Shedding good habits.

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This originally started as a blog post all about the health benefits of raking leaves.

When the idea came to me I grew overly filled with zeal as, back in the ATX, I had no such leaf raking opportunities.

It had been 20+ years  since I’d last scraped up the fall stuffs (LONG before I carved my healthy path) and it kinda rocked!

I raked.

I blogged in my head.

It would have been an awesome PLAYout post.

Mid-rake, however, I stopped & considered our emerging pile of leaves.  I looked long & hard and pondered how they’d fallen from the trees.

The easy manner in which they’d been shed because they were not necessary in the impending, dormant, winter season.

The leaves served their purpose (they’d nourished the tree) & now it was time for the tree let them go.

It sparked me to reflect on my mission for last year and my realization my new “habit” (focusing on never looking back) no longer worked for me.

Its season had ended and, without realizing, Id shed the habit leaf in order to look back & see what I could learn from all my ‘chapters previously written.’

Id let go easily—for once as in the old joke I made like a tree—as I’d known intuitively holding on to the habit would not serve me.

I may, someday, need to instate the only looking forward–but not right now.

This is all in the same way my OAKtown trees will need leaves again next year for food—but don’t hold tightly to them *today* just in case.

These mental-musings sparked a conversation with the Tornado.

I shared with her how I don’t make New Year’s resolutions.

We talked about habits we have & chatted about how good habits which “served” us when we were in Texas may not work as well here in Oakland.

And vice-versa.

I shared–in a way she could grasp–my thoughts on the leaves & my admiration for how the tree ‘let go’ so easily.

I asked her if she could think of a good habit which once served or “helped her a lot” yet it might be time to shed for a while.

I have lots I want to do, Mama. There is lots of fun stuff in October.  I want to hurry and not go slow so I can have so much fun and do everything.

As she shared that I watched more leaves fall from our trees.

Quickly.

Easily.

No paralysis by OVERanalysis.

And with that I toss the question to you and ask you answer without over-analysis and simply share your immediate response:

  • What (fingerquote) good (unFQ) habit which once served you is it time to shed this fall?

 

 

 

I cant believe Im the first to make this parallel between leaves and habits.  There’s no citation above as I couldn’t find a ‘source’ from googling.

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Comments

  2. You’re such a good teacher, for us and especially for the Tornado. I’m going to make mine fitness related b/c I hold onto things there that no longer serve me–I just checked in with my PT and I am dropping some of the moves to which I have become so tethered and which no longer help.

  3. I always love how these little life moments lead to bigger topics of discussion. Every now and then we just have to stop and take stock of what is working for us in our life, what no longer is. That doesn’t mean that it won’t again in the future, but it just isn’t serving you now. Like right now? I’m taking a break from the long run, and just playing.

  4. Carla, you always get me thinking. I love this! SO true, and I did not ever think of leaves in that way, but that is exactly what they are there for 🙂 A good habit I need to think about shedding is running 10 miles for my easy runs. It helped me get into shape for the marathon, but I think it is now time to move back to 9, and instead add some double days in instead. 🙂

  7. This is a really strong point, Carla.
    Too much of anything isn’t healthy and sometimes my habits are too much.

  10. I think the biggest thing I needed but had to shed was journaling my food/counting calories. Now I am reassessing how much time I am spending on line. Is it motivating me or holding me back?

  11. Lots to think about! But it makes sense that there’s a time and a purpose for everything, and it’s not always the right time, even for good things, or habits that have been helpful. Seems obvious but we often don’t see it that way. Nature certainly has a ton to teach us if we pay attention!

  14. In terms of fitness for me, I have already started this & moved to less running, not quite as long cardio sessions – it is all a mental game with me but working on it. As for life, you can see I am on social media less & as much as I miss people, this is serving me better right now… I need to breathe a bit & not feel so bad about the things that did not come from my hard work.

  15. Being a by-the-book girl many times and OCD the others, I try to break the mold and allow myself to do the ‘wrong thing’ a lot – it feels good!

  16. Great food for thought here as always! There are definitely things I should shed….maybe it’s even the marathon. There are also things I shed long ago that I’v brought back into my life….really old friends.

  17. I love your analogy! After finding blood clots in my lungs, I decided to let go of things that held no true joy for me anymore. If I’m doing it because it is “expected” of me and not because I want to, then it needs to go.

