by Janet

Our Beautiful Mind

It’s been a long time since I shared an update on my New Lifestyle, New Me project. I’ve been quiet about my progress. Why? Well… let’s just say that I’m beginning to understand why Adam and Eve hid from God after they tasted the forbidden fruit. They failed to stick to the plan. They broke the ONLY rule. That’s embarrassing! Humiliating even.

I get it. I’ve broken MOST of my own rules already, and confession is a very hard thing. 

But today is a new day, a new beginning, with fresh thoughts. 

Beautiful thoughts.

When I reorganized my room recently, I moved my bed around. The left side of it—the side that I have been getting into for years—now runs alongside a long, narrow table that I love. There is not much room between the two, meant to give me “just enough” space to get in and do some tucking in the morning, nothing else. 

That being said, the right side—the side that used to be up against the wall—is now my new area of “approach.” There’s a small rug at the base of this “right” side, beckoning me to come in for a landing and rest my feet. There’s plenty of clearance to walk around, sit for a spell, and to launch myself into bed at night.

Here’s the thing. Every time I enter, the FIRST thing I do—without even thinking—is head to the left side and SQUEEZE myself into that tiny space between the table and my bed. I can’t help it! I’m a terrible creature of habit. I’m bound and determined to reach “the left side” of my bed, even if it means nearly knocking over a lamp and spilling paperwork to the floor every time that I do it. This pattern of behavior made me curious, and so I pondered it for a bit. Two words came to mind. 

Procedural Memory.

If I want to change that weird habit (which might seem lame, but it’s a perfect example), I can’t give up. I’ve got to force myself to veer to the right, and I’ve got to do it again and again, over and over.  

Procedural memory is a part of long-term memory that’s responsible for motor skills. It’s where information on how to perform certain procedures is stored. It’s like learning to ride a bike when you’re young. You try and you try, and you probably wobble at first (after falling several times). But you keep doing it, over and over, and then—once you’ve got it down perfectly—something miraculous happens. The task no longer involves conscious thought. You can ride a bike, and you can do it without even thinking! That’s incredible.

When I shared about the curse of the all or nothing recently, I think most of what I said was “self-talk.” I do that a lot; sharing ideas with you all as I try to teach the ideas to myself. The whole point behind my thoughts were that I should not just GIVE UP (do nothing or quit). Life is not about all of nothing. It’s about putting forth effort to do the things that you’d like to do, or to make the changes you want to make.

So, as far as my New Lifestyle, New Me goes—if I haven’t succeeded the first time around, or the second, or even the third (and so on)—it does not mean that it’s time to give up. It means that it’s time to GET UP and to try again. And again.

Because when we do something over and over, like learning to ride a bike, eventually that miracle happens. One day we wake up and we can do it without thinking. That new healthy habit has taken root, residing on its own in that place we call our procedural memory… deep inside of our beautiful mind.

God really IS great.

Thank you for reading! I hope you found something interesting or enjoyable here.

Three Things Challenge #224: Bed, Young, Curious

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

14 Comments

  1. Well done Janet! Ups and downs, twists and turns. Way to go 🙂

    I once heard, “It is better to start and stop, over and over again, than to never start at all. We still make progress in the right direction, albeit slowly, each time we start.”
    ❤

    Enjoy the new flow to your room. I find it refreshing when I move the rooms around – LOL

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  2. I can so relate to what you said about rearranging your bedroom…years ago I had a mirror hung at a certain place on a particular wall. At some point (not recent at all) I got rid of it–and yet there are times I still walk over to that wall, intending to check in the mirror that’s long-gone! Crazy! And my place is tiny–so it’s not like I can’t see there’s no mirror there!

    As far as the rest of your post–the curse of all or nothing…and feeling like we’ve failed–I know God as “the God of many 2nd chances”. He just never gave up on any of His people in the history of the Bible (Adam and Eve messed up royally, but HE didn’t smite them), and He still doesn’t give up on folks today. The devil is the author of perfectionism, not God–No Way!!

    I recently moved my bed…twice…because the first few days I’m lost, can’t find where the door and bathroom are (in that tiny space)!! 🙂 Much love, have a blessed week, Janet ❤

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    1. You’re funny! I’ve done the mirror thing too!! I love what you said about the devil being the author of perfectionism! How true!! 😘❤

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  3. I agree. Anything we want to be procedural or long term we have to be intentional about doing (or not doing) again and again and again. I was so good for that month with no sugar and it has snuck back into my life again. 😆 We can’t give up on trying better though! Small steps forward that become procedural will be big progress over time! 💕

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    1. Right!? Don’t beat yourself up about the chocolate tho. There are so many articles about how beneficial dark chocolate is. I bust my butt trying to find things that are healthy yet satisfy my sweet tooth. Let’s see what May brings! 😘❤

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  4. Good use of the prompt. I used to re-arrange my bedroom quite often when I was allocated one all to myself when I was younger, and as it was only seven feet wide, having the bed one particular way made it a tight squeeze! Thanks for joining in.

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  6. Thanks for sharing, very nice. True, overtime, the actions we constantly repeat become part of our beliefs and automatic actions through the ‘mind body’

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