Your Habit can be changed
As walking on grass automatically makes the road, you can change your habit. try to walk without a road — vizvasrj
When the new year approaches, 44% of people in the United States usually make resolutions.
Whether it’s improving our physical fitness or our mental health, eating better or spending less time on TikTok, overall, we’re inspired by the fresh start that January brings, ready to be better, smarter versions , fitter and faster of ourselves.
And nearly half of us fail. Why? Because most of us don’t practice “self-directed neuroplasticity,” experts say.
neuroplast icite occurs when you intentionally rewire your brain to create positive habits. People do this mostly through active thinking.
Yes, the term is a mouthful — but it’s also a powerful, scientific method for breaking unwanted habits and creating new, healthy ones.
The concept was first defined by researcher Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz and later popularized by Dr. Rick Hanson , a psychologist and senior researcher at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and author of “Hardwiring Happiness.”
Self-directed neuroplasticity is different from experience-dependent neuroplasticity, a passive process in which we reinforce habits by unconsciously repeating them over and over again, whether good or bad.
You can use this method to train your brain to maintain habits over the long term. It’s too good to be true? Read on to find out how to do it.
How habits are formed
Habits are routines or rituals that are unconscious or have become almost automatic or second nature.
A habit is a practice that you repeat so regularly that it can be hard to change. It could be biting your nails when you’re worried, picking up a bottle of wine every time you pass the liquor store, or opening a bag of chips while watching TV at the end of the day.
A habit can even be unconscious, like shaking your leg while in flight or licking your lips when you have to speak in public.
But where do habits come from?
Your sensory nervous system is constantly monitoring what actions you can take to deliver a dose of dopamine, the brain’s reward chemical. We are programmed to seek pleasure.
“Any habit we develop is because our brain is designed to sense things that reward us and punish us,” says Dr. Sanam Hafeez , a New York-based clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist.
When your brain recognizes a pattern, such as a link between action and satisfaction, it files that information carefully into an area of the brain called the basal ganglia. It’s also where we develop emotions and memories, but it’s not where conscious decisions are made — it’s the prefrontal cortex.
Maybe that’s what makes habits so hard to break. They come from a region of the brain that is beyond your conscious control, so you are barely aware of doing them, if at all.
In early mankind, this was beneficial: the reward center of our brain was a survival tool that helped us seek out the things we needed to survive, such as comfort and calories, and to avoid discomfort. .
In a modern world, however, this constant search for wellness experiences can lead us in unhelpful directions.
Just because something feels good in the moment doesn’t mean it’s good for our happiness, health, longevity, social relationships, or long-term mental well-being. And just because something is uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s dangerous.
Just like in our ancestors, our brain hunts for this high level of dopamine. So when a behavior results in a reward, the brain makes a connection between that behavior and pleasure that can be hard to shake.
This link between signal, action and reward is how a habit is born.
The Habit Loop
Habits are actions triggered by cues, such as a time of day, activity, or location. They culminate in a feel-good reward that, through repetition, firmly fuses the link between cue and reward in the brain.
Psychologists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) made a landmark discovery in 1999 of a cue-routine-reward that journalist Charles Duhigg later coined “ the habit loop” in his 2012 book “ The Power of Habit”.
Design by Ruth Basagoitia
Here’s how the habit loop works:
- Cue. You encounter a stimulus — a trigger. It could be being in a certain place, smelling a certain smell, seeing a certain person, or feeling a particular emotional state, among many other possibilities.
- Craving. The stimulus causes you to desire a particular outcome that you find rewarding. It motivates you to act.
- Response. You engage in behaviors, thoughts, or actions that you take to get that result.
- Reward. The result occurs and you feel a sense of reward as a result, satisfying your craving. The pleasure or relief you feel strengthens the signal, which makes it even better to trigger the urge the next time. That’s why it’s an endless loop.
Here is an example of how the habit loop can lead to unwanted habits:
You might hit a wall with a creative project and want to take a break from the hard mental work. You go out for a cigarette, both to relieve yourself of an uncomfortable situation and to give you a nicotine boost. Over time, feeling stuck at work will start to prompt you to smoke cigarettes.
