Routines Suffocate by Imprisoning Us in Our Fears

Routines protect us so much that they can sometimes become a real prison. Establishing them keeps us from making hundreds of daily decisions that we should make if we had not established fixed customs. But they also instill in us a way of doing things which translates into a scheme of thoughts and feelings that do not change.

The price of the routines can be very high. Yes: they are necessary and a practical way to handle everyday life. But at the same time and imperceptibly, they become a way of life in which you hide and start to become afraid of change.

“There are violent evils that mark us, but the deaf evils, insistent, tolerable; those that are part of our routine and we carefully break through like time.”

-Emil Cioran-

It is usual for us to find people who live submerged in a rut, but who deny it all the time. They sigh, grab their head and say they are bored because everything is always the same. However, they do not feel they have the strength to say “enough”.

Thus, a good dose of courage to overcome the dictatorship of the routines is necessary. In addition, an important motivation and enough self-confidence is essential to be able to break the pattern and go further into the path of uncertainty.

The deafening effect of routines

The worst thing about establishing routines and keeping them is that you desensitize yourself without noticing. It’s not that you stop feeling, but rather you end up categorizing what you feel. You begin to have the perception that everything that is unfamiliar is dangerous. What’s new and different become a kind of threat.

The routine is a scaffold composed of many pieces. It ranges from how you handle your usual hours, and reaches all your conceptions of the world. You end up thinking that you must feel, think and act in only one way. You already understand all reality and that there are too many questions.

The routine decreases your curiosity, and decreases your ability to be surprised. But, above all, it makes you deaf and blind to your own potential. You end up believing that you do only what you can do and that it would be impossible for you to act or live otherwise.

The result is a state of drowsiness. With the routine you live with the function to “carry out” and not evolve or be happy. And the worst part is that you start seeing the routine as your great achievement and feel afraid of anything that might alter it.

Fear of change. Resistance to change

Living with passion is a true gift, which many cannot, or will not enjoy. It means feeling a genuine interest in the workplace. A genuine love for the people with whom you interact with. It is a real enthusiasm towards plans for the future and everything that has to be done.

Why then do so many people see life pass before their eyes and try to “burn time” rather instead of living intensely? There is only one answer: fear. It prevents you from facing what’s new, the unknown, and what’s challenging.

The change is just that: a challenge. Towards the conventions, customs, the security that makes us do the same thing again and again to not have to think too much. Even when the routine is fraught with unpleasant situations, many tolerate it because of a greater fear of change. That would require them to leave their comfort zone and sharpen their abilities to face unknown situations.

How to overcome the fear of coming out of our routines?

Each person should be doing what they want to do, the way they want to, with whomever and wherever. Why would anyone give up the chance to work or live as they want, simply because of fear of change.

Of course, no one can send everything to hell overnight. Well, actually yes you can, but you may need a much slower process to achieve this. The truth is that it is not always appropriate to break away from everything, but enough to retrieve some space to be yourself. How do you start? What do you do to get out of these routines that imprison you?

• Take time for yourself. As demanding or important as your job is, it can never be more important than yourself. There is a part of your time which you should devote exclusively to yourself. They are those areas of life where you should focus only on doing what you really want: sleeping, eating, dancing, whatever. The important thing is that you feel you’re doing solely and exclusively what you want to do.
• You have to play. Games should never be eradicated. Games seen as fun are an area of freedom by excellence. In the game you re-create yourself and you build new meanings for what you are again. Play cards, play basketball, play what you want, but play. Note: don’t look to play others. This is about only one player.
• Do not lose contact with nature. Nature has a very positive effect on our emotions and thought. So it is very important to find a way to be in contact with the green of the plants and the particular way of interacting with the animals. Nature helps us connect with ourselves and this, in turn, allows us to recognize the changes we need to implement.

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