A Powerful Method for Tracking Your Habits

A few months ago, I downloaded an app called “Way of Life” - a habit tracker.  This app allows you to track any number of habits you wish by entering them in your daily to-do list and checking them off one by one as you accomplish them each day.  You can track good and bad habits.  

What I have found from tracking my habits through the Way of Life app is that when I track good habits, I feel more compelled to do them.  There is a real sense of accomplishment you get when you check off each habit every day, and they start to build up into a long chain.  This sense of accomplishment I think, is the driver to the desire to repeat the habits.  By tracking them through this app, you get a visual representation of your ongoing accomplishments.  Also, you don’t want to break the chain, once it starts to build up.  

Some of the habits I’ve been tracking are meditating, walking, reading, and, since I’m a film scholar, watching a good movie.  I find that I’m eager to tackle these kinds of habits each day and try to get them out of the way quickly.  Hence, my sense of accomplishment.  

The key to the tracking of habits is to make them relatively simple and easy to accomplish, but at the same time, positive and growth-oriented.  This act of habit-tracking has been instrumental in my current existence of being at home as a result of a pandemic lay-off at my job.  It has given me a sense of direction and daily goal-focus.  

The free version of the Way of Life app allows you to track a total of three habits.  With a small one time fee, you can track an unlimited number.  I’m not sure why tracking my habits has made them so much more important; it is not an actual law or demand that I must do each of them.  But somehow, it sets up an internal mechanism that compels you to return to it over and over again.  Perhaps not everyone can benefit from this, but I have found tremendous value from this app.  What is measured gets repeated.   

Combining Movie-Watching and Meditation

One thing that I’ve struggled with for a long time is my attention span.  My mind wanders a lot and I frequently lose concentration on things like reading and movie-watching.  I have trouble being in the present moment with mindfulness.  This is problematic for me because I place a lot of value on film studies and the absorption of a movie’s story-line and dialogue.  

Meditation is one way of combatting a short-attention span and loss of presence in the current moment.  Being present and mindful is the essence of a meditation practice.  I have been practicing meditation consistently for about four years now and have gotten tremendous value out of it.  I frequently use the technique of focusing on my breath or just trying to remain present.  I wondered if the practice of meditation could be combined with movie-watching for a more concentrated, mindful viewing experience.  I put this question to the test with a little experiment.  It should be noted that this is usually more appropriate for home movie-viewing as opposed to the theatre.  

Somewhat frustrated by my frequent mind-wandering during movies, I tried placing my meditation cushion in front of the television screen so I could sit upright in a lotus, cross-legged position for the course of the entire movie.  The results were great:  I was able to hold my attention for most of the movie’s running time and absorb a lot more information, story-line, and dialogue.  I sat there and tried to remain perfectly still throughout the whole process, bringing my full attention to all the events as they unfolded on screen.   It was very effective.   

There may be problems in this practice with discomfort.  My one leg frequently falls asleep when I remain motionless in this position for a long time.  I also find it hard to keep my back straight, but this is important to being more alert and concentrated.  The discomfort, with practice and time, will start to dissipate and you will get used to holding this position, as you would with normal meditation.  

I found that my enjoyment of films was also compounded.  By being fully mindful and absorbing so much, you get to appreciate films more and more.  This is especially relevant to films made in Hollywood’s Golden Age or art films, where dialogue is a lot more pronounced and there is less emphasis on action.  

So, if you’re like me and struggle holding your attention while watching movies, you might consider bringing the practice of meditation into your viewing experience.  You will absorb more information, comprehend complex plots, and more fully enjoy the movie.  

The Greatest Modern Rock Band

The Black Angels, from Austin, Texas, are probably my favourite modern rock band.  Their music has been described as a mixture of throw-back, psychedelic rock and the buzzing wall-of-sound that characterizes shoegazer rock music.  To date, they have released five studio albums and a number of EPs, all in my opinion of excellent quality.

The music of the Black Angels came into my life at a time of extreme turbulence and angst for me in the year 2006.  One of my favourite rock bands at the time, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, released a year-end list of their favourite albums of that year on their website.  Included in that list was “Passover”, the debut album from a band called the Black Angels.  With that title in mind (possibly scrawled on paper), I went to a local record store and was able to find a copy of the album in CD format.  With such track titles as “The Prodigal Sun” and “Sniper at the Gates of Heaven”, I was immediately intrigued and drawn into this dark world.  I would be transfixed upon listening and continuously played the album for a long time after that.

Dealing with themes such as insanity, warfare, and paranoia, the music and lyrical content seemed to gel with my troubled mindset at the time.  The music itself embodied everything I had come to appreciate about rock music from my earliest experiences of listening:  1960s psychedelic rock, bluesy, catchy guitar riffs, and melodic hooks that were extremely pleasing to the ear.

My favourite track on Passover is “Black Grease”.  Its opening guitar riff is intensely rhythmic with the ability to induce a shamanic trance.  It recalls the guitar chops of Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix.  The lyrical content of this song is craftily deceptive, trading the words “give” and “kill” to surprising variation of intent and tone.  The “grease” in the title perhaps reflects the greasy distortion of the incessant, driving guitar riff.  

Passover had a profound effect on my psyche and personal growth at the time.  It is one of the most jarring, electrifying, and shocking rock albums I have ever heard.

The band would go on to release four more studio albums up to the time of this writing.  Their most recent, Death Song, is every bit as powerful as their initial release.  The band is no stranger to consistency.  

I have seen the band several times live and their shows are spectacular and exciting.  As a person who can be introverted and paranoid at times, their music has always spoken to me in a profound way.  The fact that the band is relatively unknown is a crime.  Not only are they intense and heavy musically, but they combine that intensity and heaviness with a keen knowledge of song-craft and the ability to come up with extremely catchy melodies.

If you’re looking for a refreshment from the bland, cookie-cutter nature of current commercial music, dive into the musical career of the Black Angels and be prepared to go on a journey that shatters the boundaries of the light and dark side of your soul.  Warning:  it may change you forever.