Old Habits Die Hard

I have spent a lot of time this year reading about, meditating on, and writing about how our brains are hardwired through habits, through our ego, and through the culture and society in which we live. Believing that carbohydrates are good for you in spite of all the science to the contrary is one. Going on cholesterol-lowering drugs is another because there is so much science that shows how harmful lowering cholesterol is, and that doing so has absolutely no benefit to decreasing heart disease. "Spinning" over troubled times and having "imaginary conversations" in my head ... well, that's normal!

But seriously, we do so many of the things we do without realizing that either we don't need to be doing them, that they do us more harm than good, or that our egos try to convince us that we are going to do them come hell or high water!

We humans are lucky in a sense that we don't HAVE to be bound by our hard-wired neural network. If we become aware enough (through various methods) that what we are thinking, or believing is not appropriate, not beneficial, or downright wrong, we have the ability to CHANGE THE WAY WE SEE THINGS. This is a key point for overall well-being I have come to understand this year. In fact, it is crucial for success in most everything.

Other animals are not quite so lucky, however; they don't have the ability to make changes to their neural network. This is why, several decades ago, it was documented watching wolves swimming to an island in the St. Lawrence River that had a lot of indigenous deer on it. When the wolves got tired, they would turn around and go back. The only thing is, if they made it past the halfway point and they got tired, they would turn around and swim back. It is all that they could do because that is what their efforts programmed into them: get tired, go back. Little could they realize that if they went a bit further on, they would be on the island. If they have the energy to swim back past half way, then they would have had the energy to go on and make it to the island, for feasting. But they could not.

Keiko gave me a great example of that this morning. He has developed the nasty habit of standing up and putting his claws in our patio screen door. It makes a very nice echo in the house. I have thrown things at him, and yelled at him. Nothing works. Stefnee recommended spraying him, but that only works when the glass door is open. And in the early mornings, it is not open because it is too cool to do so.

Keiko sits there staring in the clear glass side where he watches us and meows until we go and feed him. If we ignore him for some time, he does a circle, meows a bit more, then sits in the middle of the other window (the one without the screen because he can see in). If we ignore him further, he circles, then stands on his hind legs up as tall as he can and puts his claws in the screen!

Well, I certainly do not like him doing that, but he has decided it is the fastest way to get his food.

This morning, he did that TWICE. The first time, he did it while I was just coming downstairs from waking up. I gave him his food. He wanted more, so came back and hung around again. Then when I was cooking my own breakfast he did it again! I couldn't throw anything at him or yell at him because the door was closed and he wouldn't have heard me or been bothered by it.

So... I opened up the door, petted him (I love petting the pussy), cood at him sweetly, and then took the screen door off, and put it away for winter. I have never needed to do this before, but I'm thinking that if we go to Tokyo over New Years, and come back to a screen door ripped to shreds, I will be none too pleased.

Well, as I was sitting there eating and pleasantly ignoring him, yet watching him go about his begging routine, I became quite amused. He sat at the clear window as he always does for a while, meowing... then he circled and sat again... then...

Keiko circled once more, went over to the other half of the sliding glass doors where the screen sits, stood up on his hind legs and ...

made the funniest face as his claws pressed against hard glass, and there was no screen!

God, that was funny!

Old habits die hard, so don't be surprised or disgruntled if you want to change some of your thoughts, or habits, but find yourself slipping back into the same old routines. It IS HARD! Just keep at it, and pretty soon, before you realize it, you will have re-programmed your neural network and chosen to see things differently. If I can do it, then you can too!

(It's just too bad Keiko can't, eh? heeee heee heeee)

Have a great day, I love you!

Cam