What is a habit?

A habit is something you do often or every single day, without thinking about it, like brushing your teeth, combing your hair, eating breakfast and getting dressed. And because these habits are something you are doing so often, you really don’t think about it much. And believe it or not these habits formed when you were born.

Our whole life is habitual. When we first wake up in the morning, we do things without thinking about them. We follow the same patterns.

Doing these habits every day means that you don’t have to think about them. Why is that important? This allows you to pay attention to something that you might need to really think and pay attention to. To be, what we call, present.

When a baby is born, their conscious mind has not developed, but their subconscious mind is wide open. Environmentally through the five senses—hear, see, taste, touch, and smell— and genetically from our parents and grandparents, we have subconscious inputs that contribute to the paradigms or habits that have developed. Why do you think we like to eat the same food as our parents? Why do we often think the same as our parents? This is where the image we have of ourselves is born, in the early stages of life, through people, radio, television and family.

As you grow up you develop habits—some good habits and some not so good. A child will learn many important habits when listening to and watching their parents, grandparents and friends. As parents we like our children to develop good manners. Always saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ are good habits to develop. Eating more healthy food and getting some exercise are also good habits to learn, as well as good study habits when you are at school.

Being present means you can select the habits you want to keep as they are and change any habit you think can be more helpful. Habits are also about your behaviour. How you act and behave around friends and family. Do you have a habit of being happy or grumpy? If it is grumpy then ask yourself, ‘is this a helpful habit to have?’ If it’s not helping you then you need to make an effort not to fall into that bad habit and take notice of what you are feeling. Is this habit of being grumpy a habit you want to think about more. My guess is no—then give it no attention at all. Give attention and replace that habit with the habit of being happy. Sometimes we think negative thoughts about ourselves and so do children. Thinking negative thoughts about yourself is not a healthy habit. It’s a bad habit you will want to remove.