain's short-term memory system. As they become more establised they move over into the brain's long-term storage center. This much is perceived by those scientists who have studied the subject of habits.

Then the brain activity at which humans excel--memory--goes to work so that a specific message or stimulus triggers an automatic response, thought or feeling. We call a lesson that the brain's cells have learned well enough to accomplish automatically, without thought, a habit.

Good habits and bad habits are formed essentially the same way. Therefore it is critically important for parents to see that children establish good habits particularly in early years of life. Habits are difficult to unlearn. The brain apparently never totally "forgets" bad habits, although they may drop out of dominance in one's life through lack of use, or if replaced by another, it is hoped, better habit.

What we call human personality, in its broadest sense, is to a large extent a composition of thousands of individual and specific habit traits. Humans are compounds of various habits. Thoughts a human thinks are not habitual, of course, but patterns of thought very much tend to become habitual. Some people develop sound thought patterns; others are habitually scatterbrained.

The capacity to form habits is possible with most higher living things. But the way the marvelous human mind was created with the spirit in man, humans, more than any other creatures and more than we care to admit, are creatures of habits--habits of thinking, habits of acting, habits of feeling.

"The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken"

~ Samuel Johnson ~

.......to be contined

Article for Sharing '8 bad-day Busters'

For those who are working, I believe that our workplace is considered our second home! Each day and for five to five and a half days a week we are there, spending a minimum of 8 hours a day, or maybe more for some. Having to work with people of different backgrounds, characters, habits, behaviors and attitudes, it is never easy!

Recently, I've come across an article by Joy Entry on '8 bad-day Busters' and would very much like to share hoping that it will be of much help to many working people out there.......

8 bad-day Busters

Bad days at the workplace happen to the best of us. Well, you can do something about it, says Joy Entry.

1. Tell someone

Putting on a happy mask can be excruciating. Try confiding in a close colleague. Or make a phone call and whinge to your best pal. Sometimes getting it off your chest helps. Psychologists at Frankfurt University say: don't suppress your emotions. Every time a person is forced to repress her true feelings, there are negative consequences to her health. Studies show that stress can be manifested physically, such as in sweaty palms, which are such a no-no.

2. Remember the good stuff

Sometimes recollecting the good things can help cheer you up. Spend a few moments thinking about at least one or two such things, like a compliment from the boss or an assignment you completed before deadline. Or chew on basil. According to altnature.com, the herb is relaxing and can help you to recollect well.

3. Take five

It may be a good idea to get some quiet time. Instead of lunch with the pals, opt for a walk outdoors or some alone time. Take a long bathroom break if it's the only way you can get time to yourself. When you've decided what you want to do, begin with long, deep yoga breathing. It will help you relax. Constant body tension causes shallow breathing and does not allow oxygen to reach your organs, resulting in hypertension.

4. Retail therapy

Do whatever it takes to help you glide over bumps for the rest of the day. If shopping for something nice and new for yourself will help, then get down to it! Just be careful not to burn plastic and add on to your woes. While you're at it, add a pack of Wrigleys to the must have list. Research now points to chewing gum being a tension releaser. Gnaw at it, girl!

5. Get physical

Head to the gym in the office building. Exercising releases adrenaline and lowers cortisol, the stress hormone. If you don't have one in close proximity, improvise. Try jumping up and down in the bathroom or do the sun salutation in the pantry. Working out might just do the trick, bring on the endorphins and de-stress you; a natural way to a better mood.

6. Find a great song

Music is soul food. Play a collection of songs that just makes you want to smile or sing along, even off-key! Let it take your mind off your present, miserable state. And while the common genres to relax are biased to the likes of Beethovan and Andrea Bochelli, if Nirvana or JLo does it for you, then go for it!

7. Kick it

Experts will tell you a herbal tea-cum-foot soak combination will sort you out in a jiffy. It's crucial to find ways to slow down and de-stress. Try marshmallows to remedy your tired feet and soul. Just chuck a handful in a tub of warm water, grab your cuppa rosehip and wind down.

8. Let it Flow!

Crying works for most people. In science, tears are bodily excretions, just like sweat, mucous and urine. One major stress hormone released from the body via tears is prolactin, which explains why you feel calm after crying. Just powder your nose before coming back in!