# Conditioning

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## Practice Visual

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## Overview

<table><thead><tr><th width="139"></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>What</strong></td><td><strong>Virtues</strong><br>Habits that are based on and strengthened by softness and in harmony with your values <br><br><strong>Vice</strong><br>Habits that are based on non-softness and weakened by softness, and in disharmony with your values</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Benefits</strong></td><td><p><strong>Increase in Virtues &#x26; Decrease in Vices</strong></p><ul><li>Ability to nurture virtue and diminish vice</li><li>Ability to enchant with Virtue &#x26; disenchant with Vice</li><li>Ability to distinguish between Virtue &#x26; Vice</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Instructions</strong></td><td><p><strong>Distinguishing Virtue or Vice</strong></p><ol><li>Notice Habit</li><li>Soften into habit</li><li><p>Curiosity</p><ol><li>Strengthens: Virtue</li><li>weakens: Vice</li></ol></li></ol><p></p><p><strong>Nurturing Virtue</strong></p><ol><li>Notice or Activate Virtuous habit</li><li>Soften into</li><li><p>Enchant</p><ol><li>Notice Benefit</li><li>Enjoy</li></ol></li></ol><p></p><p><strong>Diminishing  Vice</strong></p><ol><li>Notice or Activate Vice</li><li><p>Disenchant</p><ol><li>Notice Disadvantage</li><li>Experience Dis-Ease</li></ol></li><li>Soften into </li><li>Enchant with Softness</li></ol></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Daily Life</strong></td><td><ul><li>Curiosity towards any habits and their harmony or disharmony with softening and their benefit towards your values</li><li>Activate and nurture and virtue whenever you prefer</li><li>Deactivate and diminish any vice whenever you notice them</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Consider</strong></td><td><p><strong>Distinguishing between Constructive Effort &#x26; Excessive Effort</strong></p><ul><li><p>Some virtues might partially weaken as they are based on constructive effort as softening is able to release all effort - constructive &#x26; excessive.</p><ul><li>External: Thinking about what is most beneficial to say in a conversation</li><li>Internal: Curiosity towards noticing the benefit in letting go of effort</li></ul></li><li>Constructive effort is that which leads to less effort in the future and/or progress towards your values </li></ul><p><strong>Simmering > Impatience</strong></p><ul><li>You cannot force the activation or deactivation of habits</li><li>You do can create conducive conditions to increase the likelihood of activation or deactivation</li><li>Create the conducive conditions and allow it to simmer </li><li><p>e.g., Softening into Frustration</p><ul><li>Notice the excessive effort underlying</li><li>Notice how uncomfortable it feels</li><li>Release the effort underlying with some softening breaths</li><li>You may or may not notice the weakening or complete deactivating of the frustration</li><li>Notice how pleasant and preferable it feels to let go of effort</li><li>Allow it to simmer</li></ul></li></ul><p><strong>Accelerate via Enchantment &#x26; Disenchantment</strong></p><ul><li>Soften into i.e., releasing the excessive effort is effective in weakening any vice</li><li>Softening into a virtue is effective in strengthening it</li><li>However, creating a perception shift within your mind of understanding the benefit of virtues and the disadvantage of vice will accelerate the habit change due to 'parts of the mind' supporting it</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Progress</strong></td><td><p>Frequency and Intensity increases for Virtue &#x26; decreases for Vice </p><p></p><p>Ability to Distinguish Virtue or Vice<br><br>Ability to Strengthen Virtue<br><br>Ability to Weaken Vice</p></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Acknowledgement</strong></td><td><a href="https://www.midlmeditation.com">MIDL</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_ethics">Aristotles</a></td></tr></tbody></table>