Habit trouble

Friday 18th June 2010
Habits are like friends - we rely on them, we’re familiar with them but they can be trouble. Try changing a habit and a little voice says “oh no you don’t”. If we try changing a habit there’s almost a suggestion that we’re tinkering with our own internal balance. We’ve become so identified with our habits that we hardly notice that they, under cover of our ‘personality’, control our behaviour. Fiddle with a habit and you reveal a dangerous intention TO CHANGE … and “change” always means trouble.
There are two types of trouble: the noticeable trouble that springs up immediately when we intend to change and the sort of trouble that come later, when the changes are set in and they start affecting everything about us. “Trouble” is something we try to avoid, and yet what are vegans doing? They give up heaps of favourite foods (troubling at first) and then set out to confront people and persuade them to change - if you want trouble, there’s no better way to bring it on! But by causing trouble and then making change (for ourselves at least) it’s a freeing process and eventually becomes an attractive process, especially when habits become more fluid.