Spiritual Photo Tip 15: Repeated Patterns

Welcome to Spiritual Photo Tip 15 – opening new ways of seeing and being in the world.

Repeated patterns make for interesting photography. You’ll find them in nature as well as in the man-made world around you. These can be repeated lines, shapes, colours, objects & reflections.

As you explore & express your love of beauty this week, look for repeated patterns to share through your photographs.

Here are some examples from my travels. Even the square tiles of a Bali parking lot caught my attention. What catches yours?

Now lets look at the repeated patterns in your life.

Habits are formed by repeating a behaviour over and over again until it becomes automatic.

Some of your good habits may have been formed consciously through parental coaching and the achievement of your goals.

Alas, some of your bad habits were also formed through repetition, but perhaps unconsciously.

Looking at your life, what would you name as some of your good habits? List 12.

Examples:

• daily flossing
• walking 30 minutes a day
• weekly planning
• family game night
• morning meditation.
• etc.

Reflect on how your good habits became habits.

Now make a list of 12 bad habits. 

Examples:

• overeating
• Netflix binging
• working 7 days a week
• procrastination
• sitting for too long
• etc.

Go through this list and decide which one(s) you want to change and how you’ll go about doing it. 

Start by repeating the opposite or a healthier habit in its stead.

For example, if you’re like me and can sit working at the computer or on a painting for 8 hours straight, put a timer on to chime every hour to dance, stretch or walk downstairs to get a glass of water.

If you’re in the habit of eating junk food when you’re hungry, form a new habit of buying & making healthy snacks and meals that are ready before you get hungry.

I’ve often heard that it takes 21 days to form a habit. But my research today reveals that this is a myth.

According to this scientific-based article, it takes more than 2 months before a new behaviour becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact.

To motivate yourself, put a couple of calendar pages up on the wall and give yourself a sticker for every day you exercise a good behaviour until you feel its a part of you.

If you revert to an old pattern, keep loving yourself, but start counting at zero again until you reach 66.

Or plan a very special reward for once you’ve completed the 66 days. Just don’t make a date to go to an all-you-can-eat buffet if overeating was the bad habit you wanted to change…. hee hee.