I talked with Clare Dimond a few weeks ago about this quote from The Little Book of Big Change:
“Your habit is not “you” and it is not personal. It is simply your brain doing what it does.”
We dissected this quote line by line.
Your habit is not “you”. Of course it isn’t. Who or what is “you”? Certainly not some conditioned response pattern.
If, in the big picture, there is only oneness, “you” are everything and everything is you. There is simply life taking temporary, apparent shape as people and patterns, joy and sorrow, freedom and stuckness. But if it’s all one life energy taking temporary, apparent forms, it’s all freedom. Freedom appearing as a person with a habit.
Your habit isn’t personal. How could it be? It’s a conditioned response pattern that has absolutely nothing to do with who-you-think-you-are. A habit is no more about “you” than having hiccups is about “you”. Hiccups and habits are just a bodymind machine playing out a pattern.
It is simply your brain doing what it does. Brains learn responses that appear protective, and they repeat them. Your brain is trying to protect you with your habit in the most impersonal, loving way. As we see how impersonal and based in love and protection this is, there’s nothing to curse or fight. With nothing cursed or fought, habits fall away.
If you’d like to listen to my 17 minute conversation with Clare, you can hear it here. https://claredimondpodcasts.buzzsprout.com/968092/9925713-your-habit-is-not-you-dr-amy-johnson-wonder-full-words-series