If you are wondering how to stop a bad habit, then you have to know the psychology of breaking bad habits first, as getting rid of them begins in the mind before the body, so your brain has the ability to persuade the body to stop repeating mistakes, and the desire to surrender to this habit begins with the mind, and your body only interacts with That mental desire.
Breaking a bad habit can take a very short time or a very long time, as how long it takes depends on you and the habit and how willing you are to quit, but basically it depends on your way of thinking.
Dr. Judson Brewer, director of research and innovation at Mindfulness, a professor of psychiatry at Brown University’s College of Medicine in the US, says: “I learned at the College of Medicine the language we transmit to patients, you need to lose weight? Stop eating junk food. Try to quit. Smoking? Use a nicotine replacement. But when I actually started practicing medicine, I quickly learned that it does not work that way in real life. Real patients do not mechanically follow the rational formulas that their doctors put in place, because their current habits are driving them. "
“I set up my research lab to explore what modern medicine is lacking, and found that we can actually rewire the brain to change our habits using wakefulness. To make the process easier on your mind, you have to make it hard to continue,” Brewer says in an article on Psychology Today. In the bad habit. If you watch TV a lot, unplug it from the socket and remove the batteries from the remote control. And if you want to reduce smoking, instead of buying a whole package, buy only one or smoke one and discard the whole pack, the more friction you have You add it between you and your habit, the more problems your mind faces in succumbing to this bad habit.
How long it takes for your mind to break bad habits depends on how prepared you are (Shutterstock)
"Strong habits enable you to quickly accomplish what you want to do," says Art Markman, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, in an article on the Fastcompany website. "But when you want to quit a habit it can be difficult to break it." Especially since you cannot prevent yourself from retrieving the action you are taking from memory. Therefore, your system of habits will continue to remind you to perform the unwanted action. "
According to his book "Smart Change," Markman says that you cannot get rid of a habit by just trying to stop yourself from performing the habit, because brain systems require a lot of effort to stop the unwanted behavior, and even when you succeed in preventing yourself from performing a behavior, it will persist. System your habits to suggest that you do this later.
There are several things you must do to change your behavior, which we explain below:
Find alternatives
Focus on changing the unwanted behavior with one that you prefer to do.Each time you do a different action in the place where you used to display your bad habit, you create a new memory that reconnects your thoughts, feelings, and the physical environment with different behavior.
Ultimately, this new behavior will become the norm.
For example, "When I was a graduate student, I stopped biting my nails while sitting at my desk by playing office games instead," Markman says.
Try a change of scenery
You should try to change your environment to make the unwanted behaviors as difficult as possible.
This has two benefits. First, changing your physical surroundings reduces the chance that you will be reminded of the unwanted behavior.
Second, if the habit is invasive, and the environment is not conducive to performing the new behavior, you have a greater chance of stopping yourself with this change.
Your environment should be changed to make the unwanted behaviors difficult as possible (German news agency)
Recruiting another person
Use the people around you to help, as the feedback we get from others is a powerful way to help us stop our bad habits.
Also, allow others to offer suggestions about things they have done to overcome their bad habits. Sharing tips and tricks is a great way to improve strategies for changing your behavior.
Mental reminder
Self-reminding is a simple way to kick a bad habit, you just need to get your brain to keep telling your body often not to make such mistakes.
For example, suppose you have a habit of speaking too much during a meeting. Every time you do, you must mentally remind yourself that you did it a previous time, make a conscious effort and after a few days you will notice an improvement and a decrease in the practice of this habit.
Identify your triggers
Every habit has a trigger attached to it.
For example, a smoker feels the urge to smoke after lunch or while with a group of smoking friends.
And because every bad habit has some motivation, you have to define your own, and whenever your bad habit appears in the picture, ask yourself, What made you do it?
And when you are in the early days of quitting this habit, you should completely avoid the trigger because of the strong urge you feel.
And smokers should stop going to the smoking area to accompany their smoking friends, and phone addicts should leave their phones without charging, because if you do not do this, the chances of slipping again will be higher.
A plan to fail
Most people manage to kick a bad habit for a few days, and then just one misstep makes it stumble again.
Such setbacks often occur if you do not plan for the expected failure. During the process of eliminating the bad habit, tell yourself that if you slip once, you will return the next day to the path of eliminating the bad habit.
Try engaging in something you love to keep your mind busy (pixels)
Stay busy
If you are busy and your mind keeps itself busy, the chances of practicing your habit that you want to get rid of are reduced, and when you stop a bad habit, try to engage in something you love, so it will be easier for you to stay away.
Use informative and visual reminders
As humans, we are visual beings who love to look and feel things, so it's best to use a visual cursor like sticky notes or use an app that tells you how long to quit your bad habit.
These seem simple tricks that won't affect your habit, but they make a difference.