The Art of Forming and Reforming Habits

The art of forming and reforming habits is of great relevance to all of us, irrespective of gender, race, colour, and age. This article examines how habits are formed and how they can be reformed or changed.

- Swami Baneshananda

Introduction

Some thinker has said that we do not live in this world for many days. We actually live ‘one day’ and repeat ‘the same day’ many times. Very true! From morning till evening, what we do is more or less nothing but following the same programme. We have programmed ourselves in such a convenient way that every day is the same day for us. In his famous book The Art of Loving, Prof Erich Fromm terms such a person ‘a nine to fiver’. In Sanskrit, these types of habits are called Nitya-karmas or daily duties or actions.

Of course, at the end of the week, may be from Friday evening, we try to do something different. We go outdoors, pitch our tents somewhere and enjoy life. We may think that this is a kind of change to or difference in our fixed routine. But again, it is the same change every week! Finally, there are occasions like the repetitive holidays on our yearly calendar — every year the same type of events and holidays repeat themselves. They are called naimittika karmas or occasional duties/ activities. All of this instills in us a regular habit or a kind of programming. We may not just be mere ‘gene machines’ but also programmed gene machines.