coffeezoo,
I am humbled by your comments.
IMO, there are two basic ways to break existing patterns. The first is by doing something; ie. literally changing your behaviour. It could be making a funny noise, getting up for a walk, changing your daily schedule, doing something outrageous (Tony Robbins is an expert at this) anything that's different than you're currently doing.
The second (and this is something that I'm only beginning to experiment with) is to do nothing except notice. Notice what happened, what you feel, what you did. Make everything a game in which you can be the observer, as opposed to the doer. Yes, this is very similar to eastern philosophy. So far, I'm finding this second way somewhat slower, yet the change tends to stay with you much better.
I have found observational excersises create subtle but powerful shifts in ones behaviour. Try dining blind folded. Spend an afternoon out in public and all you can say is 1 of 4 pre-planned phrases. Consider spending a day where you say nothing, zilch. All the while noticing your own thoughts and the patterns of others. Many will scoff at the silliness of this type of excersise. What they don't get is the fact that we are run by our patterns, not the other way around. The excersises will tend to reveal the patterns, and once noticed, will have much less control over you. This also means you will start being aware of various aspects of your reality that never seemed to be there before. Your frame of refrence can increase significantly.
Rule #2 is based on the premise that humans are not individuals, we are a connected whole (we being the entire universe) and as such have profoundly more potential than understood. Rule #2 is designed to break patterns also. Just because it's working doesn't mean something else might not be more fun. Yep, fun, because that, in the end, is all that matters. Just my philosophy.
