Thursday, February 18, 2010
Captured Thought: everyday routine
It starts with waking up at exactly 6:30. If I wake up earlier it either has to be 6:15 or 6:00. Then it's a shower with only half the lights on in the bathroom. Then, I brush my teeth to the rhythm of a song from Riverdance that has been in my head for 9 years. I get dressed, race down the stairs and put make up on in a specific order; foundation, eyeliner, eyeshadow. I never really thought about why I do these things in a specific way, but now I think I know why. I'm an extremely superstitious person for alot of things, and one of my weird quirks is that I believe that if anything is altered in my routine, the world will be off balance. This works for me, because when this order is successfully completed, I tend to have a good day. But now, I realize, the reason I have a good day is not the luck the routine gives me. I have a mindset that the routine will make me have a good day, so I have a good day because I think I'm supposed to. It may be confusing, but it's true. What's funny is that even though I know about my issue, I'm not going to stop doing the routine; it helps me in more ways than one.
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ReplyDeleteI think I understand what you mean. I think the reason you feel you have a good day is that the familiarity of that routine makes you feel comfortable or that everything is perfect.Yet, when something goes wrong, that feeling of "something went wrong" makes you feel superstitious about the rest of the day. It's a psychological thing. A regular routine makes you feel better, rather than an irregular, which makes you/everyone else feel totally uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteYour mind works in weird, unconscious way sometimes. A perfect example is when people try to plan out their life. "I'm going to go to Harvard, become a professional, earn billions and have the best life ever." It obviously would feel great if that happened, because you were expecting it, but it would throw off your plan if you didn't get into Harvard or something. People want life to go their way because they feel comfortable when things go as expected.
I'm pretty sure I understand what you mean. Our routines and repeated actions act as safe places for us. They put us in our comfort zone and we know what to expect. It is when we don't know what is to come or expect when we feel uncomfortable, and this is most likely what causes our bad days. Something out of the ordinary happens, which takes you out of your safe place. As much as everyone wants to 'take a chance' or 'live a little' or 'get out of their comfort zone,' we all really feel the safest in what we know.
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