Reducing Compulsive Habits¶

One of the best ways to improve in conscious living is to identify and adjust the ways we fall into unconscious, compulsive habits. Here is a guide to making such changes:

1. Attune to patterns of compulsions and distractions. See Common Ways We Drift Out of Presence for issues to review.

2. Develop a plan to reduce or eliminate the unhealthy patterns. The plan need not achieve complete resolution, it just needs to bring improvement. It may include shifting to more conscious, healthy variations of the behaviors. A good plan is one for which we feel a whole-body-OK and feel confident about the likelihood of success.

Examples of updated agreements/plans:

• Drinking alcohol: replace with non-alcoholic drinks
• Checking email: turn off notifications and check only 3 times per day (and for anyone who may need urgent response, provide them with alternative options)
• Watching entertainment media: only on weekends and 2 hours max per day

• Reading news: only after checking status on daily tasks, taking care of top priorities, and check only once daily, 20min max

• Make an accountability plan. Perhaps ask someone to be an accountability-partner. Check in daily, perhaps send simple texts Y or N for whether you kept the new agreement(s).

• Whatever happens, treat the process and yourself with love and compassion. When temptations to break the agreement arise, attune to thoughts and feelings and find appropriate resolutions (such as using breathing, moving, or other embodied expression) that release the energy while keeping the agreement. If any violations of the plan happens, take responsibility, and decide whether to adjust the plan or simply recommit.

• Review and update on a regular basis (perhaps weekly or monthly).

Adapted from the Conscious Leadership Group