Bad habits can be hard to break but doing so can be really transformative for your health and wellbeing, so it is really worth persevering and trying your hardest to let those problematic habits go. Do you want to give Breaking Your Bad Habits a shot? Check out these science-backed techniques that could help you break your bad habits once and for all!
Breaking Your Bad Habits
Get to the Root of Your Habit
If you want to break a habit, you need to find out why you have it in the first place. Most of us have triggers that cause us to engage in bad habits, and a reward that we get from the habit, and if we can identify these, we are one step closer to quitting for good.
For example, if you’re triggered to eat junk food when you’re bored, you can start to find healthy activities that will keep you busy and replace the reward you get from eating with something else. It’ll take a lot of practice and a lot of catching yourself before you indulge in your habit, but it will work in the end.
Move to a New Environment
Something that can really help you to break bad habits is moving to a new environment where you won’t experience all of the old cues that set you off. This is why addiction treatment programs can be so successful – they force people into a new environment with different ways of living.
Of course, this won’t necessarily work for all habits – you can get stressed and bite your nails wherever you are – but if your bad habit has an environmental aspect to it, it’s well worth considering.
Make Breaking Your Habit Positive
If you think about your efforts to break your bad habit as a negative thing which will be hard and which will deprive you of a source of pleasure, chances are you’re going to fail.
Whereas, if you frame the process in more positive terms, thinking about what you will gain and how much healthier you will be, you’ll have more motivation and thus be more likely to succeed this time.
Get a Replacement
Perhaps the best way to break a bad habit is to replace it with something you love even more. Obviously, this doesn’t mean replacing a chocolate habit with a cupcake habit – that’s just more sugar – rather you should seek a health replacement.
For example, if you would usually smoke a cigarette when you’re feeling stressed try replacing that habit with the habit of walking around the block seeing the sights, or calling a good friend for a chat – anything that will take your mind of it and help you to unwind in a healthier way.
Share Your Progress
Telling friends and family about your plans to ditch your bad habits and keeping them updated in the process is an excellent way of staying on track. Basically, you’re applying social pressure on yourself and giving yourself people to whom you’re accountable.
Breaking your bad habits takes time and effort, but armed with this knowledge you can do it!