The habit loop often happens unconsciously and can perpetuate not-so-good-for-us behavior. But we can also use these cue and reward principles to intentionally cultivate habits with the results we want.
Here is an example of how the habit loop can lead to beneficial results:
You hit a wall with a creative project and feel like taking a break from the hard mental work. You go out for a walk, relieve yourself of an uncomfortable situation and exercise. Over time, feeling stuck at work will start to prompt you to go for walks.
Design by Ruth Basagoitia
One option is to pair “good habits” (like exercising more) with a more immediate reward, such as listening to the new episode of your favorite podcast only when you’re walking.
Another option is to tap into the magic of mindfulness.
The power of “why”
Reflection is at the heart of rewiring habits.
It’s a mainstay of cognitive behavioral therapy , which basically works like this: Try new things and pay attention to how they make you feel. This second part is absolutely essential. “It’s the best hack to change predefined behaviors,” says Hafeez.
To practice it at home, it’s simple. Think about how unhealthy behaviors make you feel bad, and how healthy behaviors make you feel good. Then write it down. Then talk to someone about it. Then reread what you wrote a month later.
“When you see the data that you’ve done what you said you would do, you build self-confidence,” says Catherine Roscoe Barr . She is a Vancouver-based wellness coach with a background in neuropsychology who has successfully used neuroplasticity to build positive fitness and nutrition habits.
“You can use the mind to change your physical brain and anchor that belief,” she says.
Especially, for actions that have longer-term benefits, it’s important to take the time to celebrate the short-term benefits.
Yes, over time eating nutrient dense foods will likely increase your energy and focus and possibly create a stronger physique, but the brain has a hard time sticking to something if it can’t see no more immediate results.
That’s why it’s important to keep a journal shortly after an activity, to merge feelings with action. “I’m proud I made that choice” or “I was more energized after lunch” are positive feelings you might have after choosing a kale salad over a cheeseburger.
It’s essential to take a moment to recognize them so your brain can learn to seek out that connection the next time lunch rolls around.
Barr suggests periodically going back and reading the last few weeks and months in your journal or notes to really see the data in action.
“When you see the data, you know it works, and it convinces your brain through your own words and your own writing that yes, indeed, it really is powerful,” Barr says.
How to start a new habit (or break an old one)
Of course, journaling is not a panacea for breaking a useless habit or motivating yourself to adopt a new routine.
Here are some more science-based techniques that can help make your habit hacking more likely to succeed.
Say your goal out loud
Positive affirmations can get a woo-woo reputation, but saying your goals out loud actually makes you more likely to achieve them, and it can also help boost your self-esteem, according to research .
Dr. Tom Kannon is a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. He says that when people have had brain scans while speaking positive affirmations, the brain “lights up like a Christmas tree”.
“Your brain really wants to believe everything you say,” he says.
Swap a new habit for an old one
Instead of going cold turkey, it’s much more effective to start replacing or adjusting small parts of the usual action.
If you always sit down with your glass of scotch at 6 p.m., for example, keep the time and the glassware, but replace the booze with soda.
“It will be much easier to decouple the alcohol from the habit, and then you can work on replacing that habitual action with something different,” says Kannon.
Aim small (to start!)
There’s nothing wrong with big, bold goals, of course. But there have to be smaller, bite-sized accomplishments along the way. Achieving even a small goal can provide enough dopamine to reinforce the behavior and propel you to the next step.
“You don’t have to commit to going there for a while,” says Kannon. “It’s just about getting over that initial bump. You can start building on it later.
Once you’ve ingrained your bite-sized habit — for example, by committing to meditation, starting with the goal of one minute a day — it’s easy to expand or contract it depending on your needs.
Addition to an existing routine
Habit stacking , popularized by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits, takes the idea of mini-habits one step further.
Take a habit you’re already doing and add a little positive thing to your routine, like doing calf raises while brushing your teeth.
