If you look closely at the photo, you can see it, one of the compulsions I struggle the most to control. I chew my cuticles.
My successful moments in combatting this nasty habit come when I remember this: Don’t take the first bite. Because, you see, I am lost if I chew 
that first cuticle. They have to be evened up, and God forbid I carry manicure scissors or an emery board. In the same way, I am lost if I have that first cookie, that first brownie, that first potato chip.
It works the same way with negative thoughts or fond memories of times that can never return. If I can distract my brain with prayer or reading material or quiet music, the old, familiar tapes of inadequacy or longing get stopped in their tracks. The trick is in not letting the replays begin. The trick is in remembering that whether Lot’s wife actually turned into a pillar of salt or not, she was consumed by her longing for past behaviors and thoughts, perhaps good, perhaps bad. The trick is in saying no to the first one… or, if possible, avoiding the situation where one has to say no in the first place.
