Daily Gratitude: This is how habits creep up on you. Usually we focus on those we don’t like. I have had that experience with sleep and I continue to struggle to break it. I had gotten into the “habit” of getting up after I’ve been in bed for a few hours. I’d wake up and then instead of being able to go back to sleep, I’d toss and turn until I would get up. Then I would eat something and play a game on my phone. This was interfering with my sleep. It had crept up on me before I realized it had become a habit. Once I became conscious of it I could combat it by recognizing what was “about to happen” and then I’d “reason” with my mind and explain to it as to why we didn’t want to get up. For quite awhile it worked and then it seemed to creep back in. The neural circuits can get programmed without us even knowing it. The brain is an amazing organ. When you look at how easily you can develop habits that are small and seemingly unimportant, it’s not hard to see how engrained the beliefs about ourselves are – these are actually just habits too. Ever since we were young we’ve had so much repeated to us that we had no other choice but to believe these things. If they are positive thoughts that’s great but often they are not good things and the negative neural circuits are formed telling us we’re not smart, not worthwhile, etc. We end up believing these things about ourselves. But the good news is that since they are just habits, we can change them. Not easily but doable. James Clear has a great book on habits – Atomic Habits. There is also a book titled “Tiny Habits” by BJ Fogg which is also good.