Happy & Healthy
Common animals and their ways
On Thursday, I run in my most comfortable outfit to the Pilates studio. I aim my towel on the second mat from the left by the window, right on the head of a lady in a supersonic outfit. Error, alert, pa-niek. Someone is on my mat, on MY mat. And last week I went with Theo to get fries for fatty Friday (a regular thing at the editorial office), so there was a car in the parking lot where MY car had been for four hours. Just imagine. In my head, the circuit breaker always blows out for a moment, it's a so-it-should-be malfunction. How come I am such a creature of habit or, even better, how do I get rid of something like that?
You have good habits and bad habits in life and in the latter, I am a pro. But why do you, as they say in the southern neighbor's language, just get attached to small things? The definition of a creature of habit is: someone who clings to old habits. Now, I don't want to call that parking spot from the morning old, but my Pilates mat has been around for a solid four months. As spontaneously as I switch from wine to dinner on Tuesday (and to pain on Wednesday morning), I make my spaghetti intensely rigid. And oh dear, if someone messes up my cooking regime, I find that so difficult.
When you are used to something, it feels nice and familiar. A little smile in your comfort bubble at all the usual things around you. And here's the thing: habits are actually quite okay for your health. They provide stability when all those stimuli poke you throughout the day. It's super efficient to start your morning in the always-and-forever-same way. Actually, it's a survival method to function in your daily business. Douze points for us creatures of habit, but there is (duh) a but. Are you a creature of habit? Then you run an immense risk of falling back into all those bad habits (thanks science, I now have a plausible excuse for that smoking). When you flop down on the couch all drained and wrung out, that fatty food is closer than ever and it's oh so common to NOT dive into the gym.
But you can also take the creature of habit to the shelter. Acknowledging your behavior is the first step in the healing process. After that, you need to isolate the trigger (so, kick someone who challenges your cooking skills out of the kitchen) and eliminate the habit. That word makes me feel almost like a half Robinson in the elimination round. But sorry, I'm not going to eliminate that Pilates mat from my mat. From now on, I’ll just come five minutes earlier to confiscate that mat, I can make a habit out of that. Or do they mean I should chill on another mat to do Pilates? Nah, probably not.
Written by Adeline Mans
