Breaking a habit

I do not know if I have ever talked about my crafts here. Working on a crafting project just now did offer a great example of breaking a habit, so I’m going to talk about crafting now!
I’m am an avid crafter, from knitting to spinning to crochet to making patchworks. It is so satisfying and it is also one of the things I can do that fully keep me at the moment. If I don’t stay in the moment, I drop stitches or lose count.
In this, crafting is a deeply spiritual practice, which really deserves to be treated as such.
Just now I was working on my yoga bag, a colourful cotton bag designed to carry my mat around in, and to store it when its not in use around the house. I had finished the circular bottom of the bag, and wanted to cut off the thread. I grumbled when I could not find my scissors. Then I looked at the thread, and noticed it is built up out of at least 10 smaller threads. I could easily tear them apart, and after not even a minute of pulling, I had the thread cut off. Not pretty as it would have been done by scissors, but it was done.
Then I paused and realized something. How often does it happen that we are stuck in a habit or an addiction to something we can’t seem to get out of? Like watching too much tv, eating too much, sitting behind the computer too much. It is quite common to get the proverbial scissors out to drastically cut the habit. As in only allowing yourself only half an hour net use a day, or eating a healthy meal throughout the day, abolishing all unhealthy stuff. You set yourself up for failure that way. Habits grew over time, and it will take time to get rid of them.
So in stead of cutting the habit drastically, change it thread by thread. In stead of cutting straight back to only half an hour internet a day bring it back by just 5 minutes, for a week. The next week, 5 extra minutes. Use timers to remind you of the promise to yourself. In stead of starting on a crash diet, vow to eat just one healthy meal a day. Or vow to eat two pieces of fruit each day. And then after this habit has set in, you can always expand to more healthy meals. Find which foods make you sparkle with life, and which foods don’t. Get to know yourself this way.
Change your life in small steps, and then, all of a sudden, you will look and see you have made positive changes in your life, and the fun thing is? They seem effortless. Allow yourself a small victory each day, in stead of a defeat each day. You will grow more confident, and your bliss will increase tenfold.