Photo by: Brooke Larke
My New Years was super relaxed this year.
My husband and I went to our favourite vegan restaurant which had 40% off (#winning), watched a livestream webcast of Sadhguru (one of our favourite Yogi’s), and meditated through Midnight. I will admit that living smack in the middle of Toronto made meditating through midnight a bit challenging. As midnight drew near, we could hear the roar of what seemed like a hundred drunk frat boys, and couldn’t help but chuckle as we heard everyone around us in our building count down to 2017. It was funny, and in the spirit of being in the moment, I smiled and it was completely perfect.
Now I want to confess something – I am an intention, goal setting junkie. It’s a bit of a problem. On boxing day I went to indigo and bought this pretty new journal, and couldn’t wait for the new year to come so I could write my intentions and goals in it. I was pumped about writing them all down so I could begin creating and cultivating new positive habits for myself and my life in 2017.
So my husband and I turn on the livestream and Sadhguru is sharing his deep, yogic wisdom. Then he began to share what would come to shape my new years intentions:
He said, “There are no such thing as ‘good’ habits, and ‘bad’ habits, ALL habits are bad!”
I was like, say WHAAAAAT?! Here I am all pumped up about making these new habits, and this guy is telling me that habits aren’t good? But the more I listened, the more I understood what he was saying.
Yoga, is the practice of awareness. Through yoga we practice being aware of our body, our breath, our mind – and in a perfect world that awareness transcends our mat and we take it into the rest of our lives. In a perfect world, we are always aware, or conscious of our thoughts, speech, actions, etc.
Sadhguru says that when we cultivate a habit, we are actually just teaching ourselves to do things automatically, and therefore we aren’t necessarily acting with our awareness. Makes a lot of sense right?
Habit then, essentially robs us of our ability to be aware to the fullest extent.
Now before you stop showering, brushing your teeth, and going to the gym I want to clarify a few things:
Automatic Habit vs Conscious Actions
I want to be clear that when Sadhguru say’s “all habit’s are bad” he isn’t saying “Don’t do your daily routine, like brush your teeth, shower, exercise…etc”
Do all those things. Please, please do – especially the shower part! What he’s saying about habit, is to allow each of those activity’s to arise with an awareness – he is asking you to take conscious actions rather than unconscious ones. Be present while brushing your teeth, taking a shower and going to the gym. Don’t do these things because you “have” to, do them with purpose and intentionality.
Breaking Notoriously “Bad” Habits
So… back to that whole awareness thing I’ve been on about. If you have a bad habit – whatever it is – and you KNOW it’s bad. You have said to yourself, “You know Bill, smoking sure is a bad habit and I want to stop…”Well then you have done the first and most difficult part which is become aware of and acknowledge your “bad” habit.
Consider that if you are constantly acting with awareness, and you are aware that smoking is bad for you, you would likely do everything in your power to stop. I’ve never smoked so I really can’t comment, but if will power is not enough (which I’ve heard it rarely is) you would likely take actions in alignment with that awareness. You would seek help in whatever way possible to ensure that you don’t continue smoking.
Acknowledge That Each Day Is Different
Every day will demand from us something slightly different in terms of our daily “routine.” I am going to use eating for this example. Let’s say you are running a marathon. I bet you will eat a whole lot different on the day you’ve run 26 miles, than you would on a day when you are sitting on the couch. This is an extreme example, but you know intuitively that you need to increase the amount of food you eat based on the amount of physical activity you do. Our body’s are very intelligent, and they will tell us exactly what we need, all we have to do is pay attention.
Begin To Cultivate Awareness In Your Daily Routine
How many times do you wake up in the morning, and brush your teeth while you’re half asleep? Or have your morning coffee, only coming fully into the world about half way through? What’s happening is you aren’t fully conscious yet.
Pick ONE thing. Yup. ONE thing, and be aware of that one, simple task for one week. So maybe week one is brushing your teeth. In week two, add another – making your coffee. Begin to do these simple, daily tasks with awareness and watch how each day is unique to the last.
So if you really want to pump up your new year, rather than creating habits, create awareness. Write a list of things you want to accomplish, and with awareness take actions in that direction. If the outcome is not what you expected, strap on some awareness and notice what that’s like. Let awareness be the driving force of your life, rather than habit, and watch as the world literally opens up!
