About brushing teeth...

Have you ever noticed how you always towel dry yourself the same way after shower? Have you ever noticed how you always brush your teeth the say way? Do you start from right? Left? Or the middle? Do you always finish the same way? When you put socks on, which foot goes first? How about when you put on your shirt? 

Don't laugh! These little things matter! You have been doing these thing, (hopefully) regularly for a long time now and a habit of how you do it has been built in.  Try change just one little thing about, say, brush your teeth.  Don't do it your normal way.  Deliberately brush shorter/longer/in different order and see how you feel.

These little things we do without thinking provide the basic structure for our security.  Like we know the sun would come up tomorrow morning, we don't think about this kind of things.  Day in and day out, we repeat the routine.  I imagine if one day I am too old and need to go to the old folk's home.  How uncomfortable I must feel,  for people to brush my teeth for me and change me and feed me.  They don't have my rhythm; they simply won't get it because they are not me.

We are not free people.  Not totally free free.  People would like to think they are free and they want to be free from all structure, rules, authority and power higher than themselves.  They want to be their own masters.  But you see how we all submit to these little "rules" that we need, in order to live comfortably.  Change one aspect of it, and your stress level goes up right away.  When we follow these daily routines and how we always do them the same way, we don't mind at all and we don't consider ourselves outdated and politically incorrect. In fact, we want them done a particular way.

Psychologically, and spiritually, we also will feel more "comfortable" if we submit to certain rules.  Like training a child to form good habits, in the beginning, there will be resistance and doubt -- "Do I have to do this? Why do I have to do this every day?" but soon we will just do them without thinking and appreciate the structure and security these routines have given us. 

If you don't believe me, just try towel dry yourself after shower, starting from a different place on your body and pay attention to how you might feel.  You will see what I mean and smile. :-)