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The first full week of the New Year seems like an ideal time to talk about patterns and habits. It’s funny how we don’t realize how much we run on auto pilot or how set in our patterns we are until we try to change them.
I am all over creating good patterns and getting rid of bad ones – it’s a huge part of what I do every day with my clients – try to identify their patterns and help with awareness and changing those that aren’t good for them.
The funny thing is that I don’t always realize how set in my patterns I am. Yes, I am obnoxiously aware of my physical patterns – I know that I don’t like to use my left hamstring and drop my left hip. I know how I respond to stress and more than a body should about how certain foods and weather conditions impact me. I know the patterns of my body and, as it relates to stress, I guess somewhat, the patterns of my psyche. But what I wasn’t aware of was how set in other patterns I am.
If you follow the blog, you know that I moved about a month ago. I was resistant to the move and made some major decisions as I looked for a place to live in a very short period of time. Specifically, I didn’t want to leave my neighborhood. And even though I searched a much larger area, my goal was to be in about a six block radius of my old place. I landed in a place one block west and almost one block south of my home of over two years. Unpacked and ready to adjust to my new world in about 24 hours, I started back to work, my regular cardio routine and all other parts of my life. And this my friends began almost two weeks of going home to the wrong house. Really. At least once a day I drove past my new street and found myself doing a u-turn as I almost reached my old house. More than a half dozen times I would return from my four mile walk through the neighborhood to make one wrong turn – again, in relationship to my old patterns. I had to consciously begin to tell myself how to get home, where I lived and start to set new patterns. Happily, I got this disturbing behavior under control before the owner of my old house moved back in – so I didn’t have to explain stalking-like behavior!
As I think about patterns and habits, I find myself reviewing what I do and why I do it – and the end result is that I become comfortable in a habit and yes, even lazy and just allow myself to go on auto-pilot.
What about you? Do you have certain habits, patterns and comfort zones that are your fall-back positions? If so, which of those patterns are good for you and which aren’t? They say it takes something like 21 days to create a new habit – I guess I’m proof that it also takes at least 21 days to break an old habit. The thing is – it’s our lack of attention and/or focus that causes us to rely on patterns and habits and a big part of Pilates is about awareness.
Try a few things for me. Start noticing things like your foot placement when you stand or sit, your eating habits, how you fall asleep or wake up and look for any patterns. Start paying attention to how your body feels at certain points of the day or the week and see if you can link any of your physical patterns (including food intake and stress) to those responses/reactions. And then consider trying to change those patterns. You see, if I’m living proof of one thing – it’s that awareness can change patterns.
So instead of just making a New Year’s resolution, make a pattern change. And to my old neighbors, cut me some slack if you see me doing a u-turn near the house – sometimes the auto-pilot is hard to turn off!