Holiday Posture and the Habit of Stress
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Here are two great suggestions for your holiday shopping: first, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. This clear and interesting read applies the insights of neuroscience to the mundane matter of changing our habits. Our brains are plastic—bodies too!—so why not use that plasticity to our advantage? Duhigg says a habit is composed of a cue, a routine, and a reward. It only takes a little self-examination and some perseverance to unpack these parts and make a change. The other suggestion, of course, is my DVD, Heal Your Posture, and my New Rules book, which tell and show you how to change your brain’s postural mapping of your body. The accompanying video shows you how my posture disintegrates when I fall into the habit of hurrying (I’m not just acting—I really do get like this, though mercifully, not so often of late). So the state of being in a hurry is my cue. Getting the job done in a satisfying way is my reward. But I fail to receive the reward if a routine of doing things in a rush leaves me tense.
We know these wise things about life—that the journey is more important than the destination, and that the destination is colored by the quality of the journey. I think we just need to hear it again and again: we are plastic. We can change. Awareness is the key. How about putting this on your holiday wish list?