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Routine benefits
The mental health advantages of having a rut
One of the many things repeated moves have taught me about myself is that
I need routine like bees need flowers. This flies in the face of the cherished self-perception that I am fearless, free, and endlessly flexible.
My youthful fantasy was to fit everything I owned in a backpack and earn a living with a typewriter (yep, it’s been that long).
To an astonishing extent, I managed it — at least for periods of time — thus kidding myself that my spirit is free.
Trekking across the country last week, life crammed in a rented van, once again disabused me of this wishful thought. That I mourn its loss suggests
a reckoning. Why is routine a dirty word? What is freedom, really?
When routine is wrong
My mental resistance to routine — despite the fact it is essential for my mental health and productivity — springs from the fear of being trapped.
Growing up with an authoritarian father and Evangelical mother, my ability to make decisions based on my own wants and needs was basically zero. They told me what to eat, when to sleep, what to wear, what to believe, with hellfire and damnation to come if I disobeyed.
