While studying the below paragraph from Science and Health, I realized it contained insight for breaking bad habits.
Mary Baker Eddy wrote:
“We say that one human mind can influence another and in this way affect the body, but we rarely remember that we govern our own bodies. The error, mesmerism— or hypnotism, to use the recent term — illustrates the fact just stated. The operator would make his subjects believe that they cannot act voluntarily and handle themselves as they should do. If they yield to this influence, it is because their belief is not better instructed by spiritual understanding.” Science and Health, p. 402.
The sentence that caught my attention was, “The operator would make his subjects believe that they cannot act voluntarily and handle themselves as they should do.” What is the “operator,” I pondered.
Have you ever felt like you had no control over your actions? Maybe you ate too much food and regretted it wondering why you overate, or smoked another cigarette mindlessly and wished you hadn’t, or said something cruel to your spouse, or wasted precious time daydreaming? This type of thoughtless action is often labeled, “bad habit.” And people commonly accept that once a bad habit is developed, it’s very difficult to break.
That’s it! I exclaimed. The “operator,” in many cases, that makes us feel helpless, could be the belief of “bad habit.” If we accept that bad habits are realities, we will be victimized by that belief until it is broken.
Of course, that is the catch, you might protest. The whole premise of a bad habit is that they are hard to break, if not impossible. It seems that they have a life of their own that we are helpless to alter.
But this is the very lie that needs to be destroyed.
The human mind is not habit forming. It does not think on its own, develop patterns of thought, and then execute them. There is one Mind, the divine Mind that we reflect as children of God. And the one Mind acts out of original inspiration, never out of mindless routine.
When we repeat a bad habit, it’s not because there is a real pattern of thought governing our actions. It’s the seeming absence of the one Mind governing our actions. It’s the belief that we are somehow separated from the intelligent and wise action of the divine Mind. And the cure is to get back into touch with the one Mind that inspires intelligent action with each thought.
Man, the child of God, is not a creature of habit. He is an original inspiration, every moment of his life.
You are not a creature of habit. You are an original inspiration from God, at all times. Every thought, every action, every movement, every inclination of your real life with God is inspired by divine Mind, and to produce a good effect.
God is not mindless. God is not thoughtless. God is not absent-minded. God thinks about the right thing to do with every opportunity, and makes a conscious intelligent choice. God is your Mind!
Claim the one Mind. Identify with the one Mind. It can break the belief that another “operator” is at work causing you to act in regretful ways.
Under the influence of the one Mind, you will be making intelligent choices too.
Thank you, Evan, for this excellent SpiritView today. Most helpful! I will reread this one many times. Thank you for all the good work, sharing and giving.
Thank you so much Evan !
I was struggling with the idea of bad habit and now after this post it got clearer on my mind that we are not creatures of habit, but an original inspiration from God in every moment !
What a releasing truth 🙂
The ideas in this post have SO MANY applications in my life and those around me..thankyou Evan…
Wonderful insight!
very helpful especially this morning!
Thank you so much!
Thank you I have been praying to know how to overcome a habit I am not proud of. This is very helpful.
Wow! Great insight and inspiration, Evan. There is much for us to think about today. I use to tell my athletes that life is habit forming and the goal is to form good habits of performing correctly especially for those situations that happen so quickly that one’s action is really a reaction to learned action that it can’t or shouldn’t be thought about during the activity because that would be disruptive to the actual execution of the act that is, planting the pole in the pole vault or playing a complex piece of music as an example. But having the right act open to expression in perfect harmony, executing a skill as a gift and grace from God in demonstration of self control as an expression of freedom from wrong or in this example any thought of error, is in my understanding elevates a true sense of our divine relationship and reflection of spirit.
Thank you! This is such a wonderful insight!
Thank you, Evan. This new meaning of “operator” for me was extremely helpful. Your blogs have become a welcome part of my morning, and I share them frequently.
Excellent. Thank you. The great debate in neuroscience is whether man has free will or is a highly efficient, self-delusional robot. Most scientists side with the robot view. As your bicycle video illustrated, habits are an efficient way for us to “operate” because it allows us to move forward without having to relearn how to dress, eat, walk etc. Some habits we label good and some bad. But there are now courses in “habit-releasing”, and as you so correctly point out, the great habit releaser which unbinds us from the “strong man” or the ”operator” is the one Mind. It sets us free from enslaving beliefs.
What a truth told, that an operator causes the bad habit and not we ourselves. We reflect, not operate. What do we reflect?, GOD OF CAUSE! That is the total and only answer to come up with. There is no outside operation that has to do with reflection. Reflection is reflection. That’s what we do. Telling all that God is Love, Truth and Life. And that’s the only there is. An operator can’t change that.
Amen Evan!!!!!
I love the fact that we can never be mindless because, as you say, “God is your Mind”. Such a profound insight. Thank you Evan for your ongoing work to help us all be Mindful 🙂 you gave me much happiness today.
Excellent Evan! Thank you!!!
Thank you for the thoughtful article Evan. Good reminder to claim God as my Mind and the thinking of it every day. Then there is no fear of forgetting things or of losing your mind…God is your Mind and how can you lose God?!! Impossible! (=
lot of room for thought. Any routine that is unGodlike is a routine that needs to go. We have a weed vine like plant here called Virginia creeper. Sometimes when i stand in front of my garden I think I have removed this choking plant but if I look a little closer there it is. somewhat like the choking routines we do not see,in front of our faces that once seen for what they are, choking off the joy in our lives and then plucked away.
A lie by any other name is still just a lie! Brilliant!
Great insight! Valuable points to
Ponder and learn from.
Thank you for being there for
us. I share your blogs very often.