Are you eating old, stale popcorn?

I read an article today about a new way to diet which suggests using your opposite hand to eat.  This simple trick, the authors say, will slow you down and put an end to eating out of habit.  The study tested people eating popcorn at a movie theater.  Those subjects who ate due to "automaticity," (without thinking about what they were actually doing) ate buckets of old, stale popcorn.  The study concludes that by picking up our fork with our less dominant hand, we can change our old patterns of eating behavior and lose some weight.

The whole idea of changing old patterns of behavior for the new year resonates strongly with me.  What are the other old, stale buckets of popcorn in our lives, patterns of behavior...ways we think about the world and life...that we mindlessly "consume" without giving them a second thought?  The beginning of a new year is a great time to break those patterns and to live life to the fullest, in the way it is meant to be lived.


As I approached mid-life, I got frightened by what I saw all around me...other people my age resigning themselves to a life of stagnancy...a life  of doing the same old, same old, while living in the past. It scared me to think that I, too, was destined to this kind of existence.  The thought that people of "a certain age" couldn't and shouldn't try new things didn't feel right to me.  After much soul searching and attending a wonderful retreat given by Peggy Patenaude called "My One Wild and Precious Life," I realized, to my relief, that I didn't have to conform to the middle-aged stereotype and could still live my life to the fullest.  At that retreat I met many women who were doing exactly that.

There are simple ways to change our lives, such as taking a different route to work or listening to a different kind of music on the radio or trying a new kind of food.  These simple changes will give you a new perspective on life and change your rote patterns of thinking and behavior.  And then there are the bigger ways to transform your life, such as taking a class, learning a new hobby, or traveling to a foreign land to experience a new culture.  The opportunities to change our life our endless, no matter what our age.  Life is too precious a gift to be wasted on monotony.

The biggest, and most exciting changes occur, I believe, when we challenge and change our viewpoints about the bigger life issues: about religion, about relationships, about work, about the meaning of life. If we can take a step back to examine our viewpoints on these subjects, we may just find that a lot of what we believe dates back to our earlier life, and we may be continuing to mindlessly consume these thoughts like so many buckets of stale popcorn.

So, my wish to all of you in 2012 is to experience a life of change, a life of difference.  Remember: You're never too old to dump out that stale popcorn and fill your bucket with new kernels, popping and sizzling with zest!