Who's In Charge Anyway?

How many Mom’s out there have a strict 5-day rotation for meals?

Meat Loaf Mondays

Taco Tuesdays

Wendy’s Wednesdays?

Or is it a work out routine that is written down on stone tablet for you?

Biceps on day 1

Cardio day 2

Ham and glutes day 3

Pain and agony with extremely limited movement on day 4.

Do you start your day and end your end by always doing the same thing?

Do you always tie your left shoe first?

We have a chair that is ours at the dinner table and a spot on the couch where we have marked our territory (hopefully more figuratively than literally).

We walk the same route throughout our neighbourhoods and drive the same roads to work every day.

Routines are the rule for many of us. Life has become a series of habitual patterns that we follow because it’s more comfortable that way. We have figured out a system that works for us and that makes us feel good. There is actually a great deal of inherent power in following a routine.

The Power of Routine.

- Routines make us feel safe - doing the same thing or going to the same places give us a sense that things are normal and familiar.

- Routines take away the need to make decisions in the moment, which can become stressful for many people. We just do what we have done before.

- Routines add structure to our days, giving us “knowns” that we are sure will happen everyday. Therefore we can add in extra things in and around these “definite pieces.

Yet at the same time, the very habits that make us feel safe and ordered, are ripe with problems that prevent us from experiencing life the way we’d like to. Routines, by their very nature, have the potential to trap us, misguide us, or even take over life to the point where we are no longer really in control and have lost the ability to make choices to help ourselves.

The Problem of Routine

- Routines give us the wrong idea that we have covered everything we need to do. If we have a certain set of jobs that we ALWAYS do, our meals that we ALWAYS eat, once we complete the routine the message we get is, it’s all done. That assumes that your certain routine is complete and balanced. Your routine actually may end up meaning that you will consistently miss the same jobs & same foods because they aren’t part of your regular rhythm.

- Routines give us the wrong message that doing something different is wrong. Breaking from a consistent routine feels awkward, which gives us the message that we’ve done something improper. This is re-enforcing the idea that to change is wrong… even when change is beneficial.

- In extreme cases, routine is actually a sickness. OCD controls people to the point where they fear that they will encounter serious harm if they don’t continually wash their hands, keep things in perfect order or follow a specific pattern.

The big threat that routine poses to us is that it assumes that the way that worked for you that one time will continue to work for you in the future. It might, it might not. The strength of a routine lays in it’s ability to morph and develop. As long as the framework you have created to give you stability and comfort is open to change when new information is presented to you, then routine can be great.

Test yourself out this week.

 Sleep on the “wrong” side of the bed.

Drive a different way to work.

Wear a colour you never would (rock that hot pink shirt my friend).

Mix it up and see who’s running the show - you, or your routine.