Un-Routine Yourself (every now & then)

Recently on a Sunday, I found myself where I often find myself these days, in a classroom.

Vinca

It was a beautiful sunny day, so at the end of the day I decided to get off my bus a few stops early and walk home. Maybe it was the sun or my love of wandering outside, but I found my walk to be full of my favorite things.  I took a path leading through a very small park near our apartment and stumbled upon patches of cleavers, vinca in bloom, and turkey tail mushrooms. Pictures are included for your visual enjoyment.

 I noticed many things in my neighborhood that I hadn’t before. It was enough to make me grateful for not going my usual way. How easily we get stuck in our normal routines. Then I stumbled upon an interesting story on habits on NPR.

The story explains how by being creatures of habit, we can free up our minds to think about other things. The actions of our common daily activities, like driving or showering, are so hard-wired into our brains we don’t even have to think about what we are doing. This is convenient because we can muddle over other thoughts instead. This made me wonder, how many of us use this time to go over our ‘to-do lists’ or recall negative thought patterns (for example: “I should have done xyz differently” or “Why did I xyz?”).  

The article goes on to discuss how our habits are formed and how to break them. With an interesting bit on how the best time to change a habit is during a vacation, because all of your routines are not in place. Do we really need a full blown vacation to catch ourselves caught up in our daily habits? Perhaps mini-vacations with the intent to un-routine ourselves every now and then could have the same effect. Furthermore, what effect might this have on our mental thought patterns? Perhaps more creativity? Or increased positive thinking?

How often are we stuck in our habitual patterns and forget to take the time to do the things that really feed our spirit? What have you done today to step out of your routine?

Read or listen to the story here: http://www.npr.org/2012/03/05/147192599/habits-how-they-form-and-how-to-break-them?sc=fb&cc=fp

My 'Un-Routine' Path

Cleavers Patch

Turkey Tails