How to Come out of ( Bad ) Habits

Freedom and Joy  are deep rooted desire in every human heart. But still it surprising that many of our actions are those which will eventually might  lead us to Pain and Suffering.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar  says ‘ Habit are  those activity which while Performing it  does not give any great pleasure, but Stopping it gives a lot of Pain’

'Bad' Habits are those habits which affect our Physical /Mental /Emotional or Financial Health. We realize it is bad for us and want to stop it but are unable to do so. 

For eg Smoking doesn’t give any great pleasure ...but stopping smoking will give a lot of pain.   

Whenever we indulge in any bad habit we get a certain stimulation/ pleasure ( at least at the starting ). Evolution has programmed our brains to run behind pleasure and avoid pain . ( more in this blog link What does the Mind Want?)

 Thus brain will  create a program in our BME system . The program compels us to repeat itself irrespective of the cost to our body /mind/ emotions. We might thus know intellectually smoking is bad  but we are helpless in face of the program ( habit) which occupies our BME system.

Its very difficult to remove the Habit by itself as its a deep rooted program in our system. Trying to remove it will give a lot of pain.

However there is Easier way to lessen the  impact of the Habit on our system, that is as given below

If we install 3 more programs in our BME System that is Awareness , Knowledge and Discipline, the force of the Habits comes down

Knowledge – Gathering Knowledge about effect of the bad habit   on our self and others is very important. Information is widely available due to the internet on any topic under the sun.  . The general tendency is to avoid information which we think we will find uncomfortable ( i.e goes against our habits). However if we actively start collecting information about our habits and assimilate it into our memory it can work wonders.

For eg Regarding smoking the below information has been collected

  One in two smokers will die from a smoking-related disease. Smoking damages your heart and your blood circulation, increasing the risk of conditions such as coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke, Your lungs can be very badly affected by smoking. . Smoking causes 84% of deaths from lung cancer and 83% of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The good news is that once you stop smoking, your health improves and your body will begin to recover.

More info at link  Smoking Health Issues

  Awareness –   As we have discussed the program of habits is deeply embedded in our Body Mind Emotions. Most of us deeply identify with our Body Mind Emotions and when the temptation to smoke comes for a smoker comes or eat sweets for a diabetic he gets carried away with the force of the programming of BME and all knowledge disappears.  He might regret later after indulging but by then its too late...

Just this Awareness ( at the crucial moment)  that its a program in my BME which is tempting me to Indulge and its not Me ( I have the Knowledge that the Habit is bad for me)  can reduce the force of temptation dramatically and can help the person overcome the temptation to  indulge.

The whole purpose of Spirtuality or Spiritual Practices is to make a person Aware that he is just not the Body Mind Emotions ( which are in grip of so many habits) .

As Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says ‘ Once the Sun Rises, Candles Loose their Charm’.

 Similarly once Awareness dawns in a person the habits loose their force.Regular practice of  Meditation /Sudarshan Kriya go a long way in Developing this  Awareness easily. More info on Meditation on Sudarshan Kriya and Meditation at link below
Sudarshan Kriya

Discipline-  

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says  ‘Freedom without discipline is like a country without a defense. Discipline protects freedom’

As a country is protected by a Strong Defense force ( Army) , we are protected by a Strong Discipline.

We have got the techniques to overcome Bad habits above. But we should also know the habits have a strength of their own due to repetition over many years.

Thus to come out of habits a two fold discipline is required

1. Time Bound Vows - Every time we indulge in a habit it becomes stronger in our conciousness. It is like charging a Phone. So to come out of habit . We should not indulge in it regularly. Thus we should Take a vow to at least temporarily discontinue the habit for a limited time.  
 For Eg -a smoker can vow to stop smoking for 90 days. More on this in this link Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar on Vows

2. Implementing   Knowledge Collection ( regarding impact of the  habits ) and Awareness Building . If this Discipline is not there all our Good Intentions will be swept way in force of the habits.

 Start Building Discipline Today by starting to take the first steps to build up Knowledge and Awareness. Best of Luck...