  18. Great post, as always, Carla!! Yup, over-exercising and borderline orthorexia a few years ago were both results of too much of a good thing gone bad. Now I am not as thin as I once was, but I’m far happier worrying less about what I put in my mouth or how many miles I log at the gym. I love playing with my kids, and enjoying food with them. I know I could be thinner if I tried harder, but it didn’t necessarily equate to happiness and frankly, I’m fine. It took me a long time to accept that, even with 10 extra pounds on me, I’m FINE. #unapologeticallyme (thank you!)

  19. Gosh, I love this. I’ve been thinking lately that I need to let go of “busy,” and especially “accomplishing things.” I tend to overload myself with stuff to do. (This year I sold my house, bought a new one, left a job, found a new one, will move in a month or so – all while dealing with a death in the family and completing a nutrition program. I be tired.) The thing is, I use my “busy” to distract myself from things that make me uncomfortable. Outside people say, “oh, you’re so accomplished,” when the reality is, I’m running.

    I need to let go of “being accomplished” and give myself some space to just EXIST.

  21. Great thoughts…this moving thing sure is bringing out a lot of contemplation, right? 🙂 As it should! It’s a big life change… Thanks for sharing with us.

    For me, it’s a healthy habit that I’ve shed in the last 2 months or so: taking progress pictures. Once I ditched my scale, I got comfortable not worrying about or knowing my weight, but had read that photos are a great way to see your progress (not only weight-wise but muscle-wise!). True, but I was being too consistent and taking too many. I’m kind of embarrassed in my iPhoto albums how many there are, and realize that I don’t care THAT much to do it that often. Once in a while, sure, but I just stopped doing it daily (too much!) and haven’t thought twice about it since. 🙂

    I wasn’t sure what you meant until I started thinking about it…I’ll keep thinking to see what else there is in my life! Thanks, Carla.

  22. Sleeping in my workout clothes so that I could get up and begin to workout right away is a habit I that I have shed and let slowly, carelessly fall. I now sleep better in my sleeping clothes, and wake up earlier so that I can slowly wake up, enjoy my coffee and the morning quiet, then workout. Sleeping in my clothes worked to establish the wakingup early habit, but it is now no longer required.

  23. I need to let go of my habit of learned helplessness. I couldn’t control/change a lot of things when I was nine, but at 43 I have the power to affect all kinds of changes and I don’t need anyone’s permission to do it.

    Love this post and still adore you.

    xoxo

  24. Great post, and good musings for fall as we watch the world shed. A lot has happened for me in the last year, and a lot has been shed. I’m currently in a low income stage of my life again, so I’d have to say that I’m looking to shed my old spending habits, which were not bad or wasteful or over-indulgent, but they were not necessary and now they will hold me back.

  25. I’m going to say I need to shed the habit of planning (over-planning) and learn to just relax more and go with the flow. Starting today!!!

  28. I have stopped making myself eat healthy things that I don’t LOVE. I figure there are enough foods out there that I CAN eat that I should never HAVE to make myself eat anything.

  29. this is so beautiful. Healthy habits to shed. Being practical and overly frugal. I think I need to shed the stiff in my life that no longer serves me even if that means I have to buy it again in the future. It’s clutters my house and steals my energy. Thank you so much for this post. Also I love the tornados motto and fully support living life as fast as possible 🙂

  30. I need to shed some of my feelings with food. I’ve been stepping back from blogging because I feel like some people’s blogs make me feel inadequate.

  31. you are such a thinker, and the tornado is lucky to have you. WISE WOMEN you both are. I would say yes, there once was good habit that served me well.. until i OVER served it. Live, learn, regrow

  32. Talk about a “get me thinking” post. Of course, a good deal of your posts make me think. Tornado is also very smart for the few short years she has been here. 🙂
    I’ll have to think about this, maybe this is a good discussion to have with my running group during our next run…

  33. I have to stop being too nice to people because after a certain point they think they can walk all over me!!!! Then I feel like I am being taken for granted. It’s just obnoxious, but it’s really hard not to be nice and helpful – it’s in my nature!

  34. I’m working on shedding an old habit that used to serve me – and still does – but has become very unhealthy. I have a tendency to take a nap when I get overwhelmed or too stressed or just generally don’t feel good emotionally. It’s okay to distract from painful feelings once in awhile, but it eventually became my go-to, where I started napping many times a week (and we’re talking minimum 2-hour naps here). So I’m working on shedding that habit while learning to replace it with something a bit healthier that can serve the same purpose of handling the painful emotions.

  36. Sometimes we develop habits out of necessity. It’s an interesting question to ask which ones we no longer need. It really is something to think about.

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