I am a creature of habit, I go running twice a week and every time I take the same route. It’s a beautiful route, right along the coast, it’s nice and flat and often quiet apart from a few dogs and walkers. It’s great in so many ways, last night the tide was so far out you could see the sand, which on a pebbly beach like Brighton’s is a rare and beautiful sight.
However, whilst I was running yesterday eve I started to wonder what the impact of taking this same route again and again might be having. Does taking this same route actually keep me stuck in the same thought processes? I now don’t have any ‘ah-ha’ moments whilst running, I simply think about getting to the next point on the route, my brain plods along just as my body does. The running route I take, the routine I’ve got myself into is actually keeping my mind monotonous too.
And so I began to think about what other actions I take regularly and how they might be keeping me feeling stale in the mind. And I came up with this list:
Looking at Facebook repeatedly through the day.
Checking the news first thing when I wake up.
Walking the same route to the studio where I have some desk space.
Eating rubbish in the afternoon when I get a bit tired.
Watching Netflix, iPlayer or iTunes in the evening.
I’m not suggesting any of the above are wrong or bad. But what I realised is that when I get into such habits I lose the ability to think of new ideas, I lose the ability to wonder or awe at the world and I lose connection to my emotions – I stay trapped in my head.
An easy way to get out of monotonous thought processes is to numb, be this through alcohol, food, television, shopping… Which rarely actually shift anything, they just temporarily take us away from the merry-go-round of the mind.
So, inspired by the mighty Tony Robbins in his recent interview with Marie Forleo, I decided to get out of my own head by changing my stale behaviours. I took the whole day off the news and Facebook yesterday, I’ve become more conscious about what foods I put in my mouth and yesterday rather than settling down to some tv I picked up my book (and subsequently felt inspired to continue reading it once I woke up this morning).
I feel revived. I feel new. I feel like I’ve got more ideas. I feel energised. Rather than thinking all the time I’m feeling more. As Tony Robbins suggests life is about moving away from suffering and moving towards feeling more energising emotion, and to do that we need to identify and change the monotonous patterns we’ve got ourselves into.
What will you do to shift yourself out of your head?
With love, Hannah
Ps. A great way to change your routine would be to come along to our retreat in October this year! It’s at the beautiful Knockerdown cottages. For more information email me – hello@hannahmassarella.co.uk
*Image by Dan Carlson www.unsplash.com