One of the first habits we acquire in life is the habit of routines. From the infant’s seemingly haphazard way of feeding and excreting, it is gradually inducted into routines of feeding and excreting. It is how we get toilet trained and conditioned into three main meals a day.
In a world of potentially infinite demands on our time and personal resources, it would be suicidal not to establish repeating parameters within which we can manage our most basic needs. Such routines not only make the difference between survival and crash and burn but also help us develop efficiencies along the way.
Quite simply, instead of having to make a decision everyday and possibly several times a day about whether to have breakfast, lunch or dinner, our brains are programmed to anticipate, prepare and consume these meals at particular times each and every day. It is a huge saving on our mental and emotional resources!
Likewise, being programmed to go to work five days a week from 9am to 5pm is another efficiency many of us have developed. It pays off for most people at least in terms of the income it generates and the boredom it seems to save us from.
Or take brushing your teeth after every meal or at least twice a day. Because it’s become routine, our mental and emotional resources that would otherwise have to go into making a decision about it every day, are instead available for other more creative uses.
By and large, the greatest efficiency we gain as a result of routines relates to decision making. As you have probably experienced, decision-making without a background of repeated/automated decisions i.e. routines, can be taxing on our mental and emotional resources.
When something out of the ordinary happens, such as a friend suggesting you go out for a drink after work, the brain expends more energy into helping you make a decision about it than it would if it remained on autopilot and sent you straight home.
In other words, non-routine decision-making is a lot more taxing that routine decision making and this is where the efficiency of routines is greatest, at least until the brain is trained for non-routine demands :)
However, we’ve all felt at some time in our lives, the dreariness and lifelessness of being ‘stuck in routines’. Life can become lifeless and meaningless as we go through the motions from one day to the next while still holding out for some miraculous ‘save me from myself’ change or event to happe! At the same time, we’re feeling increasingly despondent, if not depressed as our routines seem to suck us dry of joy juice!
Given that we live in a time and space-bound world, the ‘reality’ of limited time and space/resources is a pressing one. Routines help us minimize the impact of this apparent limited nature of our time and resources. For this reason, they are helpful and necessary for our survival.
But equally necessary for not just our survival but also our happiness is allowing our naturally creative and spontaneous nature to be expressed. Routines, when used intelligently, can help apportion and direct resources (mental, emotional, spiritual and physical) to this natural flow of creative expression. But, routines, when used slavishly, can impede, if not completely block the flow of creative expression.
This is the sort of thing that many of us face from time to time. Instead of being efficient masters of our routines, we become unquestioning slaves to them, at least until we realize that we are doing too little ‘living’ or too much ‘surviving’.
Creative expression is the purpose of life. It is the very nature of joy, of happiness! It is what allows us to feel peaceful and enthusiastic at the same time! It is the offspring of desire whose energy is love!
So, how do we ensure that our routines don’t suffocate us, blocking off the energy of love, the very force of life itself? Well, it is important that we do something different everyday. How?
Start by thinking different thoughts. Remember that all our routine behaviours began at some point as routine thoughts, so pay attention to some of the familiar, routine thoughts that go through your mind. Catch one of them and think something so completely different to it.
For example, one of the thoughts that I routinely have is: I need to write a blog post. I can practice non-routine thinking by thinking: I want to write a blog post that will make me smile and make my readers smile too.
Notice what this does. Not only does it remove the unattractive imperative of having to write a blog post, it allows me to creatively explore an alternative way of joyfully writing a blog post!
Likewise, with a particular behaviour. Instead of eating a meal off the same plate, try a different plate and try a different position at the table. Who says you have to sit at the same place every meal?
In fact, changing places every now and again not only breaks the monotony, it also gives you a different perspective, both physically and mentally. How? Because all information in your brain is stored in networks of associations. Change one piece of information and you are effectively shaking up and rearranging the network of associations. Remember, it’s not information itself that is novel, it’s the organization, associations and interpretations that generate novelty.
I cannot begin to tell you the tremendous and far-reaching benefits of practicing non-routine thinking and acting. Try them for yourself. Start right now. What would you typically/routinely do after reading a blog post like this? Do something different instead. See where that takes you. If nothing else, it gives your brain something different to process and in that way, keeps it active and alert.
Making useful and creative changes in our lives doesn’t have to involve grand, largess actions or decisions. Rather, it is through the small, seemingly insignificant, ‘routine’ things in life that we most easily express the creative influence of our life energy, our love, for our happiness and that of all else!
In other words, think of and use your routines not as boundaries to keep you safe and predictable but as the fertile ground within which are uncountable seeds of creative expression waiting to be noticed and nurtured by you!
Go do it now!
