Changing Your Habits

Patterns of Behavior

Behaviors are driven by our thoughts and emotions, and many people find themselves making decisions that don't support their goals or intentions. This is because your subconscious mind is the driver behind the decisions you make (i.e the actions you take), and even though your actions may not match what you truly want, you do it anyway. 

Patterns of behavior can be in any area of your life… things you do automatically, without thinking… these patterns have become accepted by your subconscious mind because you have done them so many times consciously, and it is now a “habit”. 

Why do habits get formed in the first place?

Almost all the actions that we do are learned behaviors. When we are learning a new behavior, it requires conscious effort and expenditure of energy. Once we successfully learn the behavior and repeat it, the degree of conscious effort required decreases and the behavior becomes an automatic subconscious response.

It would be a tremendous waste of mental effort and energy constantly having to learn everything all over again, every time we need to repeat an already-learned activity. So our conscious mind decides to hand down tasks to the subconscious mind in which patterns of behavior get ingrained that are triggered automatically. That’s the reason we feel habits are automatic and that we have little or no control over them.

What are some activities you do that you no longer have to “think” about?

A pattern of behavior strengthens if we repeat it and weakens if we don’t repeat it. Repetition is food for the habits. When you repeat a habit, you are convincing your subconscious mind that the habit is a beneficial behavioral response and should be triggered as automatically as possible. 

However, when you cease to repeat behavior, your mind comes to think that it is no longer needed. Research has confirmed the fact that when our habits change, our neural networks also change. 

Just as a plastic water bottle becomes pliable when heated, your brain is being influenced and shaped by what is happening in your life. This single scientific breakthrough has significantly altered our understanding of how to change habits, increase happiness, improve health and even change our genetics.

Habits are helpful in the case of driving a car, mastering a work skill or learning a computer program, however they can be highly limiting when applied to our relationships, bodies or happiness levels. This is one reason why many people set the same goals each year about getting fit and eating healthy. 

What are a few habits that you would like to change?