Sarah Hays Coomer - The Habit Trip

I n a 1991 address to Columbia University, novelist Salman Rushdie said, I must cling with all my might to my own soul; must hold on to its mischievous, iconoclastic, out-of-step clown-instincts, no matter how great the storm Ive lived in that messy ocean all my life It is the sea by which I was born, and which I carry within me wherever I go.

Or, put more succinctly by the supreme Ms. Dolly Parton, Find out who you are, and do it on purpose.

As intelligent, functional human beings, we look in all kinds of places for definitive answers about how to improve our liveshow to quit bad habits and build better ones; how to be healthier, more productive versions of ourselves; and how to make time for the people and things we love but neglect. We look for answers everywhere except in the place most likely to steer us in the right direction: our own bodies.

Our bodies offer crucial information that we need to thrive, and this innate knowledge is translated into physical phenomena of all sorts, dispatches from central command. It materializes in the form of vitality, equilibrium, and clarity of mindor alternatively, muscle tension, indigestion, fatigue, negative body image, or any number of other ailments.

The Habit Trip offers a deliberate method to receive the messages your body is sending and respond in kind with healing reinforcements. Its an actionable antidote for stress and frustration, but this book contains no prescriptions. You are the one with all the answers. I have only questionsnestled inside of a whimsical, fill-in-the-blank storybook, in which you are the lead character and the one and only expert. (Plus, for your entertainment, a gaggle of mythical sidekicks and a Ford Pinto.)

What follows is a tribute to your fundamental knowledge of who you are and what you need at any given time to feel whole and healthy. The themes in this book are rooted in intrinsically driven behavioral change, a concept being studied and taught at institutions such as Vanderbilt and Duke Universities, the Mayo Clinic, the California Institute of Integral Studies, and the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching. The research these folks are conducting is based on a core, not-so-surprising hypothesis: the experts we traditionally turn to for advice on how to get healthy have no idea what is going to motivate us to wake up tomorrow and make a different decision than we did yesterday. Only we, as individuals, know the answer to that riddle. It springs from the mischievous, iconoclastic, out-of-step clown-instincts we each possessthe brilliant, quirky, and illogical forces that drive us and give our lives meaning.

Our basic needs are universal. We all require safety and sustenance. Were bound together in this curious, asymmetrical journey, and the pleasurethe fun of itis in the unexpected ways each of us find to keep moving and doing our thing, to keep shaking our tail feathers in all their glory.

This story has nothing to do with what doctors, trainers, or nutritionists say about what you should do to fix yourself. Its about youlanding in your body, listening to the messages being sent, and finding ways to respond that feel productive and right.

The Habit Trip is a restorative framework for well-being. Its the utensil tray in your silverware drawer, a tool to help you decide which habits belongand which are better tossed or swapped out.

With that structure in place, you are liberated to explore what comes nextsustained by tiny doses of daily habits to fill all the needs, scratch all the itches, and fuel all the fires.

You had the power

all along, my dear.

Glinda, the Good Witch, The Wizard of Oz