Bad habits–we all have them. And they're notoriously hard to break. It’s natural for our brains to default to habits, especially when we derive pleasure or an intrinsic reward from them. Russell Poldrack, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, shares “We want the brain to learn how to do [some] things without energy and effort. Habits are an adaptive feature of how the brain works.
But, when it comes to bad habits that are detrimental to our physical and emotional health, we want to train our brains to break these cycles. According to Poldrack and Elliot Berkman, director of the University of Oregon’s Social and Affective Neuroscience Lab, there are a few strategies that can help break bad habits.
Key takeaways
- Activating the parasympathetic nervous system through practices like breathwork and meditation can contribute to reducing overall stress, making it easier to work towards breaking detrimental habits.
- Understand the three components of habits—cue, routine, and reward—and identify the cues associated with your bad habits.
- Instead of suppressing thoughts or attempting to eliminate habits outright, focus on replacing bad habits with positive alternatives.
1. Lower Stress Levels
According to Poldrack, a lot of habits are related to the feel-good, rewarding feeling your brain gets when it releases dopamine through habits like smoking, alcohol consumption, or sugary snacks. Because of the way these habits make your body feel, you are more inclined to partake in them when you’re feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or anxious. So, lowering overall stress levels may helpreduce the inclination to participate in these habits.
There are several ways to lower your body’s stress levels–and it all starts with activating the parasympathetic nervous system. Because this part of the nervous system is responsible for our body’s “restand-digest”state, activating it helps lower stress levels, which may have a positive impact on working toward your goal of quitting a bad habit.
2. Know Your Cues
According to Berkman, habits have three main parts: a cue, routine, and reward. Cues are instances or situations that become so routine your brain has associated that situation with needing to be accompanied by your bad habit (the routine) in order to reach a desired emotional state (the reward). For example, if you are a frequent smoker, your cue may be your lunch breaks at work, during which you spend time indulging in a cigarette. Now, your brain has associated lunch time with needing a cigarette in order to achieve the desired outcome of dopamine release.
Being aware of and understanding your cues can be helpful to cut off a bad habit at the root. When you’re aware of how a certain circumstance is triggering a bad habit, you’re already more equipped to fight against it rather than fall into it.
3. Replace a Bad Habit With a Good One
Once you’re aware of your habitual cues, you have the opportunity to replace your bad habit with something that is beneficial for your body. It is common for people to attempt to break a bad habit by suppressing their thoughts. However, this typically has the opposite effect. Studies have shown that those who try to force away their bad habits with no replacement have indulged in these habits even more than they did previously. It’s important to focus on replacing your bad habit with a good one, rather than trying to eradicate the routine entirely.
This is where Open comes in. Our targeted mindfulness series like “10 Days to Breakthrough” are designed to keep you motivated and create a new routine.
As 2023 nears its end, we’d love to invite you to ourfree January mindfulness challenge: the Nervous System Reset. Create the habit you’ve always wanted with breathwork, meditation, and sound to reset your system, lower your stress levels, and replace your bad habits with a science-based wellness routine. This 31-day program is designed to help you make space for what’s next.
Download the Open app to get notified when it begins. Want to practice in-person? Visit our studio in Venice, CA.