Quote:
Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot  By "habit", you may think of easily observable, external forms of behaviour. Such as smoking, or regular exercise, or swearing, or brushing your teeth. Instead we actually form habits, or patterns, about just anything and everything in our lives.
For example, the way you spend money is a habit. The way you treat your spouse is a habit. The way you tidy your home is a habit. The way you trust or do not trust certain people is a habit. The way you regard your job is a habit. The way you walk is a habit. The way you respond to bosses, or peers, or old ladies, or sales staff, or pastors, or rude drivers, is also a habit
We form patterns, habits, around all these things.
So patterns / habits / conditioning all zap our free will. They make us respond in a certain automated way. We are unconscious, so to speak. |
I'm not going to quote your entire post here, but you make excellent points. It's a good idea for people to get off "automatic," even in small ways. Take a different way to work. Go in a different door than you usually do. Order something on the menu you've never tried. Go through the grocery store in a different order than you typically do. Start your day differently. Move the wastebasket and see how disorienting that is.
In regard to the question of free will --
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot This is hardly a new question. It simply crops up in different forms, and all these forms have been and are frequently discussed, in books as well as in this forum. Examples of these different forms:
1. X wants to attract a lover, Y, but Y is not interested. What happens? (Search for Rockchick26's posts)
2. P and Q, a divorced couple, have a battle in court. P wants visitation right; Q does not want P to have visitation rights. (Search for Cdn2wheeler's posts). |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot Wallace Wattles' advice to avoid competitive situations , and rather, focus on creative situations (in other words, create anew what you want, rather than fight with someone else for it) |
I have found Wallace Wattles' book inspiring. I like that advice about creating anew what you want, rather than competing for it, because there is plenty to go around, and many ways to achieve what is desired. I was interested in Cdn2wheeler's posts about his friend who's fighting against visitation, because I'm hoping it turns out there is another way to resolve this, through creation rather than competition.
It can be a really different way to look at things. People tend to find it hard to look at things creatively rather than competitively. If somebody wants to win a million dollars in the lottery, they're competing against bazillions of other people. But the answer to the fundamental desire there doesn't have to be the lottery, does it?
A bunch of people compete on American Idol and everybody wants to win it really badly. But what they really want isn't so much to win American Idol, as it is to be successful in music.