Breaking bad habits

is difficult,

it’s irritating.

You wince every time

You bite your nails

again

Procrastinate

again

Sleep in

again

And every time

you tell yourself to stop.

Again and again.

Is it futile?

 

Bad habits,

essentially,

are simply neural pathways in your brain

that are nurtured

every time

you repeat the routine.

The action potential, 

leaping over nodes of ranvier, 

and fired down that electrical avenue

every time

You bite your nails

again

Procrastinate

again

Sleep in

again.

 

Breaking habits

is difficult,

it’s irritating,

but it seems a lot easier

when you remember that a neural pathway is replaced,

when it’s unused.

Break the electrical avenue.

Break the habit.

If you just let the mechanics

of that boulevard

rust and disintegrate,

poof,

it’s habit no more.

 

It’s not willpower or innate self-control or extent of spiritual focus,

it’s science.

 

Exercising

is really tiring.

Arms struggling to lift the weight of the world (a barbell).

Scorching air tearing at your lungs.

Legs liquefying.

“I’m not athletic.”

“This is so difficult.”

“Why should I try?”

Exercising is pushing your body past the limits.

 

Quite literally.

 

Do you want to be stronger?

faster?

Well, the human body has a nice answer for that too.

 

Your arms struggling to lift the weight of the world,

Your legs liquefying,

is simply little fibers in your arms called myosin and actin filaments

tearing.

They tell your muscles,

“Hey, noodles! Give us more strength!”

And those torn fibers,

stitch back together

and make more fibers

so you have the strength

to lift the world.

 

Scorching air tearing at your lungs

is an interesting thing

called oxygen debt.

Your lung shout at the capillaries

wrapped around alveoli

(they’re tiny air sacs that look like grapes),

“Hey! Give us more air!”

And those capillaries,

gasping for oxygen,

grow more friends

So you breathe

a bit easier.

 

Just push your body past its limit

and it’ll unravel and reassemble to survive past that limit.  

 

It’s not willpower or God-given strength or inherent vitality,

it’s science.

 

Neural pathways,

those sparking freeways;

Myosin and actin filaments,

those tiny rubber bands;

Alveoli,

those little grapes;

Those are things that everyone have.

Not just the chosen few.

It’s science.

Everyone can do it.

And that’s pretty awesome.