Spiritual Weightlifting

The influence of the Daily Routine, a product of the Force of Habit, on the human experience cannot be overstated. It is a good idea to try to become aware of the extent to which the Force of Habit influences the way in which you act and think throughout the day.

Begin to notice your Daily Routine. To what extent are your thoughts and actions part of this routine? How much of your life is on auto pilot? Are you able to NOT conform to your Daily Routine

You may be surprised by the Effort required to act in a way that is a departure from your Daily Routine. There seems to be some invisible yet inexorable force that wants to keep us locked into our Daily Routines. We cannot see it, touch it, smell it, or taste it, but we can certainly feel it.

The Force of Habit that keeps our Daily Routine locked into place is not inherently a good force or a bad force, except to the extent that our Daily Routine supports our experience of well being. If we have habits of thoughts and action that are at a departure from the experience of well-being, then it will require Effort on our part to think or act in a different way.

The Force of Habit is the primary reason that it is so difficult to make changes in our lives. It takes a great Effort to override a Lifetime Habit and replace it with a new way of thinking or acting, because our Force of Habit will attempt to do its job and pull us back into our Daily Routine.

The more deeply formed the Habit, the greater an effort will be required. This is why major changes in our lives are usually the result of either some crisis or some even that provides us with greater-than-normal motivation, such as the heightened motivation we experience when we fall in love with someone.

Again, the Force of Habit can be useful in that it can keep beneficial thoughts and actions locked into place. If we are in the Habit of eating healthily and exercising, there is certainly no reason to do anything to change these habits, as they are Habits that support our experience of well-being in the form of good health.

However, the more we live on auto-pilot and allow the Force of Habit to keep our lives locked into place, the less we exercise our power to take actions based on our Will and Intention.

In order to temper the Force of Habit and develop our Will Power, it is a good idea to occasionally take actions that are at a clear departure from our Daily Routine. For instance, if we are compulsive about cleaning, this can be regarded as a good habit as it results in keeping our living environment neat and clean. However, sometimes it may be a good idea to Not clean, and just let things go for a day or so, just for the sake of Not Doing it.

Likewise, if we tend to be fidgety or impatient when standing in lines or stuck in traffic, it is a good idea to make a small effort to Not act impatiently, however long and slow the line or traffic, again just for the sake of Not Doing it.

The practice of intentionally Not Doing things we habitually do is a healthy practice. It is a form of spiritual weightlifting, if you will, because it is the exercise of intentionally acting against the resistance of the Force of Habit in much the same way that physical weightlifting is the act of lifting weights up in the air against the force of gravity.

Just as physical weightlifting is beneficial in strengthening our bodily muscles, this form of spiritual weightlifting, in the form of "not doing," is beneficial in strengthening our Will Power.

Of course, action taken against our Force of Habit can also involve "Doing" something we habitually don't do. For instance, if we tend to spend our evenings lying on the couch watching TV, occasionally it is a good idea to "Do" something different, such as turn off the TV and read a book instead, or take a walk around the block. If we habitually eat ice cream after dinner, it is a good idea to occasionally eat an apple instead, just for the sake of changing up our games and doing something different.

The more we are able to take even small actions that are at a departure from our Daily Routines, the less governed we will be by the Force of Habit. Even small actions of departure, even small "not-doings" can strongly exercise our Will Power, so that we have the Personal Power to make any change we desire and need in life, without being a prisoner of the Force of Habit.

In summary, the Force of Habit is an inescapable force in our lives. Even though we cannot see it, we can definitely feel its influence. This force is inherently neither good or bad, but it does exist and it does influence our lives.

Optimally, we want to use the Force of Habit to keep beneficial patterns of thought and action in place, while not totally conforming to it, so that we can maintain the ability to change any aspect of our lives when needed.

The best way to develop and maintain this ability is to practice "spiritual weightlifting" in the form of intentionally "not-doing" a habitual action. When we practice "not-doing," we feel the resistance of the Force of Habit, just like we feel the resistance of weight when practicing physical weightlifting. But like physical weightlifting, we also feel the "pump," a sensation of new found strength and exhilaration, when we successfully "Not Do" against the Force of Habit.

And just as the exercise of weightlifting provides our physical muscles with more strength than before we exercised, so too does the exercise of Not Doing against the Force of Habit provide our spiritual muscles, in the form of our Will Power, with more strength than if we had not performed the exercise.

Just as we don't necessarily need to do physical weightlifting in the practical sense, many of us do it anyway because we recognize that making the Effort ultimately provides us with greater physical strength. Likewise, even though we may not practically need to practice spiritual weightlifting in the form of Not Doing, once we try it, we recognize that the practice provides us with greater spiritual strength, in the form of the Personal Power we require to make positive changes in our lives.

