Here are some groovy sisters in THEIR habits.
The cross below is the habit of the Order to which I belong:
Here's what's cool about this photo: I went to Google Images for a picture of the Daughters of the King cross, and this one was listed by RG Cathy of CathyKnits! Woot! Famous crosses I have known.
reverendmother says: As many of you know, I have been experimenting with some severely curtailed Internet usage. I realized that I had gotten into some bad habits, which got me thinking about habits in general. I understand that a habits/random facts meme has already been going around. In the hopes that it hasn't hit too many of us yet, be as lighthearted or as serious as you'd like with the following:
I have been following rm's experiment with much interest. A recent comment suggested that e-mail addiction can be traced to "addiction to affirmation" and that sounds true to me, for me. I need to think about this much.
1. Have you ever successfully quit a bad habit, or gotten a good habit established? Tell us about how you did it. I quit smoking when I was 22. I had gotten up to 2.5 packs a day just in college...can you imagine! I am such an obsessive person. I quit cold turkey, no program, no gum, etc. I can remember crying on the way home from work and beating on the steering wheel, because I wanted a cigarette so badly. I also felt sure that I had only one "quit" in me and I wouldn't be able to stand to do it again.
Ironically I am allergic to tobacco (allergist says) and so I had a headache most of the time I was a smoker. Now I consider it the vilest of habits and am so grateful I was able to quit when I did. At the same time, at odd times, I miss it.
Emblematic, I think, of much in my life that I know is hurting/not benefiting me, but I carry on with nevertheless.
2. "If only there were a 12-step program for life in general!" I am actually a 12-stepper, back from eating disorder days in college. The 12-step programs are the perfect model for a life path (IMHO) especially because they adhere strictly to their primary purpose and refrain from commenting on any outside issues. Think about how that could benefit the church YOU belong to or lead...only the Gospel of Christ, nothing more!
3. Share one of your healthy "obsessions" with us. I am recently obsessed with Jazzercise. I am doing the regular classes, mostly at 5:45 a.m. on weekdays, and also their Personal Touch program, which is a weight training/body sculpting program, and which kicks my BUTT on a regular basis.
I love that early class. I roll out of bed, get dressed, out the door within 30 minutes. Makeup!? Are you crazy!? (Okay, one lady who comes is THAT crazy, but that's her problem...) Unlike with an after-work class, I don't have time to think about why I don't have time to do the workout...by the time I am awake enough to get started with THAT stinking thinking, workout is half done and I'm glad I went.
Um, and I give myself a sticker on my calendar for every class I go to. For some reason I find stickers motivating. I'm probably just actually 3 years old in my head....
4. Share the habit of a spouse, friend or loved one that drives you C-R-A-Z-Y. My wonderful just-turned-18 year old son takes dishes (with food in them) to his room and leaves them there. Then when I insist that we are out of dishes and he must do recognizance and bring them down, he leaves them in the sink in an UNACCEPTABLE condition. You don't want to know what I mean by that. Heinous.
My friend Mary Ann's son of the same age leaves dishes in the shower, since he eats there. (???) I tell her, at least they are clean! She says not.
5. "I'd love to get into the habit of managing my e-mail better...especially deleting the garbage right away and filing the important and useful stuff. Presently I have over 1000 messages in my inbox, and that is way down since we are soon to migrate to Outlook from Groupwise and are told we will have less storage space. Every day I work on clearing out.
Bonus: What is one small action you might take immediately to make #5 a reality?
Humm. What if I check e-mail less often, when I actually have time to do the actions I mention rather than thinking, 'Yeah, right, later on that'...and speeding off to the next thing.
Think I will try that today. Friday is typically a low e-mail day and I could probably get by with only checking it twice a day...but I'm not sure I could bear it. Talk about cold turkey! How about three times in the am (9, 10, 11 or thereabouts) and three times after lunch (hours accordingly?)
Having written it down, I find this proposition somewhat stressful. That means it's got important potential. Will let you know how it goes.
Bonus 2: Try it, and let us know how it goes in a future post! Come back to see.
