Habits seem to have a vice like grip on human beings. As one person said, I don’t have any bad habits, I’m good at all of them. That evokes the question – What is a habit and why do they have such power over us.
In our society, we use a number of words to describe behaviours or actions that have a source in our brain and mind. The word Habit is used to describe a behaviour or a response that it seems we have no control over. In the brain when we get a psychological trigger, a neuron fires a burst of electricity down a dendrite which activates that behaviour. We say we want to get rid of a habit but in fact that’s not what happens.
What we have to do is to create in the brain a different response to that psychological trigger that causes the electricity in the brain to travel down a different dendrite. This causes the wrapping of myelin around the dendrite and with consistent triggering will create a new habit that is stronger than the old.
This is why it takes time to create the new habit. It takes the conscious choosing of the new behviour or way of thinking to cause the brain to myelinate the new pathway for the electricity in the brain. The amount of white matter or myelin determines the strength of the pathway to create the desired result.
Start by isolating what triggers your habitual response.Then by visualising the new pathway in your brain working, you can accelerate the change over to the new behaviour. Remember that you won’t get anywhere focusing on resisting the old Habit. You make progress one day at a time by focusing on the new behaviour as if you already had it. Give thanks everyday for your ability to change a Habit at will.
