Get Up, Work, Eat, Couch, TV, Bed

Get Up, Work, Eat, Couch, TV, Bed
Routines: Making them, breaking them, taking them out for a walk

by Mitchell L. Hillman, Jr.

Get up, go to work, get something to eat, lay on the couch, watch some TV, go to sleep, get up, go to work, eat. . .sound familiar? Have you become part of the Human HabiTrail? Humans are creatures of pattern and we love to have habits and routines that help to organize (or sometimes hinder) our daily lives. Routines can often propel us through rough days, sleepless nights and weeks that never seem to end, but they can also bog us down with a big sign that says "The Rut Starts Here!"

Basically it comes down to this: do you have control of your routine or does your routine have control of you? Has your routine become a ritual (defined as an outright refusal to break from the routine under any circumstances) or even a tradition (I believe in this instance, "tradition" is best defined as cozy nostalgia one feels while basking in the warm comfortable glow of their ritual)? Does your internal stability go to pieces when you deviate from your "schedule"? If your answer to these questions is yes, you should examine your cage and reassess this hamster-wheel happiness.

One problem with routines is not adopting positive ones— countless people give up on exercise when they can’t establish a regular pattern, for instance. This is a matter of replacing one routine with another, but along with being creatures of habit comes a tremendous resistance to change. Habits and routines evolve at such a slow rate that one day you suddenly notice it (or not, if your habit is not noticing things about yourself) and it has already taken hold of your life. Which is one reason why they encourage people to exercise a little each day, gradually increasing time and endurance. I imagine they also say this because you can better avoid cardiac arrest or an aneurysm that way.

If you are still singing the winter blahs and tired of staring at that hypnotic radioactive entertainment box, then let us examine the day-in/day-out routine of "GET UP, WORK, EAT, COUCH, TV, BED."

GET UP: This is the funniest time of the day and its humor is often unnoticed because we are too busy being groggy. Next time you wake up (like tomorrow) stand outside yourself and watch the comedy: the bed-head hair, the crumpled nightwear, the strange way your face looks when you wake up; these are a few of my favorite things. Then laugh out loud, it’s healthy to laugh at your own humanness.

If you wake up with a laugh, you’ll be able to carry a smile with you all day. How you wake up in the morning sets the tone for the day. If you have problems waking up, you may want to examine what’s in your morning cup. Think about removing caffeine from your diet— after a while, your natural metabolism will get back on track and you’ll wonder why you ever needed coffee. It is important to remember that caffeine is an addictive and harmful drug. This is easy to forget because it’s the only drug that usually has a timer set on it.

Checking into the "Mom was right" category, try to eat a simple yet substantial breakfast. This gives you all you need to face the day and you’ll be in a better mood because of it. As always, exercise comes highly recommended, but for those of you who have problems just getting out of bed, exercise in the morning is a long way off.

WORK: From the zombie walk toward Mr. Coffee to eating lunch at the same time every day, the workplace is filled with routines. Like everywhere else, routine’s have their yin and yang on the job. They can be tremendously helpful in motivating you through your schedule, but they can also make that once enjoyable job become mind-numbingly monotonous. Variety is the spice of life after all, if you jazz up your routine once and a while things won’t go flat. You may find this adds some color to a gradually graying job.

EAT: We have taken the beneficial routine of eating for pleasure, with others in a social, easy paced atmosphere and crunched it into the routine of devouring drive-through fast food. If you want to change your routine of eat and go, allow more time for a meal. If you normally eat quickly, allow twice the normal amount of time and chew slowly. If you have problems chewing slowly, chew each bite twenty times and notice how the food changes in texture and flavor as you count. Slow down, breathe while you eat, and most of all enjoy what you’re eating.

If variety is the spice of life, then spice is the variety of life. If you’re looking for something new in your diet try using different spices. It’s easier to cut out excess salt from your diet if you replace it with other natural flavor enhancements. Some herbs and spices have additional health benefits and can elevate your mood, unlike table salt. With fresh herbs and spices you may be able to eat your way to a better life and take advantage of nature’s gifts of flavor.

COUCH: When dealing with a wild, untamed couch, sofa-sleeper or bed, you must keep in mind that "Cushion Gravity" is the most powerful force on Earth. Once you have made a commitment to any form of relaxed furniture, you can pretty much kiss your evening goodbye. If you don’t make an attempt to leap from this unruly beast and escape immediately, you will be slowly drained of all energy reserves until finally you lose consciousness. Unlike the other categories here COUCH has an unscrupulous partner in crime called...

TV: Just Say No to TV. TV mesmerizes millions mercilessly every day and night.
I believe it’s been proven to actually eat time (and possibly brain cells). That’s right it consumes hours while defenseless humans stare into the pulsating blue light (like rabbits unable to look away from oncoming headlights). TV, in cooperation with COUCH, will attack you from all directions until it’s 2:00 a.m. and you wake up staring into infomercial hell or static (TVs way of laughing at you).

BED: Finally, getting the right amount of sleep, for you, is one of the best ways to ensure high energy throughout the day. The best way to discover how much sleep you need is to go to sleep in a darkened room and wake up without setting an alarm, the amount you sleep should be the amount you need every night. Unless you run on a continuous sleep deficit, which in that case you may sleep for a lot longer than is normal, so plan this experiment on a weekend when you have no morning commitments.

If you are concerned about changing your routine, have no fear, Spring is here and it makes humans all over the northern hemisphere leap from their homes and breathe the fresh air and change their routine spontaneously. That is until the summer heats up, then people will find air-conditioned security inside while they get up, work, eat, couch, TV, bed...