It's hard to change our habits. Our brains are wired to stick to the familiar old patterns, and making changes is akin to rewiring our brains so the familiar river of neurons firing together branches off into another trickle - the new way of doing things. It's only through doing something again and again the new way that this trickle becomes a stream, a familiar habit. Yet the old way is still there, easy, like an old pair of shoes and it can be very easy to slip back.
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We all know the feeling that comes with achieving what we worked towards when we try and change a habit. Sticking to an exercise plan, losing weight, eating more healthily, finishing study, having better boundaries with work. It feels liberating, and we can be certain we will never go back to the old ways, but then before you know it, there we are again. The old ways show up in our lives again and we slip back.
It's a time for us individually, as families, communities and society to choose which parts of isolation we wish to keep and to bring those with us.
This present moment, as we begin to open up our communities and our lives again, after a long period of collective hibernation, is so important. It's a time for us individually, as families, communities and society to choose which parts of isolation we wish to keep and to bring those with us.
The joyous parts of isolation for some of us - more time with family, slower life, cooking and walking and less busy and more of what's important - are the unexpected offshoots of such a difficult time and something some will want to keep in life post-isolation.
Once we choose, the commitment to change will come in setting ourselves up for success at maintaining our new habit and remembering that every time we stick to our new habit, we are growing that trickle into a stream.