Where Coulds Go

I largely agree with this article, though I think the point about being aware of your own choice nodes is really important here.

> Learn how to identify the moments when your mind is readily responding to your will.

In my personal experience, these awareness moments tend to occur in small and inconsistent bubbles of time. Even though the article says the choices occur when I launch Civilization or not, that act of launching can also be pretty automatic for me. Additionally, we can't entirely disconnect ourselves from these vices -- like uninstalling a game or blocking a website -- without significant mental resistance that ends up bringing back the vice.

So how do we create more of those moments of choice?

A technique that I've heard of: whenever you find the mental opportunity, you simply try to be acutely aware of every action you take during the habit. You don't even have to stop the habit at all, you're just being hyper aware of every stimuli and every movement you take while doing it. The action of clicking the icon, clicking the play button, scrolling through menus, your posture.

I tried the above strategy to junk food. I tasted the saltiness and goodness of each chip, but I also tried to acutely focus of the emptiness and disgust after it, how temporary the senses all were. I genuinely think that repeatedly practicing the above allowed me to significantly decrease my consumption, and I'd like to know if anyone else ever did the above and found success or not with it.