It was a lot of work, but you finally stopped picking up the ice cream container after a long day or a disagreement with your partner. But and now?
When it comes to living a happier and healthier life, breaking bad habits is the first step. What comes next is to fill the space left behind with those who push you toward your goals.
Habits are behaviors that people do without consciously thinking and are reinforced by repetition.
Routine, family contexts or stress trigger these activities, and as part of the brain it regulates some of our actions to free up space so the conscious mind can focus on thoughts that require more problem solving, social psychologist Wendy Wood told CNN.
Often we can only see bad habits, but useful automatic actions are and can be programmed to be the first response to stress, said Wood, a professor at the University of Southern California.
“Everyone thinks, ‘OK, I eat more under stress.’ They don’t think ‘I’m an exerciser or a stressed worker,’ but in our research we found that people do these things as often as they maintain bad habits,” Wood said.
Since the normal side of the brain is connected to but not separate from the thinking brain, eliminating the bad and maximizing the good takes more than just wanting to do it, she added.
A ‘good’ habit is what works for you
The bad news: there is no single list of good habits to add to your life. The good news: Experts say a good habit might be what works for you.
“Most habits are established in a good way. They help us survive. So, it’s great that I don’t have to relearn how to put my clothes or how to put my spoon in my mouth, right?” Dr. Judson Brewer, neuroscientist and psychiatrist at Brown University Medical School, told CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, in his recent Chasing Life podcast.
Educator Michelle Icard works with families to help their teenage children, and when she recommends strategies for building productive habits in response to stress, she says it’s best not to be too prescriptive.
Icard and his clients make a “try it first” list of 20-minute activities that are enjoyable and interrupt negative thought patterns. Many adults want their kids to get involved in obviously healthy things like reading or exercising, but Icard said it’s less about activity and more about staying in a better space.
“It’s such a personal thing to feel nurtured and like you’re minding your own business,” said Icard, who is also the author of “High School Reform: Improving the Way You and Your Child Experience the High School Years.”
Movement and therapy are two essential healthy habits. John Duffy, a clinical psychologist in Chicago, most often encourages people to develop, particularly in response to stress, but he also finds that there is no comprehensive response to a good routine.
“I think some people are more adaptable and recharge their batteries when they go out and get into the habit of reading a book at night or going out to dinner once a week. Other people recharge their batteries when they’re alone… They just want to sit down and watch something,” said Duffy. “You don’t necessarily want to stick to what someone tells you.”
reduce obstacles
Once good behavior is identified, it takes an action plan and a good feeling to put it into practice, Wood said.
“Habits form when you repeat a behavior in a certain context and get some kind of reward for it,” Wood said.
The reward can be as simple as pride in the action or sheer pleasure in the activity, she added, and if it’s something that makes you feel good, your brain will release the chemical dopamine, often called the “feel good” neurotransmitter. , which helps reinforce the habit in your brain.
This means that if your goal is to get more exercise, it’s not advisable to force yourself to go to the gym, as a long walk in a beautiful park will bring you back.
So, to turn it from an isolated case into a routine, Wood recommends two strategies: reduce friction and temptation.
It’s important to create a good, convenient habit, she said. When a night owl tries to get up early to read more or a hopeful novice athlete joins a gym across town, all the motivation and dopamine attacks that were there in the beginning can soon be exhausted by the friction of a challenging environment. .
combine habit with temptation
However, sometimes the path of least resistance is not an option. That’s where the ‘temptation package’ comes in.
Wood used an example from his own life. In the past, she liked to run in the street – it was free, adventurous and rewarding. But, over time, the impact on the joints made long runs in the open air not very viable. So, she said, she bought an elliptical to use at home.
The only problem was, she hated using it. All the joy she felt in running was removed in her new low-impact option, and she rarely climbed onto the machine.
That’s when he realized it was helpful to combine the habit you’re working to build with an activity that can be induced, Wood recommended.
She now uses the elliptical regularly, she said, because it allows her to watch TV shows or read fun novels — which she normally wouldn’t be able to justify spending time on — when she’s on the machine.
It’s an example of how joy, planning, and convenience come together to build better habits.
Reference: CNN Brasil
