“How to break a habit?” This is the question that many people are searching to get an answer for. Breaking a long term habit is a very difficult task to accomplish especially if you depend on willpower alone. Habits are basically behaviors that are repeated frequently and as a result of this our body builds strong neurological connections towards them. And hence breaking them afterwards becomes very difficult. This brief article will show you tips on breaking a habit and the neurological connections associated to it.
The first step to stop a habit is to create a barrier to the habit. For example, if you worked out regularly for 6 days a week, but then stopped doing it for few weeks, what would happen? It would definitely weaken and and you’d become less toned.
Similarly, if you stop doing a habit for a long period of time, your feeling of being involved with the habit will become feebler. Here are few tips to do just that.
Find someone, such as a friend or a relative, whom you like and who objects to your habit. Tell yourself that you will never engage in the bad habit when you are around him or her.
In simple terms, use that person as a barrier between yourself and your habit and try to be around them when you are likely to indulge in your habit.
Try to take advantage of your other habits to combat the biggest, nastiest habit.
For example, if you’re a lazy person, try and be lazy towards your habit as well.
Or suppose you’re a smoker: keep your pack of cigarettes locked up in your car down the street.
Another option is to pay extra for your desire to indulge in the act. Set a fixed amount of money that you’d hate to pay up and whenever you slip back into the urge, put that amount into a jar or can and most importantly stick to this new habit! When you’ve successfully avoided the habit, use the coughed up money as a reward.
Picture and feel the new life you will be living. Visualize your success and your thoughts of how relieving it feels to have accomplished this change. Whenever you feel tempted to slip back on the old habit, remember the efforts and how much better it feels to have conquered it for good.
All that said, you’ve to be patient as behavioral conditioning is quite a long process, and breaking the urge takes time, and you probably won’t break it in a day or two.
Set realistic goals and plan to wipe out your habit in 30 days. Follow these tips I’ve shared on how to break a habit. As long as you can observe an improvement, don’t pay too much attention on the time it is taking. You’ll reach it eventually.