If you take a snack break every day at 11 a.m., why not walk around the block at the same time?
Banish the all-or-nothing mentality
Remember: anything is better than nothing.
Would it be ideal to train one hour a day, 5 days a week? May be. But making it your only definition of success only makes being active that much more daunting.
“Anyone can find 15 minutes in their day,” says Barr. “It’s 1% of your day.”
And once you get into the habit of moving for 15 minutes a day, it’s much easier to go a little longer.
Create a plan that highlights your strengths
“Working with nature,” suggests Hafeez.
If you are a visual or spatial person, create new habits around the format that works best for you. If you want to start meditating, for example, and audio apps aren’t working for you, look for a program with visual guidance instead.
If your goal is to read one book a week, but you find it hard to sit still and focus on your novel, download the audiobook and “read” while you walk around your neighborhood.
Change your language
Metacognition is thinking about how we think, including how we use language. If the way you talk about exercise is, “I hate it, it’s hard, it hurts,” then you probably don’t want to have that experience.
Reframing it as something positive that makes you feel powerful and happy (even if it’s a challenge!) will help compel you to get moving.
Even if you don’t believe it at first, “fake it until you get it” can connect neurons together to eventually create the real reaction you’re forcing at first. Smiling even when you don’t mean it can actually make you happy, at least to a small extent, according to a 2017 review of research.
Visualize success
As any sports psychologist can tell you, visualization is an incredible tool for achieving your goals. Even if your goal is to run 1 mile without stopping rather than winning the Boston Marathon, it can have an impact.
Studies show that whether you plan to run or run, similar neurons fire in your brain — and creating these wellness pathways with visualization can motivate you to get up and tie your shoes.
Configure the right indices in your environment
A 2018 review of research found that environmental pressures can be more powerful than just wanting to achieve a goal. In other words, change your environment to change your habits.
So if you want to create a new habit like “Be More Mindful,” instead of trying to achieve it out of sheer willpower, create a tangible cue to tie it to.
For example, you could leave a pen and a gratitude journal on your bedside table. Then, every night before you go to bed, you’ll see it, pick it up, and write down what you’re grateful for.
The point is this: you may be more likely to maintain this habit when prompted to check the journal rather than just having the goal in mind.
It can also help you change your diet. That’s why many nutritionists recommend strategically stocking your kitchen so that healthy snacks are readily available on the counter or in cupboards, while less nutritious foods are in a less visible place.
By doing this, you are actively changing your environment, making it much easier for you to avoid cues from the habits you want to break (like seeing the cookie jar) and incorporate cues into your environment for the habits you want to break. want to take (like grabbing an Apple).
Give yourself a break
Whether you’re trying to create a new positive habit or kick an old habit you don’t like, patience is key.
Yes, there are people out there who can just kick a negative habit. But the reality is that they are very rare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that most smokers try to quit 8 to 11 times before breaking the habit for good.
Be kind to yourself when trying to break a pattern. Falling back into a habit doesn’t mean you’ve failed.
“Instead of viewing yourself as a failure, reframe setbacks like, ‘I didn’t make it that time, but I can always try again,’” suggests Kannon.
Consistency will come with practice, and so will success.
5-part framework for creating positive habits
Catherine Roscoe Barr shared her recommendations for creating positive habits.
Use this five-part framework to set goals you can actually stick to:
- To discover. Make sure you understand why your goal is important to you.
- Diagnose. It is important to identify friction points or obstacles and eliminate them. Create boundaries that will help you stay on track.
- Prescribe. Determine your ideal game plan and customize it based on your interests and skills. Want to move more but hate running? Dance or swim instead.
- Convenient. As they say, it’s better than perfect. Don’t get stuck in an “all or nothing” mindset to create new habits. You’re not a failure if you don’t hit the gym for an hour every day. Instead, take baby steps. Be flexible and indulgent with yourself. “I love the word ‘hands-on,’” says Barr. “It’s a reminder that it’s not about being perfect — it’s about doing it.”
- Pause. Reflecting on your efforts and your results creates new connections in the brain.