Handy Habits

I woke a couple of times in the night and ended up thinking a while about a habit I’ve had for as long as I can remember. When I’m in bed, one hand or the other seems to need to be under my head, or between my knees. I sometimes wake up in the morning with pins and needles, or a numb hand, as a result.

As I lay there last night, I started picturing myself as a wee baby doing the same thing I find myself doing as a 56 year old man. Maybe I developed that habit in my mum’s womb, or in my early days on earth. It’s certainly very ingrained.

And it’s very hard to change ingrained habits. I’ve been playing the guitar for about 40 years, more so in the last two decades. I was self taught, and during that time I developed a lot of bad habits. Some of the things I’m trying to do to gain a better technique now are simply going to take an awful lot of time and repetition.

For me, this hard effort is worthwhile for some things, and maybe not for others. But the hope is that I contribute towards a better version of a future me.

Those decisions we make daily about where we allot the time we have control over is never an easy one. It’s the thing I struggle with more than anything, and it can cause me a certain amount of anxiety if I’m not careful.

But it’s always better to commit to a path, any path, with our music and our lives in general, rather than swimming in circles, or automatically continuing with habits that might not be proving to be the best for us.

Although, as I write, I’m still tempted to sit on my hands about all of that.