When I was at university in Edinburgh, for some of the time I lived in the Halls of Residence (something which has come back to mind in the light of the stories of students in Scotland being confined to their Halls during this phase of the pandemic). My room looked out over a grassy mound in front of the back wall of the site, and above that up to Arthur’s Seat – a pretty spectacular view to have! One day, while studying at my desk I noticed a student pacing up and down at the base of the grassy mound. He had an open notebook in his hands and he read the text out loud as he took about thirty paces, then turned around and took thirty paces back the way he came. Time and time again he turned at the end of his thirty or so paces and headed back along his invisible path. I thought it was an unusual way to study! However, by the end of a couple of weeks of this happening every day instead of just green grass there was a well worn muddy path which he, alone, had created.
I’ve thought about that path many times. When I learned, years later, about how our brains physically change shape with repeated thoughts or habits – “what fires together, wires together” is the saying – then I thought of that student wiring the information into his brain, and treading it into the grass while he was at it!
The thing is, when we hit repeat, we increase the chances of the repeat kicking in more easily. That’s what happens with habits. The more you carry out a particular exercise or action, the more your brain makes it easier to establish your habit. That’s partly why people recommend sticking with a new habit for at least 30 days. Because after 30 days the path has already formed, the neurones have already established their particular pattern of connection, the brain has already thickened along that network.
When I started this blog and called it “heroes not zombies” I was keen to inspire and provoke people to step out of autopilot and act more consciously. That’s the idea behind the title. There’s something about habits which entrap us. We can get stuck….literally in ruts….whether in the grass or in our brains! Waking up, becoming aware, and making different, conscious choices is a way of expanding our lives and our experiences.
But it’s also helpful to create good habits. We can use the exact same mechanisms which have us going over and over the same old stuff in our minds, or following the same old behaviours, and, instead, create the thought patterns and behaviours we’d rather have.
I often used an old image from my photo library to illustrate how to change our experience – the photo of the wounded rock….you can read that story here.
The thing is, it can be really hard to break free of negative thought patterns, painful memories, triggered fears and so on. Focusing on them to try and address them directly can be counter-productive, returning us again and again to focus on what we are trying to escape from. The alternative, I find, is to “make better dents” (see the piece on the wounded rock), to create new patterns, new habits, to fire up new connections and get our brains into better shape. Literally.
So, when I looked at this photo of the shadows in the cloister today, a photo which I find both beautiful and calming, I thought about this ability to create a better experience by hitting repeat…..in a good way. In other words, to take the same actions, or have the same thoughts, repeatedly, but choosing those actions and thoughts. Choosing them because we want them in our lives.
Exactly which actions and thoughts you’d choose will be up to you. They might be about taking a daily walk. They might be about doing “Morning Pages“. They might be about meditation. I don’t know. You choose. Just choose the ones you want to have in your life, and keep hitting repeat…..at least for 30 days!
Heroes Not Zombies 