Bad Habits Come From Good Intentions
The title of this blog may have you asking…“How did my bad habits come from good intentions?”. This is fairly simple, consider why your habit developed in the first place. When a predicament arises that you have not dealt with before, you have to make decisions and choices based on your current skills and knowledge. Then the next time you encounter a similar predicament you may find yourself following the same course of action.
Your intention, to resolve the problem and fulfill your needs. Innocent enough you continue to follow your course of action the next time you encounter the same situation until you notice a problem…the outcome is not so pleasant. The results of your actions may be negatively affecting your health, be self-sabotaging or be damaging in some other way. Let’s look at a couple of examples:
Your nervous about an upcoming event, your intention is to comfort yourself. You decide to indulge in your favorite comfort food, something that makes you feel comforted and reminds you of safe and happy occasions.
After receiving a bad grade on a test and you decide that next time you will do better. To motivate yourself you constantly remind yourself of your failure and how bad it made you look.
It is time to tackle your to-do list, but you’ve just finished a long shift and you feel tired. Your intention is to rest and in the meantime consider the most efficient way to tackle your chores.
In each of these scenarios the intentions are positive, and the negative impacts are obvious. Eating when emotional leads to weight gain, negative self-talk creates immense stress and deteriorates self-esteem and procrastinating leaves priorities neglected and unfinished. The hidden component is that the real cause of the problem does not get addressed.
Being nervous is normal, needing motivation or time to rest are notable but it is important to have healthy, productive tools to handle each of these situations. Accepting your feelings and learning to work through them is important, asking a friend to help you study and hold you accountable to your commitment, or scheduling your time so that you can rest and accomplish tasks are much healthier and fulfilling ways to approach these situations.
So the next time you encounter yourself repeating a bad habit, ask yourself what your ‘intention’ is and you will likely see your desired outcome is positive. Accept that your habits come from a good place and came from a time when you had limited knowledge or skills to handle the situation, then decide to be empowered change your course of action for a healthier, happier result the next time around.
If you find yourself struggling to break old habits and finding a healthier, more fulfilling path then give us a call. Through Reiki or an Angel Reading we want you to be empowered to make the positive changes you want to see in your life because we believe that when you bring your true gifts and self to the world everyone benefits.
