I already knew I touch my face too much. My sister in law used to teach her Kindergarten speech and language students to avoid touching their faces, and hearing her talk I would realize I was… so guilty! Itchy eyes, a stray hair, drippy nose, checking for random crust… do I even need a reason? I am touching my face all the time, I know it. (Brushes back hair.)
So now we are working hard at checking germ spread and I read in my newspaper that we usually make ourselves sick by touching our “T zone”, our facial mucus membranes, after we touched a doorknob, phone, keyboard, whatever. (Scratching my nose.) We can also receive germs from droplets spread by another person coughing, etc., but I was interested (scratching my cheek) to learn (now my forehead) that the T zone accounts for the most spread (resisting swiping my hand across my nose and sniff in, instead) of germs.
And habits are hard to break. So I am adopting a tip from this article- to change something in your environment that will make you more aware of what you are doing. (Leaning head on hand.) I chose to wear another ring. I always wear two rings on my left hand, and I already use the trick of moving one to the “wrong hand” when I really need to remember something. It feels so weird that I take care of the thing I had to remember as quick as I can, so I can move the ring back to the right place. (Sniff in again.). Does anyone else use that trick?
So for this larger goal I found another ring- an old silver ring from college days. I polished it up with toothpaste, one of my favorite life hacks. I put it on my right hand. It feels weird, but tolerable.
Is it helping? (Sniffs again.). I think maybe. Some. I hope.
Habits (scratches corner of eye) are hard (resists rubbing nose) to change.
Pencilonmybackporch 
What a great tip/habit-breaking assister. I love it. It’s hard right now to write and think about much else, isn’t it? I love how you weave in all the moments when your habit creeps back in.
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Clever idea! Let me know how it goes 😝
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I love how you showed us all the behaviors you are trying to avoid as you wrote about all the learning you were embarking on! I know I am a face toucher, I am now curious about how often! Thanks for the lesson and the chuckle.
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You are so clever in this cheeky PSA. The interjections spotlight what we all do inadvertently. (Coughs in elbow) You even give tips to correct these habits. Hmmm, (scratches ear) I need to go riffling through my jewelry box now.
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Great idea and I love how when we become more aware of a ‘problem’ habit it seems like we do it all the more often! 🙂 Great tip for how to break the habit – may have to try that one!
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The way you inserted the different ways you touch your face broke the rhythm of the piece, so effectively getting across your point. And now I’m hyper aware of all the face touching I do. It’s unsettling.
I have never heard of the ring thing, but think it’s a great idea.
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Sneaky hthose reflex habits, such as brushing away the errant strand of hair irritation, are brutal to resist, but it can be done. I read something years ago that it takes 27 days of repetition to create a habit but nearly twice as long to break one.
I like the hack of the ring on “wrong” hand. You got this.
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