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It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t have a bad habit they want to stop. But kicking negative habits can be very hard. Especially if you have done it for a long time. These can range from mild issues, such as eating the wrong foods, to severe problems, like addictive behaviours.
Rewire Your Mind
It is all but proven that the way you think has a huge impact on how you live your life. This means that while you are thinking of your bad habits, you will ultimately keep doing them. Holistic therapies such as meditation, yoga, and even online hypnotherapy from experts like Fix My Mind are great places to start.With these, you can rewire your brain to ensure you minimise how much you think about inappropriate or even criminal acts that form your habits.
Kicking Negative Habits Means Knowing Yourself
Many studies have been done and are indeed ongoing. And they all conclude that a huge 95% of human behaviour is habitual. That means only 5% of our decisions on a daily basis we make with our own knowledge. Carl Jung once said, “until you make the unconscious mind conscious, it will guide your life, and you will call it fate”. Hypnotherapy can be a great way to begin understanding yourself. But you need to understand your goals, personality and strengths.
Swap a Bad Habit for a New One
Many researchers in the field of human behaviour will tell you that you don’t really break a bad habit. You replace it with a healthier one. Whether good or bad, your habits are with you for a reason. And some are actually beneficial. But a bad habit can have a huge negative impact on your life. For example, taking drugs to cope. Or staying in a toxic relationship to stop feeling lonely. But you can maybe meditate or go for a run instead of reaching for those things.
Seek Support from Friends and Family
Bad habits can have a severe impact on your physical, emotional and mental health. And it can be hard to get rid of them. Many ex-smokers or addicts will tell you that a support system is vital. Surround yourself with family and friends. Not people who also take have those habits. That can be one of the hardest things to do. But in almost all cases, you will be in contact with people who are bad for you.
Remind, Routine and Reward
It can be a long and winding road to break the bad habit of constantly checking emails when you need to work to overcome substance abuse. But none of them is impossible to stop. To help you get started, you need to understand the “three Rs” that make something a habit:
- Reminder: a reminder is generally a trigger that causes you to reach for your bad habit. For example, a doing you always play when you are drinking. Or even a specific feeling you get, such as nervousness. Once identified, you can begin working on these.
- Routine: similar to reminders, routines are things that you usually do when performing your bad habit. This is the actual behaviour associated with the trigger symptoms. Generally, this is something you do, such as shaking your hands when scared.
- Reward: this refers to what you get out of making your habit that makes you feel better. For example, eating chocolate to overcome PTSD releases dopamine and serotonin. This essentially makes you feel like you are rewarded for engaging in the bad habit.
Knowing where your bad habits start, how they carry out and what you get out of them is a good first step to stopping them. You can actively work to prevent them because you can learn to recognise them before, during and after your habitual behaviour. Then you can replace them.
Know Your Triggers
As mentioned above, the “three Rs” are a great way to begin your journey to stop your bad habits. But further to the “reminder” phase, you really need to understand your triggers. This is vital because it’s where the habit begins. It can help to take note of where you are, the time and the feelings associated with your bad habit. Also, think about other people. Certain people such as toxic partners, can be triggers whose habits influence yours.
Buddy Up with Someone Else
Like anything that is hard to do, support is vital. You may have friends that are triggers, and their behaviour can influence yours. So it helps to work with friends or family with the same goals. Perhaps your best friend also wants to lose weight and kick unhealthy eating. This is great because you are both aligned, and you can work on a plan together. And the same system can work for almost anything. This is why the AA sponsor system works. You both know your goals.
Expect Relapses when Kicking Negative Habits
Addiction can be thought of as a habit. And it can be a very long road. It’s not easy to kick something you have done for a long time. Because of this, between 40% and 60% of people trying to stop something, like drugs, alcohol, or smoking, will relapse. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing and is considered a natural part of recovery. So don’t feel too bad if this happens. In most cases, a relapse only serves to remind you just how bad your habit is in the first place.
Practise the Law of Attraction
You may have heard of “the law of attraction”. No, not magnets! Basically, this is the belief that good things happen when you think only of good things. That is, the way you think affects the outcome of your life. Whether you believe this or not, there is some evidence that a positive mental attitude is a great way to enhance your life. Begin by thinking about the positive changes kicking your habit will help, how you will feel and how you can help others do the same.
Summary
Kicking negative habits can be easy or extremely hard, depending on certain things. These can affect your personal circumstances, your will to do it and your attitude. However, thinking differently about it, knowing the “three Rs”, and even practising the law of attraction can help.
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