Under my blog roll, you'll note "Jenny & Erin's Blog."  These fabulous gals have launched a contest.It continues until the end of September 2007.  The topic prompts reflection about  personal habits.  Feel free to enter.  I post their question and my own entry below afterwards.

"How big of a role do habits play in your daily life? Do your habits typically form intentionally or unconsciously? What approaches have you found successful in shaping them?"

Jenny and Erin have inspired reflection about habits. In my own quest for greater self-understanding, I suppose habits reinforce the systems of belief that determine how I live. As I learn why I form unconscious, destructive habits, and uncover the fear that causes me to perpetuate them, I'm more likely to escape from the mental prison I have created.

For example, when people ask me how I am, my automatic response used to be "not bad." A friend brought to my attention that I had developed a habit of voicing tentative answers to questions, even when my intention was to be positive. Rather than continue to project uncertainty and condition a lack of self-confidence, I have learned to intentionally respond with the state of mind that reinforces faith in myself. How do I do that? I take time to intuit when I speak from the spirit and when I speak from my ego.  The ego is misguided and forges self-destructive journeys. Anyone can learn to foresee, heal and avoid this.

Increasingly, I understand habits as opportunities for lessons that help prepare me for the future. As I examine and share my perception on blogs, I become a more effective teacher and empower people to rethink their own habits. Each of us has the power to help enlighten one and other. Realize you can overcome anything. Your mind creates the thoughts that become your behavior. Just learn to work backwards. Simply read your lessons carefully. Change is only feared so long as you are unwilling to face the sources of your fear. Habits often result from fearing what you aren't doing. Once you discover what that is, and do it, and you can prove your ego wrong. Listen instead to your spirit.