PSYCHOSCAPES: Why Habits Are Important

Surveying my woodpile, a few years past

In the latest Harper's magazine,^⁠1 Meghan O'Gieblyn writes an extended meditation on habits, covering both the pros and the cons. On one extreme, she says, are the techies who think ditching habits would be "unimaginably great." That's how I felt when I was young, driven by testosterone and the turbulent times of the 1960s: I craved to be unleashed, to run free and unfettered from restraints of any kind.

O’Gieblyn covers every contingency but, in the end, makes a strong case for why good habits are indispensable, enlisting the support of wise luminaries from the past like Seneca, St. Benedict, and William James. They all agree on the importance of spontaneity but say that’s not sufficient: To live a life of purpose with tranquility and composure, “this first nature” has to be combined with “the second nature” of habit.^⁠2 Progressively, as I’ve grown older, I’ve gravitated to this second position.

One revelation that changed me came from reading the Myth of Sisyphus by Camus. Sisyphus, of course, was that guy from Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever pushing a boulder up a mountain, only, just before reaching the top, to have it roll back down. When I first read that book in my twenties, I thought Sisyphus’s fate was worse than death.

However, rereading it in my forties – perhaps it helped that I was working by then as a stonemason– I no longer thought getting up every morning to lift stones, day after day, year after year, was such a horrible fate. It turned out to be a satisfying way of life, especially if one had enough beer to drink. I think Camus and I agree, based on how he ended his book:“The struggle itself is…enough to fill man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”^⁠3

A second revelation also came in my forties from reading The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh while pursuing my graduate degree in counseling at Antioch. He became my mentor, demonstrating why good habits were crucial even when doing a mundane task, like washing dishes:

“If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way, then we are not “washing the dishes to wash the dishes.” What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things. Thus we are sucked away into the future—and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.”^⁠4

At one point in her essay, O’Gieblyn concludes since repetition is a component of all ascetic traditions, she thinks her “own habits constitute something like a spiritual discipline.” I feel the same way, especially since, sadly, my nature veers toward procrastination and disorder. Learning to form mindful habits to accomplish essential tasks has made my life more orderly and stress-free. The payoff comes when these new habits become rituals, opening up space to be spontaneous.

No longer attempting to juggle multiple tasks all at once, I now delight from mindfully doing one thing well. I especially enjoy being grounded in my physical body while working with my hands. The first thing that comes to mind is cutting firewood. It’s a joyful act I know I share with my wood-burning pals: that real sense of accomplishment that comes from seeing our woodpiles grow longer in preparation for the long winter ahead.

It’s a habit I’ve honed over the years that connects me to something bigger than myself: By participating in the sacred dance of Nature by cutting up cull trees off my land in winter, hauling the pieces out to be stacked in the summer’s sun, and, finally, carrying them into the house to be burned in winter, I warm both body and soul.

As Meghan O'Giebyn found out, in a different context, my ritual of woodcutting "constitutes something like a spiritual discipline." It makes me feel aligned with the universe.

xxx

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