Most of us have habits that put us to sleep, that we use to numb and soothe ourselves - and which, in the process, disengage us from life.If you want to work with this, a productive place to start is to invent new habits that are genuinely nourishing and which you can put to work in replacing the old ones. A few ideas to start with:

begin a conversation with a friend or colleaguewrite in a journal - in ink, on good paper - whatever comes to mindbreathe - a long in-breath, a longer out-breath, two or three timesgo and do some exercise - run, swim, walklisten to a talk from a podcastlisten to some music that inspires youtake up a simple ten-minute meditation practicewrite haikuread poetryread a novel, chapter by chapterplaypaint, draw, doodle, inventpost to a blogstudy a new subject you've never looked at beforetake breaks in which you eat, rest, talkgo outside and look at the sky for a few minuteswrite a letter of gratitude to someone you lovevolunteer some of your time to others, for nothingallow yourself to feel whatever you're feeling...... and stay with it until it changes into something else

There are thousands of other possibilities of course, some which will suit you and and your circumstances more than others. But in case you can ask yourself - am I feeling more alive, more nourished, more courageous, more open to the world with the habits I'm cultivating, or less?And if your habits are having you feel less alive, are you sure that's a price worth paying?

Photo Credit: aussiegall via Compfight cc