Habits make us confident, stable, and… controllable. It is necessary only to know what to do to cause a predictable reaction.
We have a lot of habits, except for one – giving up habits. But we should learn to forget, let go, quit, and abandon everything if necessary. Despite it is much more difficult than continue behaving as we are used to, without this habit, we are likely to live our life whining on a nail.
What do I mean?
Read this parable:
One day, a man was walking past a house and saw an old lady in a rocking chair, an old man reading a newspaper, and a dog lying on the porch and whining, as if in pain.
The man wondered why the dog was whining. The next day he was walking past the house again and saw the same elderly couple in rocking chairs and the dog lying between them and making the same plaintive sound.
On the third day, the man saw the same picture and decided to ask why the dog was whining:
– Excuse me, madam, what’s wrong with your dog?
– He’s lying on a nail – said the old lady.
Embarrassed by her answer, the man asked:
– If it’s lying on a nail and it hurts him, why doesn’t he just move off?
The old woman smiled and said:
– So, my dear, it hurts him enough to whine but not enough to get up and move.
Setting yourself free from your habits and taking action
Getting off the ground and taking the first step is the most difficult and fearful thing. However, the action is the only counterbalance to fear. Do not be afraid of being afraid. The point is to act.
A group of researchers of the Stanford Institute for Immunology conducted a series of experiments on rats, which showed that “fight-or-flight” stress stimuli boost immune resistance.
Three different hormones, secreted by the adrenal glands in response to shock stress, provoke the redistribution of immune cells in the body and increase their number. When an animal is frightened, these cells are concentrated in the subcutaneous tissues and actively circulate in the blood vessels.
