Existential significance of habits

Keywords: unconscious mental processes, habit, meaningful life (existential) values.

Abstract

Habits are an important and integral part of our lives. Many habits are formed from early childhood. Throughout life, habits are also formed in parallel with the formation of character, accepted social norms, attitudes and other, mostly external, circumstances in which a person is and develops. Rituals and habits form the basis of our day, they are what we can rely on. They affect our performance, efficiency, physical and mental health. Habits are performed automatically and often unnoticed by the person himself, because they are in our subconscious. This saves our time and inner energy for more important actions that require concentration and effort. Given how habits are formed, tracking them can give us valuable information about a person: what he is aimed at, what are his life values, what comes first in his life, and what is secondary. Our empirical research is aimed at revealing the unconscious meaning of habit, because, as a rule, the cause of the habit is forgotten, and the habit itself becomes an unconscious automatism. Our subjects, tracking their habits, were able to understand why they have these habits, what they need close in this way, and what are the meaning of life (existential) values.

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Published
2021-01-08
How to Cite
ShashkovaO., & LanovenkoY. (2021). Existential significance of habits. Herald of Kyiv Institute of Business and Technology, 46(4), 57-66. https://doi.org/10.37203/kibit.2020.46.07