Routine, An Ocean Of Deep Waters
What am I going to do today? Well, the same as what I did yesterday and what I will continue to do tomorrow: whatever routine dictates to me. I will get up, I will have lunch, I will get dressed, I will jump in the first metro I see, at full speed, or else lose it, I will arrive late or on time, I will meet my colleagues, I will do disappear some papers from my desk, put others there, drink coffee during the break, and have a tasteless conversation about the last episode of the series that aired yesterday.
I will leave work later, to get a head start so that I can go out with my friends on Friday night. At home, the usual things of the house will await me, of course. I will watch a movie and I will collapse in my bed imagining possibilities for another life because mine does not offer much. Routine, of course.
maybe right when she says our second life begins when we realize we only have one. That the starting gun only sounds when we have an experience in which we see our whole life go by in a fraction of a second. A strange experience, described as magical by those who lived it, because it has this power to put our priorities in order.
Man, a routine being
Those who understand the most about life say that man is a routine being and that there is nothing like habit to transform his will, ours, and his way of thinking, ours. It would be like the habit that makes the monk: frequently, constantly, fervently. This chasuble that dresses us every day so that we do not go through life completely naked and vulnerable.
All of this brings us back to the routine. An order which is repeated more or less invariable and which brings us security. Which also dispels doubts; it gives us strategies we already know to tackle problems that arise frequently.
In addition, the routine saves a huge amount of energy. It’s like introducing a program that runs on its own; we don’t have to think about it, nor do we have to create it. We have done this once before and have polished it over time. For example, at the very beginning, we took the bus to work, but one day the line was changed; so we discovered that the metro allows us to get there much faster. The reality and the success of our strategies are what fills our agenda.
Can you imagine thinking every day: what am I going to have for lunch? How am I going to get to work? What time is it best for me to take my break? These are doubts which, in our program, perfected over time, have already been resolved. So why create a problem where there is none? Why waste resources to survive when we have a routine?
Routine, a help or a prison?
However, there may come a time when, if this routine is too rigid and does not allow us to breathe, we may end up suffocating. You surely know this feeling.
What helped us a while ago has now turned into a cell lacking oxygen. We think about breaking it, we even have this fantasy of actually doing it but, subsequently, in reality, not following a daily routine presupposes – at least at the beginning – climbing a hill with a very steep drop: getting out of our way. comfort zone. It’s as if we wanted it but, at the same time, didn’t want it. And, faced with this doubt, we end up doing what we have always done.
But what are the symptoms of this species of “acute rutinitis”? There are several: lack of motivation, feeling of tiredness, certain melancholy or nostalgia, mood swings, apathy, disenchantment … and that stifling feeling that we have everything – or almost everything – to be happy but that we do not. are not.
We are talking about that feeling of emptiness, indeterminate and agonizing, for which we are unable to identify a clear origin. On the other hand, all the changes that we have imagined, when we think about it carefully, seem a little absurd to us: why try to take the bus back to work if we already know that we are going to take more time? Why change our lunch if it suits us and if it gives us energy all morning?
We are also talking about an absence of new goals that replace those we have already achieved. These new goals would only be the tip of the iceberg, but in reality they bring us joy. So, when we don’t have one, it is very difficult to see this enthusiasm appear.
This suffocation from routine may be a mild illness peculiar to people who have the resources to deal with superficial problems … or maybe not because, if there is anything true, it is that if we combine it with other elements like loneliness, we see that it is one of the most common reasons for patients to see a professional. In other words, it is one of the main causes of their suffering.
Routine, yes or no?
The best way to break away from routine and planning is to improvise. We have to do new activities, those that catch our attention, but also, from time to time, try one that has nothing to do with our tastes and that others recommend to us. Perhaps this will surprise us, and surprise may be the best way to break the door of the cell we are trapped in.
So there is a special dimension, that of the personality; we speak here of “openness to experience”. This dimension needs to be cultivated – at least, every now and then – if we don’t want the routine to nourish itself, day after day, and turn into an all-powerful monster that makes all our strength disappear.
We can therefore say that the routine supposes a huge saving of energy but can also turn into a huge hindrance if we stop dominating it and let it be controlled by it. The same happens when the risk loses all its charm in the face of everything that seems safe and everything that we have been through continuously …
Our thoughts It is essential to have sufficient motivation to be able to enter the path of uncertainty. Let’s think together …
