Some of your carefulness was designed for somebody else’s life. A way of handling money, food, illness, or trust often comes from a house where it made sense, shaped by a shortage or a fear that was real then and is not yours now. Because it was learned young it does not feel like a belief; it feels like the way things are.

Pick one habit you have never questioned and ask whose problem it was solving. If the problem belonged to a previous generation, you are allowed to set the habit down, gently, and without deciding that anyone was wrong to have had it.