To break that bad habit!

How can you rid yourself of vasanas — impressions? This is a question for all who want to break bad habits.

You want to get rid of bad habits because they give you pain and restrict you. Habits clog you when there is no liveliness or juice in life. The nature of vasana is to bother you, or bind you,
and wanting to be free is the nature of life. Life wants to be free and when a soul does not know how to be free, it wanders through lifetimes desiring freedom.

The way to break habits is through vows, or samyama. Everyone is endowed with a little samyama. When your life force has a direction, you can rise above habits through samyama.

When the mind dwells on the useless thoughts of bad habits, two things can happen. First, all your old patterns arise and you feel discouraged by them. You blame yourself and feel that you have made no progress.
Second, you see the habits as opportunities for samyama and feel happy. Without samyama, life will not be happy and disease-free. You know you should not eat three servings of ice cream because it will make you sick. It is samyama that prevents such indulgence.

A vow should be time-bound, and the time and place for making the vow should be considered. Suppose someone has a habit of smoking cigarettes and says, “I will quit smoking,” but cannot do it. He can take a time-bound vow for 90 days. If you have a habit of cursing and swearing, take a vow not to use bad language for 10 days. Do not take the vow for a lifetime; you will break it immediately. If you happen to break it before the time has elapsed, do not worry. Just begin again. Slowly increase the duration until it becomes your nature.

All those habits that bother you, that bring you pain - bind them in vows, in samyama.

GURUJI......Sri Sri Ravi Shankar