Trashing the bad habits

[Tom]

One of the hardest parts of breaking a habit is being fully aware of it. A habit is something usually done completely automatically. Out of habit. No conscious thought. When you become more aware of what you are doing, at first you will just be able to watch what you are doing when you are doing it. Then, as your awareness deepens, you start to have more options ... such as choosing to do something else.

[Good Hope]

       I'm taking your advice. If it works for one straight week, that I do not behave lazily and eat junk food, play video games, etc., I'll yell, "Aleluiah!http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/images/icon_Smile_big.gif" border=0>!!!" I'll probably post a "thank you" on this post.

       If it doesn't work, well, poophttp://www.astralpulse.com/forums/images/icon_Smile_blackeye.gif" border=0>!

[Jon_88]

1

[powder]

Good Hope,
I dont think that you should try anything drastic like completely
changing your bad habits for one week... its just a recipe for
failure.

I suggest that you eat one less dose of junk food than usual
play half an hour less of games and do 20 sit ups twice a week.
Its a tiny amount of improvement but it is still IMMENSELY more
than just doing nothing [].

On a side note, I am a very big skeptic in the whole chakra system
( I dont really like how every technique is based on chakras )and
I think that overcoming bad habits is dependent on your ability to
control your physical body using your mind. I personally have
rid myself of nailbiting by setting up a mental rule ( intent IS
the strongest weapon in your arsenal! ) to abort any movement of
my nails toward my mouth.

Start small.
Good luck and dont give up.

[Tom]

The chakras aren't actually real. They are useful, however, so we use them. It is necessary to keep in mind that the word chakra and the meaning behind it come from a different culture than most of us grew up in. There are different levels of meaning involved. At the highest level, chakras are not real. Until we get to that point we can choose to use them to describe our experiences.

The hardest part about habits for me is that they are comfortable and familiar even when they obviously result in pain. Breaking the habit to the point of not wanting to follow it still results in discomfort. It feels like there is something hollow or missing.

[breeze]

Resolutions don't work! For example, if your bad habit is to walk with a stoop, you won't cause any change to happen just by forcing yourself to do so. You might walk for a few seconds with your back upright and your shoulders down, but then you will fall back into your old habit without any notice.
I agree with Tom. Awareness is the key! Don't force yourself to walk upright, but just watch yourself walking with a limp bearing. If you are observing your habit more frequently, change for the better will occur automatically some time.
A good example are chips (crisps). Try to eat a single one. First just look at it. Turn it over. Then smell it. Take yourself time for this. Don't hurry. Then put it into your mouth. Don't chew or swallow it right away. Just taste it with your tongue. Only when your mouth is full of spittle, eat it. After that, take a strawberry and do the same. If people were eating chips or other junk food more consciously they would realise how awful they taste [xx(] compared to natural food []. But some people usually gulp down junk as quick as they can without any awareness involved.

Ok, it is kind of complicated and demands a lot of effort to watch TV or play computer games consciously, i.e. while you are observing yourself, your thoughts and your body. The tricky part is, that at this point it feels easier to just relax and get sucked into the game or tv show. To stay focused on yourself requires to deal with yourself, with your emotions and problems, which isn't always the most pleasant thing. You could look at this as a game or challenge! In the end this is much more fun.

Tom, I have a question. Are you only insinuating that everything is just a play of consciousness or part of maja? Or do you mean that you could actually experience or work with something different than your charka system? I mean in the past I was thinking, that chakras exist only because people believe in them. That imagining a different system as the chakra system in your body would create it or rather would you let experience it. But later on when I was experiencing my own chakras by sheer chance, I changed my mind a bit.

Greetings,
breeze

[Tom]

The Buddhist and Yogic chakra systems are not the same, but they both describe the human energy body. Then there are the Taoists, who work with entirely different energy structures. It is helpful to have a system to work with and to believe in its reality while you are using it. The important thing to remember is that if you decide that something else would be more helpful you are free to switch to it even if it describes the energy body in an entirely different way than you have been using.

[PeacefulWarrior]

Good Hope, you have BAD HABITS!  Well I never...

JK!

Hey, guess what, we ALL have bad habits to some degree or another.  Some of us have much worse and damaging habits than others.  

I agree 100% with Poweder about taking small, practical steps to change your habits.  Eating bad and wasting time with video games (which I tend to do sometimes with my Xbox) seem like harmless things in and of themselves, but when you add up the immense amount of time and wasted (and the pounds that add up because of the junk food), then it really becomes a tragic and dangerous thing.

Like powder said, try cutting back a little bit each week and I think you will see some major improvements in how you look, feel and percieve life.

Don't look to any magical way out of it, a lot of hard work and patience goes a long way.  By the way, I think the chakras are real!

-Dan

[powder]

Thanks for explaining the whole chakra thing Tom!
I have always had a splinter in my mind telling me that
what I am doing is wrong - next time I feel like OBE I
will come up with a personalized energy body.

[goingslow]

Tom im curious what you mean when you say the chakras aren't real.  Are you saying its accepted that they're nothing real just a made up way to describe something else.  Or are you saying people who are clairvoyant who actually see the chakras are making it up

I dont think you should say the chakras aren't real as if you're explaining a concept.  Thats a debatable point and its your opinion.  No philosophy, easter western new age states as fact the chakras aren't real.  You made it seem as if if a person studies more eastern thought on chakras they'd know the simple fact chakras are fake.. not real.. or made up.  Whatever you were trying to say..

[Tom]

You mean you really haven't already read that the chakras aren't real? Next you'll be telling me that you haven't read that they are knots which must be untied and in the reverse order that they were created.

[Good Hope]

I have some bad habits. Everyday, I watch television, play computer games, play video games and do little/no excersize. However, I have a hunch that doing something with my chakras would change all of that.

What I found curious in Robert Bruces' writing, "Treatise on projection," is that for one to develop unique abilities such as psychic reading, telekinesis or strong energy flow, one must develop the minor chakras as support structures for the major chakras, then one may develop the major chakras to perform unique abilities, such as healing.

That leads to my question. Are bad habits caused by how the form of the chakra flow is?

If the answer is yes, please reply. Tell me how to change the course of my chakras to rid the bad behaviors I have. If the answer is no, please tell me how to get rid of my bad habits with what methods implicate this healing forum.

If this posting is not coherent or I sound stupid, please reply with your confusion so that I may correct myself. Yes, I am not an expert in the healing fields.