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[insha15]

A tiny step for : "HABIT DEVELOPMENT"

The law of least effort :

We as humans naturally gravitate towards the things that require the least effort. 

That’s where an environment shift helps. You need to create an environment where doing the hard thing is as easy as possible. 

The two-minute rule :

Our brain is programmed to avoid doing difficult things. 

Throughout our days, we make many decisions. For example, the decision to complete your work or watch another episode of your favorite series on Netflix. 

It's stated that habits are immediate actions. For instance, you take a cab to the gym every day. The habit is taking the cab, not hitting the gym. Habits are the entry point, not the endpoint. 

When starting a new habit, we suggests you should follow the two-minute rule. Anything new you take up, shouldn’t take longer than two minutes. 

This two-minute version makes you realize that starting is pretty easy. And you take away the power of hard habits.  

[insha15]

E_G_O :

Here are 3 lessons to show you why your ego causes problems, that letting it go won’t make you lose your touch and how meditation helps with this process:

1. The problem with your ego is that it’s never satisfied.

2. Be simple, not a simpleton – why letting go of your ego won’t make you a pushover.

3. Meditation increases your mindfulness and compassion by giving you a fourth habitual response.

Lesson 1 : Your ego gets in the way of your happiness by constantly wanting more.

The friction between acting in the present, but constantly thinking about the future and past is what causes your ego to be impossible to satisfy.

Ego constantly assesses your worth by looking at your own wealth, looks and social status, and then finding the next best person with more of it to compare it against. Therefore, your ego’s default setting is more. The minute you feed your ego a new achievement, toy or compliment, the baseline for desire is reset and it starts looking for the next thing.

It thrives on drama and worry, and will instantly look for the next bigger achievement to compare yourself to, and if none is there, dig up some ancient problem or crisis and pester you with it. That’s why the ego is never happy, and it’s up to you to take charge of that, because no matter which new heights you reach, it’ll never be enough.

Lesson 2 : Be simple, not a simpleton – why letting go of your ego won’t make you a pushover.

Mindfulness just makes you more creative and productive, not a pushover. It removes the need for competition and fuels your drive by removing wrong assumptions and bad thoughts, so instead of the usual stress you’ll approach things more clearly, because you’re not giving in to aggressive temptations.

Lesson 3: Meditation makes you more mindful and compassionate by giving you a fourth habitual response.

It makes us more mindful and helps us live in the moment, as well as act more compassionately towards others. Meditation achieves this by giving you a fourth habitual response. According to ancient Buddhist wisdom, we usually exhibit three characteristic habitual responses to all of our experiences:

We want it.

We reject it.

We zone out.

But once you start meditating properly, you’ll be able to choose a fourth alternative: Observing, without judging.

It usually starts with physical pain, and you notice when your legs are sore or your nose itches, but you can resist the urge to scratch it and just let it be. But after a while, this transfers to your emotions and thoughts as well. You’ll catch yourself while gossiping, acting out on a bad habit, or when you’re thinking negative thoughts – and can just observe your feelings until they pass by, without reacting to them.

It’s this little pause between thinking and acting that makes you realize often no action is necessary and thus helps you make better choices altogether.