Seeing with fresh eyes

[rebeccmeister]

The nice thing about coming back from the caravan park in Portland is that it is allowing me to see my previous habits and inclinations with fresh eyes. My coffee-making habits, for example, have changed, and I believe they will stay changed. Before I left, I would make myself a latte in the lab at around 9:30 in the morning and would concurrently check my e-mail and surf the net while I finished it. Now I have switched to using my new coffee mill and moka pot when I make breakfast, and when I get to the lab, I launch right into work. It's a much more efficient way of operating.

Similarly, in Portland we had to be very diligent about cleaning up after ourselves. In fact, P remarked on more than one occasion about how good we were about keeping our space tidy. Right before I left for Australia, I made a concerted effort to clean up the accumulated dishes in our lab space. I am determined to hold on to the habits I acquired.

Lastly, there wasn't anywhere to go shopping in Portland. We only went out for coffee once. Shockingly, I managed to find other ways to fill up the time I otherwise would have spent shopping. Not all shopping is avoidable, though--I still need to buy food and necessities.

I just liked the opportunity to gain some perspective on my life.

Comments

[earthlingmike.livejournal.com]

Changing habits is much easier when there is a change in environment.

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

How very true!

One of the people that I worked with in Australia is a smoker. Observing his behavior gave me a new understanding of how ingrained the habits associated with smoking can become. He said that eventually he will quit, but after watching all of the little rituals he goes through, it's clear that it will be extremely hard for him to quit. It made me grateful that I don't have to go through similarly extreme changes in my own behavior--although maybe I do, for all I know...

[earthlingmike.livejournal.com]

Well particularly destructive habits of course make themselves known, so you might be alright. The way our brains work, it's all about efficiency, changing habits uses more mental energy and requires re-wiring in the brain, so it's tough to just do things cold turkey. I guess I'm speaking from experience about finding out about my own bad habits, I also find the brain interesting and have read some stuff about it on the internet or in National Geographic.