It Took Years to form a Habit.. Don’t expect it to be gone in just few days.

“We are mere bundles of habits. We are stereotyped creatures, Imitators, and copiers of our past selves.”
William James
Habits can be both physical and mental. Habits are powerful.
The habits, that we’ve formed by years and years of repetition are the ones that control us.
They decide our behaviors, our actions, our reactions. They determine the way we handle a certain situation.
At times we are oblivious of this fact but our habits actually become us.
I have two beautiful kids and just like every parent out there I am striving to teach them some good habits which will hopefully stay with them for a lifetime. Habits that would help them succeed, make them a good human being, give them mental peace.
But to be honest..I have some bad habits of my own that I wanna break.
We all have something that we are trying to work on.. Right?
For example I have a habit of emotional eating. Now I know it’s not good for me, it’s not healthy, but it’s a habit.
I have to fight it and try to break it.
But the thing that I’ve realized that‘bad habits’ don’t just go away with sheer willpower.
We can’t discontinue them just like that.
Because this ‘bad habit’ of ours which we assume we have successfully broken is still there within us. Sitting quietly, lingering inside of us waiting to come out without warning ,once again to dominate our life.
All it takes is one triggering point and BAAAM.. the habit is back!
Just think about it. How can a habit which we’ve formed by years and years and years of unconscious repeated behaviors and action can possibly just go away with only a few days of willpower???
In my case willpower kept me going for some days.
But one day in my weakest moment this habit of mine was back.. To control me, to overpower me.
However, I believe there is still hope.
In order to fight this habit I first needed to understand when was this habit actually formed.
It’s an interesting insight that the ‘habit’ that is bothering me now , has taken birth so many years ago.
If it took years to build this habits then it will take years to break it. I don’t have to focus on breaking this habit of mine. I need to focus on the triggering point and form a new good habit.
But yes.. To do that as well..It’ll take years.
We can’t totally erase a bad habit but we can definitely replace it with an equally powerful good habit.
Only then can we break the chain of repetitive physical and mental habits.
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