Many of these can be time saving and useful (eg always selecting a small Warburton seeded batch loaf from the range of breads in the Coop): but, by leaving the mindbrain in automatic mode, the routines (a) shut me off from the inspiring richness that exists in the present moment and (b) prevent me from having transcendental experiences.
Williams and Penman (2011) have developed a series of activities that they call ‘Habit Releasers’. These involve simple actions that help spring you out of your ‘normal’ routines and habits and thus open up a rich world of fascinating detail. They quote Marcel Proust (1877-1922) who noted that “the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking out new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
About 100 years earlier William Blake (1757–1827), in his "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", noted that “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.” And then in his "Auguries of Innocence" he gave us all the transcendental challenge –
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”
The Habit Releasers mentioned above include such things as changing chairs, going for an unhurried walk, doing a good-natured deed, looking after a plant, switching off the TV, and watching a DVD picked at random. These are simple actions whose purpose is to shut down the autopilot mind and thus cleanse the doors of perception.
If you feel like exploring this theme I recommend Googling the following individuals. They all write well and most of the recent ones are to be found in audio and video format on the internet.
Richard Maurice Bucke, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Howard Gardner, Henepola Gunaratana, Thich Nhat Hahn, Jonathan Haidt, Rick Hanson, Aldous Huxley, William James, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Daniel Kahneman, Abraham Maslow, Martin Seligman, Michael Shermer, David Sloan Wilson, Mark Williams, E O Wilson.
Lists of their main books that I have read are available here and here
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