This is something I think I was already aware of but has been bought to my attention again recently by my new working schedule.

Just over a year ago I wrote about how I was going to leave my job in May 2020 and pursue an alternative career in Yoga. I wrote this post click here to view on March 4th 2020, just before lockdown and if lockdown hadn’t happened I think I would of followed through but lockdown did happen and everything flew up in the air!

I am happy to say I did manage to get my yoga qualification and I am now a Yoga instructor however the course ran for longer then was first planned and I had to continue to work at my old job throughout. There were too many unknowns just to quit, I guess this is a great example of not knowing what life is going to throw at us.

I now find myself in a double working life at two extremes of the spectrum, my part time day job as a software developer and my evening job as a yoga instructor but what I have noticed even more is that I take better care of myself on the days I do my yoga then when I’m just sat at my desk.

Why is this I ask myself?

Is it because I’ve been doing my software development role for a long time and there are certain habits which I have mentally attached to my software development working day? Such as always making a hot drink before going into a meeting, having a sweet snack at 10.30am to break up the morning, or not bothering to get up and walk around enough – even though I feel my fitbit giving me a hard time every hour!

These little habits have become so ingrained in my working day that I hardly even notice myself doing them. However on yoga days I think more about what I’m going to eat, I tune into and listen more to my body and I have to concentrate more to get it right and not just go onto autopilot like on other work days. Potentially as time goes on the yoga will become easier and more ingrained but I hope not.

This pattern has led me to look at other things in my life like my OCD. At this stage when I’ve had it for 25 years, there are definitely some little ‘ticks’, shall we call them, which have become so ingrained in me that I don’t even notice them anymore! They’re small things which don’t have a negative effect on me particularly but they’re still there. An example of this would be that I like to rip off the first piece of toilet roll – this has been a thing for ages and I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it previously – it’s a really small thing but it still stemmed from an OCD compulsion.

Now what if I changed the situation….? What if I only put a small roll of toilet paper in the loo at any one time, I would have to use it more sparingly and not waste any, right? If I change my situation then I can change my ingrained OCD compulsion? Worth a shot maybe?

Work wise I think I will eventually leave my software job behind, once life is a bit more ‘normal’ and the yoga is a bit more established. In the meantime I am going to try and put a new slant onto things, mix things up a bit and see if it improves my attitude to my self care on my non yoga days. Maybe I’ll do a bit of yoga whilst the kettle boils or work out a chair yoga routine to do daily.

Has this post made you think of anything you do which you know is your OCD but you let it slide because it’s been around for so long? If you’re in a good place in your recovery it may be a good time to challenge these set behaviours like I am.

As always

Stay Strong xxx