Bad habits have ruined the lives of many good people. Most of us have more than one habit we would like to change. Bad habits may lead to ill health and an unhappy, unpleasant mental-emotional state. For those habits that leave you in a negative or unpleasant frame of mind, changing the habit can be difficult - but it can be done.
Good health is pretty simple, eat well, think good thoughts, exercise and rest in proper amounts. It’s simple and yet so few of us actually do it! Most of us have a good idea of how to be healthy and yet we continue to make choices that injure ourselves.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine this self harm from our bad habits is caused by mental, emotional and spiritual disturbance. That is, when our mind and soul are busy, stressed or upset in any way, we don’t have the peace of mind to make healthy decisions. It’s a Catch-22, bad habits create upset emotions which then bring about more bad choices and the cycle continues.
On the other hand, a clear, calm mental state allows you to make choices that are beneficial to your health and wellbeing. Do I want that extra helping of dessert? Do I want to yell at my loved ones? Do I want to escape my life situation with drugs, alcohol or TV etc? “Not really” the clear, calm mind says to itself, “I’d rather be nice to myself and maintain this sense of peace and contentment that I’m feeling right now”.
It is easy to understand that a calm mind is needed to steer clear of bad choices and therefore create new, healthy habits. But how do you create new healthy habits if your mind it not calm? By force of will power alone some people can change their habits by themselves. In the absence of this, what is there for the rest of us?
Receiving support from an experienced health professional is perhaps the best way to maximise your chances of creating new healthy habits. Tell your therapist you want to create a sense of calm and clarity. The following therapies can calm the mind if your therapist has that as their aim.
- Counselling, Hypnotherapy,
- Bodywork such as massage, acupuncture, adjustments
- Herbs, supplements and pharmaceuticals
Once your mind is calm you can then make healthy choices from the following menu to maintain your new found peace of mind,
- Meditation
- Exercise
- Avoiding stimulants (spicy food, caffeine, nicotine, amphetamine)
- Calming foods (cooked slowly for several hours, few ingredients, minimal stirring)
- Anything else you know from personal experience that makes you feel peaceful
Break the negative cycle with professional help, and then once it is broken you can keep it that way by using the positively reinforcing cycle of choosing healthier options.
May you be calm of mind and warm of heart,
David.
