5 Ways to Live Little Everyday
Most of my daily life these days is family and work related however, I have found some things I do nearly everyday to help me balance life with my little side.
After reading a few articles discussing Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit book, it quickly became apparent that habits are more than just repeating patterns of behavior as I had always thought. It turns out that habits are chunks of automatic behavior that get burned into your mental faculties. And these habits determine anywhere between 40%-90% of our daily behaviors! They impact our lives in ways we often aren’t even consciously aware of.
So how does habit play into our ABDL or little lives?
I have come to realize that there are habits I do everyday to express my little side, even if subtle. Over the past couple of years I have developed these habits to help balance my adult side and little side without being aware of it. These habits have greatly improved my daily life satisfaction. I want to share them with you in the hopes that you too can find some daily habits to live little.
Here are the 5 habits I have developed to balance my “adulting” with my little side:
1. Sleep with a stuffed animal
In fact my wife and I both sleep with one. She claims it helps keep her arm from falling asleep at night, but I think that’s just her cover story. 🙂 I like to think that she might have a “middle” hanging out inside her someplace.
Wife Note: It really does keep my arm from falling asleep.
Rex Note: I think she is in the denial phase. It’s okay, sweetie, no judgement here.
Sleeping with a stuffed animal (usually my stuffed Toothless or one of my stuffed dinosaurs, Mr. D or Kolache) helps trigger my sleepy little side. There are many benefits to sleeping with a stuffed friend. But the main benefit for me is my stuffed animal acts as a trigger that it’s time to go to sleep. It also helps me regress and let go of my adult worries of the day.
Since I started sleeping with my stuffed animals, I sleep better than I have in years!
But wait, don’t you have kids? How does that work?
Yes, we do and they know that we have stuffed animals. We’ve talked to them about how not all adults have stuffed animals, but that different people do different things and that’s okay.
They think it’s pretty cool, for now, that mom and dad have stuffed animals too. 🙂
2. Affirming passwords
Let’s face it, passwords and password changes are just a pain. Recently when it came time for a password change at work, I decided to start making my new passwords somehow relevant to my little side. This is usually a small phrase of self-acceptance I say under my breath every time I have to type it in (which is a lot).
It might sound kind of cheesy but this has really helped me better embrace the little part of myself more over the past couple years.
Due to the complexity requirements for our work passwords, I frequently substitute numbers and symbols for vowels. Your password requirements may vary, but chances are you can find something that works.
For example, the phrase: “I love to eat bananas for breakfast!”
becomes the password: I<32EBfb!
which is broken down like this:
“I” – I
“love” – <3 (see the heart shape?)
“to” – 2
“eat bananas” – EB (the first letters of the words are capitalized)
“for breakfast” – fb
“!” – !
The following examples aren’t real passwords I’ve actually used, but hopefully these examples will give you an idea of how I create passwords to add a little to my daily life:
- “Rex is really happy when he is little”→ R1rhwh1l
- “I am getting more comfortable with my little, Rex.”→I@gmcwml,R.
- “Diapers with fun prints on them rock!”→Dwfp0tr!
3. Fun socks
Last year, for my birthday, my wife got me a sock subscription from Foot Cardigan. I have absolutely loved this gift because every month I get a new pair of fun socks in the mail.
Wife Note: I rock! 😉 With the crazy sock craze in full swing, no one knows the real reason!
I have recently been noticed at work for the crazy/fun socks I wear. Usually one person, at some point during the day, will ask me about the socks I am wearing. Since crazy socks are currently all the rage, I just blend with the trend. My reasons may be different than most, but the popularity of this trend does make one wonder…
Recently, I had an exchange at work with a Vice-President. It went down like this:
VP: “You wear a pink striped polo shirt better than anyone else I know.”
Me: “Thanks! You should see my awesome socks too!” I proceed to show him the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle socks I was wearing that day.
VP: “Those are…bold! You are just a surprise everyday!”
Me: “There’s a lot that might surprise you about me…” (My inner little proceeds to giggle inside.)
4. Fun pajamas
Over the past few years, I’ve started purchasing some fun pajamas to wear nightly. I have little footed pajamas, little pajama pants, and fun boxers. Most recently, my wife got me a pair of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pajama pants. They are the coolest!
As a result of telling my wife about my little side, it’s been much easier to acquire fun pajamas. Since then, I’ve amassed quite the collection of fun pajamas for all the seasons.
There is just something that makes me feel little slipping on a pair of fun pajamas at bedtime.
5. Artwork around the house
(Okay, so this really isn’t a habit, but it is something in my daily life that I have to embrace my little side.)
If you walk around my house you probably won’t even notice some of the decor that means the most to me. About a year ago we started to decorate the house only with things that have meaning to us – no more generic catalog decor to make the house look like a magazine.
During this transition we focused on finding items that matched the style of the house, but also have deeper meaning for my little side. That really cool shiny metal turtle shell? It reminds me of my favorite movie growing up, “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. And the driftwood and bronze safety pin that hangs on the wall next to the trendy “&” sign, it represents a diaper pin to me.
These are just two examples of some of the decor in my home that blends with the overall theme of the house, but makes my little side happy too.
Do you do anything that helps you balance the many aspects of your personality? I’d love to hear from you! Leave me a comment, below or privately via the Contact Rex page.
Hugs & crinkles,
Rex (BelovedRex)
