Narrowing the Gap

People often tell others what changes they would like to adopt for their lives, especially at the beginning of the year when the discussion of new year resolutions is always a handy ice-breaker for starting mundane conversations.  Even without statistical findings you might agree that stress reduction or weight loss are common goals for a lot of people, attributing to a greater awareness of health in general.  Yet what people aspire to do and what they are actually doing often have a huge gap.  For instance, they might want to have longer hours of sleep and shorter working hours, only to find themselves hooked on social media at 1am in the morning.  While knowing conceptually that rest is important, we really need to be curious about what makes us feel satisfied deep within us.  We are all wired in our own unique way and what is right even for the majority might not be right for you.  Perhaps virtual connection with human beings is more important than longer hours of sleep, then why not go for it?  To take one more step, how about trying to demystify and feel if such kind of connection is a healthy one, or are you simply recreating some childhood non-fulfilment?  The same applies to weight loss, are you starving for calories or love, or craving for fat or security?  We need to be compassionate to ourselves whatever the reason is.

I am not dismissing the need for a right balance.  Our body, mind and spirit have to be working in tandem towards an equilibrium so that our ability to partake in activities that we desire is not impaired.  The key is that we have to find out our own unique formula and not just follow a hard and fast rule for all.  Pointing at the root cause of a phenomenon or behaviour, desirable or not, is probably the first step to de-conditioning.