How to change a habit permanently
How to change a habit permanently
You have probably tried to change something in your lifestyle: you wanted to exercise more, snack less, drink less alcohol… . You succeeded for a while, but then you fell back into your old habits. And precisely at times when you were stressed, it was extra difficult to make the healthy choice. Do you recognise that? Frustrating, huh?
Through this page and video you will learn why this happened. And how you can change a habit permanently.
Your brain as a forest
Picture your brain as a forest. For every routine you perform, your brain has to make a connection between different parts in your brain. The routines you repeat every day have created very wide pathways in your brain. These pathways are therefore easily accessible.
To learn a new routine, you have to create a new pathway. Sometimes you have to start from scratch. You have to work hard to build that new path. You also have to deal with the natural laws of the forest in the process. Because if you don’t use that new path every day, it quickly grows dense again.
You don’t have to begin from scratch
However, that is part of the process as well, and even when it has regrow and you feel like you have to begin from scratch, there is always something left of that route, you just need to revisit it as much as possible and each time it will take a little bit less effort.
Every time you experience stress, your brain automatically chooses the easiest, i.e. the widest path. That is often the old path.
Repeat to succeed
So if you build a new path, make sure you use it as often as possible, so that it becomes a very wide path, and therefore, an easy choice. Because then this path too can always be used, even when you are stressed.
So a new healthy habit needs to be learned and ‘established’ and… especially: repeated very often. Go for it and persevere!