I have a really bad habit- No it isn’t smoking! I can’t say for sure, but as far back as I can remember…I have bitten my nails. I can remember my mother buying the preventative polish and applying it, hoping that this could break this horrible habit I had acquired at such a young age. None of the common tricks ever worked for me. Apply something to my nail…I would just bite it away…apply something I wouldn’t like the taste of-like that’s going to stop me. Unfortunately, when I decide to do something, I mean really commit to it- NOTHING will stop me. Good or Bad habit. Only I can choose to stop or begin. I have had times throughout my life so far where I have stopped and then started. The longest was maybe a year. Never longer. I LOVE my hands with nails. I have long fingers and with nails, my hands look so much more delicate. I am currently in a nail biting phase (which began shortly after giving birth to my daughter) that fact alone is enough to explain why I began again! So where was I? Yes, the newest nail biting phase has my hands looking like they belong to a woman who works in construction. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I have an office job. Rings on my fingers really don’t pretty things up. As a child my mother used to refer to me as a worry wart. I didn’t sleep well for all of the worrying I felt I needed to do, once the sun went down. Without going into a long drawn out sad childhood story…I will say my worrying was definitely a product of the environment I was raised in. Perhaps, biting my nails was kind of like biting my tongue- can’t get in trouble if you never say anything- that kind of environment. I still worry, but as an adult I have found other outlets to deal with that my stress. Through exercise and just recently meditation, I have found a lot of relief. So, why do I still bite my nails?! I took classical piano lessons from about 6 years old up until about the age of 14. That could have been when I began biting my nails. Mrs. Darrah, my piano teacher, hated the sound of nails on the keyboard. Anytime I managed to grow my nails through those years, I couldn’t keep them. Instead of cutting them, I would bite them, as it is so much more satisfying! As an adult, playing the piano with long nails isn’t recommended and I completely get where she was coming from. I can still hear the click, click, click………”Charlene! You need to cut those nails, if the examiner hears that noise, they will not pass you!” If I’m not biting my nails, then I am picking my back and ears. I pick them until they bleed and then I allow them to scab over and then I pick more. I just take one bad habit and replace it with another one. One is just as disgusting as the other unfortunately. My brother also has bitten his nails since childhood, the difference is he has never stopped. Which leads me to wonder if it is genetic or was it a symptom of the environment we grew up in together. He has his ongoing struggles. The fact that my own children don’t bite their nails, makes me think that environment has a lot, if not everything to do with habits (bad and good). They are growing up in a stress free, loving, nurturing environment. Andrew and I communicate this on a daily basis, which I believe is a huge benefit to what they can deal with in their young lives. Communication within a family unit is everything to everyone. The benefits are endless. I started smoking when I was around 15 years old, and would quit and start again and again. Happily, I was able to finally bid ado to that bad habit. I loved smoking (I know disgusting), but if it didn’t inevitably kill you, I would probably still be smoking. It is an addiction though, nail biting is not. I know I can quit….I can just get some fakes put on and I won’t even think about it, but it’s that 2 week period after the fake nails come off that is my biggest challenge. Just yesterday, I felt so much stress that I physically felt like throwing up, it was over-whelming. I bit my nails so badly in this period of time that they are still throbbing- no doubt I will have to get an antibiotic to clear up the infection I may have caused. Disgusting- I know! I am like most people, a constant work in progress. I accept this and I will persevere. I think it’s time once again to stop biting my nails. Challenge accepted! 3 days to stop my bad habit and find a new good habit to replace it…and GO =>