So I wasn’t really taught to brush my teeth every day as a kid. So I didn’t. I got to be an adult and realized “hmm teeth are expensive I need to start brushing them” and brushing my teeth twice a day has been on my actual to do list every single day of my college career. It’s a habit I needed to build.
Have I successfully done it? Absolutely not. I’m pretty good about doing it at least once a day, but some days it just doesn’t happen. It’s not that I forget usually, I just had some aversion I couldn’t figure out, until last week.
I’m at the grocery store, in the toothpaste aisle with my roommate, and I complain about how much I hate mint. I FUCKING HATE THE TASTE OF MINT. The taste and the smell, any kind of minty thing in any form, I HATE IT. But literally every “adult” toothpaste in the aisle was some type of minty disgusting nonsense. And my roommate was like “you know you could like get kids’ toothpaste? You like bubblegum right?”
And y’all, it was like the clouds parted. I got some strawberry bubblegum kids’ toothpaste. I brushed my teeth with it and it was a whole new experience. I have successfully brushed twice a day every day since, because the mental block I had towards it is gone!
I thought my lack of brushing was just a moral failing on my part; I was too lazy, too undisciplined, to build a good habit. But really? I just hate the taste of mint so much I didn’t want to brush my teeth.
This made me realize that when presented with a change you want to make, a habit you want to build, if you’re encountering resistance in yourself, you should lean into that resistance and really investigate what’s causing it, then work on accommodating that.
Say you hate washing dishes so they pile up and then you’re overwhelmed by how many you have to do. Why do you hate it? Deep down, what about it do you dislike? Is touching wet food super gross for you? Try thick rubber gloves while you’re washing. Does the sound of dishing clanking together grate your nerves? Do them with headphones in and turned up loud. Do you hate the smell? Light some candles, spray some air freshener.
Do these things instead of gritting your teeth and forcing yourself, then ultimately failing and getting discouraged by your “lack of self-discipline”
TL;DR: When a task is consistently hard for you, relying on self-discipline, forcing yourself, and gritting through doesn’t always work. Lean in and listen to your discomfort, and find what makes the task hard, then try to accommodate that. Also, mint toothpaste is gross.
I have done this in so many ways to do so many things.
My solution to “dishes make my hands smell funky and the smell won’t wash off” was to ditch sponges, get a BUNCH of dish cloths, and drop them in the wash immediately after one use.
Learn to accommodate yourself.
I hated flossing, and never did it. It hurt, and my mouth is so small that it’s difficult to do. My friend, who has the same problem of a small mouth, suggested a water flosser. Now flossing feels like playing with a watergun, so I do it. Yes, a water flosser is more expensive than buying dental floss–but spending $50 on a water flosser is still cheaper than a root canal.
I hate doing dishes, mostly because my ADHD makes remembering the steps in the right order hard, and because I cannot stand very long esp on my hard concrete floors, so filling the sink with warm water wasted a lot of water and soap. My solution? Get one of those brushes with a hollow handle, the kind you can fill with soapy water, so I can wash a few dishes as a time without having to waste a lot of soap and water; and, put up a list of the steps in the right order where I can see it on the cabinet.
I avoided taking a shower, until I realised if I had the option to sit, I would shower more often! Got a cheap stepstool from IKEA, now I can sit down in the shower!
Any chore can be made to feel like a heroic montage with the right (majestic, sweeping) music. Look up playlists on youtube with keywords like ‘epic’ and see what happens! I also like looking up music that involves machinery (mechanical, clockwork, steampunk, industrial).
Don’t like the adult version? Get the kids’ version, like OP!
You are your own babysitter forever, so be a babysitter you’d want to have!
(via tinsnip)