The Force of Habit

There is an unseen force that significantly influences the way in which we experience our lives. This force is the Force of Habit. 

Living organisms are, in general, creatures of habit, and human beings are no exception. 

Our habits are learned behaviors, and most of our habits are developed in our younger years. As we age, these habits become ever more deeply ingrained, and as time goes by it becomes increasingly more difficult to veer from our established routine of habits. 

Our habits encompass the way we eat, the way we talk, the clothes we wear, our level of physical activity, the amount of money we earn and the level of affluence we enjoy, and perhaps most importantly, the way we think. 

Our most deeply ingrained habits are called Lifetime Habits, because they truly are habits of a lifetime that keep our routines of thought and action locked into place throughout the duration of our lives. 

Once our habits are established, we actually don't need to exert any effort to keep them in motion. For instance, even the habit of exercise does not require an effort in the true sense. If we are in the habit of exercising, although exercise by nature requires physical exertion to perform, it is something that we will naturally be inclined to do.

Effort here refers to an exertion of will to act in a way that is contrary to an established habit. Because the force of habit is so strong, it takes a very strong effort and act of will to overcome it. The effort required is akin to the effort needed to swim continuously upstream against a powerful river current. 

Habits are neutral. That is, they are only good or bad insofar as they either enhance the quality of our lives or detract from the quality of our lives. It is possible that a habit that formerly enhanced our lives may exhaust its usefulness and become a habit that would best be eliminated. 

For example, practicing a particular career is one such habit. We establish the habit of doing the work we do. If we continue to enjoy our work and prosper from it, it remains a beneficial habit. But there may be cases where our work which formerly brought us satisfaction no longer does. Or perhaps due to the changing of times, work that we established the habit of performing 10 or 20 years ago is no longer relevant in today's world. 

In such a case, we may find that we need to establish new habits to replace our old ones. It is important to note that in order to eliminate an old habit, it must be replaced by a new habit. All habits can be parred down to two basic forms: the habit of doing (action) and the habit of not doing (inaction). 

Regardless of the specific habit in question, any habit is either a habit of something that we do, or something that we do not do. For example, we may realize that we need to establish the habit of exercising. Currently, we are in the habit of not (doing) exercising. In other words, we are in the habit of inaction as it relates to exercise. In order to establish the habit of exercising, we need to overcome the inertia of inaction and replace it with the habit of action. 

In contrast, we may be in the habit of smoking and realize that we need to quit. We need to replace the habit of (doing) smoking with the habit of (not doing) smoking. In other words, we need to exercise our will and acutually make an effort to not do this action. That is, we need to establish the habit of inaction as it relates to smoking.  

Whether we are working on establishing a habit of action (doing) or a habit of inaction (not doing), the creation of any new habit requires an initial exertion of Effort with the focused intention of performing (or not performing) the new behavior.

When we first attempt to establish a new habit, we invariably encounter resistance. This is simply a function of the Force of Habit attempting to do its job properly. However, if we truly want to establish a new habit, then we needto act, or refrain from acting, even in spite of such resistance, and persist in doing so until our desired new habit has been established. 

By remaining intent on establishing our new action and sustaining our effort in the face of the Resistance, eventually the Resistance will give way and the Force of Habit will take over the new behavior we have established, so that this behavior becomes our new, more desirable habit. 

How long it takes to create a new habit and replace it with an old one depends on a number of factors. The first factor is the extent to which the habit is ingrained. Lifetime Habits are the most deeply ingrained, and therefore the most difficult to replace. 

The second factor is the level of motivation, or intent, to establish a new habit in place of a new one. For example, if you have smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for 20 years, your habit of smoking will be very deeply ingrained. It is a Lifetime Habit that under ordinary circumstances may be difficult to break. Maybe you've tried to quit smoking many times and were unable to. 

However, if you go to the doctor and are told that if you don't quit you're going to die within the next six months and will never see your friends and family again, this may be sufficient motivation to immediately quit smoking, regardless of how much Resistance you encounter. 

Once again, habits are not good or bad, except to the extent that they either support or detract from the quality of one's life experience. The important thing to realize is that the Force of Habit exists as a force that strongly affects the way in which we experience our lives. 

Recognizing the existence of the Force of Habit can help us understand the source of Resistance we inevitably encounter when we attempt to change well-established behaviors in our lives. At the same time, it is important to know that the Force of Habit can equally work for us when we use it to replace non-useful, life-detracting patterns of behavior with more effective, life-enhancing behaviors.