It’s a new year. In January, many of us usually resolve to rid
ourselves of some unhelpful habit. What
are habits? We know they are easy to
develop (sometimes they seem to miraculously appear), and are notoriously hard
to get rid off.Habits are formed simply by repeating some behavior, reaction, or answer. There’s differing opinions on how long they take to manifest. The physiological explanation for the formation of habits is that a neural pathway is created in the brain whenever an action, thought, or behavior is replayed. Each repetition deepens and strengthens that neural pathway. For example: say we are feeling bad about ourselves. To deny or block the sensations of pain or sadness we feel, we’ll eat a slab of chocolate, drink a bottle of wine, or watch television for hours. Every time we do this pattern, the habit is entrenched.
Before long, the time between the trigger (unworthy feelings) and the reaction (eating) becomes almost instantaneous and unconscious. Habits are learned behaviours. We have the option to respond differently.
The best method for breaking habits is to notice what immediately precedes the action, thought, feeling, or reaction. Disrupting unconscious tendencies requires we notice what’s happening in our mind and body, as they are constantly revealing our experience to external or internal situations. The idea being that if you can see what causes you to act in a particular way and its effects, you can consciously choose a different way of dealing with it. Thus lessening yours and others pain.
This is the guiding principle behind mindfulness practices: to disrupt the chain reaction or sequence of occurrences to prevent the formation of habitual patterns. Mindfulness – paying attention to what’s happening in our thoughts, body, and around us with the idea of learning from them – not only blocks the entrenching of a negative or unhelpful habit, it also provides the opportunity for creating healthy positive ones.
Our thoughts can make us happy or unhappy. To cultivate the habit of happiness, we have to tend the seeds of being grateful, kind, and friendly to self and others, and neglect the seeds of judging, anger, and fearing.
The way to stop the creation of a habit is to breathe. Awareness of the breath is absolutely vital. It creates a space or gap between the trigger event and the reaction. That small gap will eventually grow, and allow you the time in which to wisely choose your words, actions, thoughts and feelings. Thus increasing yours and others happiness. In the beginning, remembering to breathe when upset may be difficult but persevering in the habit of noticing (this is a good habit) will yield results.
May you breathe, notice, choose; this is the mindful path to cultivating beneficial habits.
