Other useful exercises:
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If you want to say take up painting or learning language it helps to have the tools (paint canvass, language book or app) ready to hand. So, when giving up on crime, some handy tools are:
Your top three quotes on Giving Up On Crime.
Three law abiding things to do, where you can exercise and express your physical, intellectual and emotional sides.
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Getting coached by a trusted adviser:
If you think that you would like confidential help with any issues of reducing or giving up on offending, then search on line for help-lines, advice services and drop in centres that offer experienced based assistance and mentoring.
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Tackling damaging habitual behaviours inside of your head is not the same as being able to overcome their tactics in the outside world, without that is, those habitual behaviours tricking or barging you “offside!”
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Imagine yourself inside a huge ball made of clear plastic through which you can see your (lawful) goal ahead of you, so you start moving the ball from the inside, but somehow, you feel as if your old habitual behaviours and tactics are playing you offside.
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However, talking with someone who is experienced and trusted in scoring lawful goals, and avoiding offside traps, can help a great deal. It's like sharing the load with a trusted teammate, yet knowing that the final move will be left to you. You will find that although your goals in life are still challenging, they are more achievable.
Finding a suitably qualified adviser for tackling serious habitual behaviours may take time and effort, but then again, so will being lead by damaging behaviours
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Scratching an itch:
Often, an urge to commit a crime or wrongdoing can start with an emotional uneasiness or “itch.” However, by applying one or more of the following exercises, any urge can be scratched, soothed or made to disappear.
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Note: The exercises are not only an effective means for diverting or giving up on a crime urge, they should be rewarding in and by themselves.
Small surprises:
The “Surprise” exercise begins by looking around for unexpected things. It will come as no great mystery that no sooner than you look for small surprises, you begin to find them (even if the “surprises” seem to find you). And even though the urge or opportunity to commit a wrongdoing or crime can be still present - it may also lessen and become no more imperative than anything else around you.
Once you have discovered the “surprise” there is no great need to hype it up by giving it some great meaning or importance, just move on to the next surprise when ready.
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Counting, hairstyles instead of numbers.
As a trial run, next time you are walking down a street where there are people about, try counting how many people you pass by within, say, ten to twenty seconds or so. Next, do the same exercise, but this time, when counting the first ten people you see, instead of counting them by numbers, count them by the different hair-styles that you see; or count the different facial expressions, and you may well find the experience both distracting and rewarding. To keep things simple, whenever you get to ten, start from one gain, and continue.
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The M.E. exercise.
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Motivational Exercises can be very useful because the “tools” of the exercise (i.e. the clothing, belongings, or lifestyle of an intended victim) are there at the very time that a real-time situation or personal fantasy about one is taking place.
The exercise begins by noticing what an imaginary or real potential victim is wearing. Let’s say, s/he is wearing a coat. So, you start by asking yourself questions about the coat, such as: “Was it a birthday present from someone, or perhaps s/he bought it to look nice, and feel warm and protected?”
The next question can open outward to include the people in his or her world, for instance, “Who are the other people in her/his life, are they nice or bad people, warm or cold people?” You can then also ask yourself about the person’s hopes, fears, and vulnerabilities.
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Moreover, when you begin to ask about such things, you may well recognize some of your hopes, strengths, fears, and vulnerabilities being mirrored back at you. You might also then discover, some mirrored empathy for the person, yourself, and the situation that you are both in. What is more, you may even go on to reflect upon your situation with greater understanding.
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Stop fooling around then.
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When you stop singing the foolish praises of some urge to do wrong, yet forgive the singer but not the song. When you deny the foolish lie that you can undo the damage of your sinning, then sin no more and feel proud that you're winning. When you throw your greed away, including those last foolish dregs, yet stand up for good on your own two legs. When you decide you'll not be fooled by some so-persuasive crime, then casually turn aside before it’s just in time! When you reach up through your moral vertigo and fill your opening palms, with a brave new inner-world where only you have the ultimate power to save, instead of foolishly harm, then, yours will be the hands that saves your once crumbling world from the trembling grasp of a once-powerful fool!
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