MONDAY MUSE (19 Nov '07)
HABIT
In India, if you visit someone’s home a cup of tea will be served sans the
formality of asking whether you want it. But it is a custom that agreed with me
for I simply loved tea. Perhaps it was a habit picked up in childhood whilst
going with my father for radio recordings of theatrical and music shows. By the
time I was in college, I would down at least a dozen cups of tea in a day.
But, habits do hurt! A splitting headache would seize me if I missed my
afternoon cup of tea. And my predicament was worst while on a trek in the
Sahayadris. I would start off cheerfully but by afternoon my migraine would
have developed deadly dimensions. There were two options before me: quit
trekking or break the tea habit. I chose the latter.
It was traumatic: my nerves were on tenterhooks, my mood was edgy all day long
and the withdrawal symptoms had turned me into a jittery mess! Over a month, I
held my resolve and was able to get out of the habit. The liberation from the
habit was a major learning. I realised that habits are born out of the
conditioning of our psyche. And hence the habit needs to be divorced in the
mind before the body can be freed.
More importantly, we need to stop becoming slaves of habit. I have now learnt
to accept and enjoy tea with or without sugar, with or without milk, with or
without flavours or coffee in all its variants or juices of all types or plain
water, too. If we embrace the wide spectrum of plurality, habits have no space
to form. So whether it is food, drink, music or any choices, choose not to be a
victim of habit by keeping an open attitude toward every new thing that comes
before you.
Whether it is things we like or technology we use, we must ensure that we do
not become slaves of habit. Therefore we must try out the changing choices. We
should break the conditioning of the mind and empower our self-belief. By
exploring the various dimensions, we will develop a fuller personality that can
adapt to every emerging change and challenge… because we will be habit free!
No habit can seize us without our compliance and permission,
Let’s break every conditioning to ‘develop new dimensions’!
--- Pravin
19 November 2007, Goa.
A life coach with a passion to connect people to their potential, Pravin Sabnis
conducts unlearning unlimited workshops for leading corporate and other groups.
The Monday Muse series (since 2004) is dedicated to the annual theme of
JCI-India.
Pravin K. Sabnis
visit: www.unlearningunlimited .blogspot.com
www.poems-pravinsabnis.blogspot.com
www.monday-muse.blogspot.com
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