Day 170 Record Keeping SRHI = 84
Day 138 Fixed Meditation SRHI = 82
Day 84 Bodyweight Exercise SRHI= 81 (3x8 pushups)
Day 11 Writing = 13
Day 184 Eating SRHI = 54
Great sleep, good wakeup.

Mechanism of Preventing Arising Urges

Despite the awkward description, this has been something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.

In many addictions and bad habits there is an urge to do something that wells up. For smokers it’s that bell that says it’s time to light up. The same can be said about nail biting or anxiety.

As an incredibly anxious person, it’s natural for me to worry. It wells up - and even if there’s nothing to worry about, I worry about NOT worrying.

There is a lot of literature that seems to suggesting breaking a habit isn’t a deconstruction, but rather a redirection. Charles Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit, suggests that the best way is to replace an already established habit, and describes this without really getting into collapsing one.

All I know is that at some point, by distracting yourself or enduring, the urge ceases to arise. And that fascinates me. Why? And where is that tipping point?

Imagine if you could tell a smoker that after fighting off the urge to smoke X number of times, the urge would cease arising at all? Of course it would change from person to person, but what if you could come up with an average?

Would this be the same for nail biting? For anxiety? At some point, while fighting anxiety, if I do it enough over a long enough period consecutively, do I cease being an anxious person?

And consecutivity seems to be key. My feeling is that a smoker who fought the urge every other time doesn’t become a non-smoker - though it might be a start to slide into the groove of doing it.

This is hilarious because it shows just how in the Stone Age we are when it comes to all this. And it’s exciting to know that change and transformation are at the heart of this project.