Our behaviour is our habit : changing our auto-pilot is possible – it’s not who we are, it’s what we do.
What time do you wake up? When do you go to bed? How often do you exercise? Have you been reading anything lately? How do you react when hurt? Howsabout when you’re excited? Coffee? or Tea? And, could you opt out if the necessity arose?
Studies have shown that the magic number is four – four times per week for four weeks (with no more than two day off in a row) and you’ll have yourself a new behaviour
– the beginnings of a habit!
What’s the importance of a habit?! Have you heard the phrase “practise makes perfect”?! Well I can’t promise you perfection, I’m all about the perfectly imperfect anyway, BUT I can tell you that practise makes for a neural pathway which in turn makes actioning that task easier.
Habits are the wiring and rewiring of our brains: think about that 30day challenge concept – whether yoga, wheatgrass, journaling, reading, or what have you – by the end of the challenge getting it done isn’t nearly as hard as it was when you first started and for that you have your newly built neural pathway to thank!
So let’s talk the science behind that new pathway:
Neural pathways are the connections between your brain’s neurons. Specific neurons will fire based upon what we are asking our brains to do and similarly the pathways we have access to are based on the connections we’ve created by specific neurons talking to each other.
Now imagine your neurons like a hand-crank torch: the stronger you get at cranking the torch, the brighter the torch will glow and the longer you can keep it lit. Likewise, the more often you get a neuron to talk with a new “friend”, another neuron, the more established that dial-up connection becomes. Another way to think of the pathway process is as you would learning a new walking route – practise leads to normal which leads to auto-pilot.
New neural pathways are established through habits which are formed by repetition (thinking, feeling and acting) and strengthened with practise. Over time, as the habit is practised consistently, the neural pathway is built and the behaviour becomes hardwired as the new normal. Once a new normal, a new neural pathway, is established, it’s just up to you to maintain it. Not using a pathway weakens it’s connection until it stops being accessed, however, the good news is that you can always put in the work to redial that connection and re-establish the path (more often more easily than the first time).
Now let’s be fair, anything worth having is worth working for:
Whilst the magic number is FOUR, it is important to not mistake this as the whole journey – at this 4 week mark, it’s like the phone number’s now listed so it’s easier to dial-up your new connection. However, regular calls aren’t established yet so it’s still up to you to keep your line hooked-up and dialing-in to build that rapport. Science has shown that it takes somewhere around 2-6months for a behavioural change to become a hardwired neural pathway and an estimated 10,000 repetitions to master a new skill.
Setting ourselves up for neural pathway success:
Thankfully we can benefit from those who’ve gone before us; James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, identifies the four stages of habit forming as cue followed by craving, response, and reward. He then separates these into two phases: problem stage and solution stage. “All behavior is driven by the desire to solve a problem. Sometimes the problem is that you notice something good and you want to obtain it. Sometimes the problem is that you are experiencing pain and you want to relieve it. Either way, the purpose of every habit is to solve the problems you face.”
Clear then goes on to translate this into a framework that he calls “The Four Laws of Behavioural Change” dedicated to effective habit creation and bad habit breaking. For new habits, turn each of the four stages into four steps: (cue) make it obvious, (craving) make it attractive, (response) make it easy, (reward) make it satisfying. Inversely, for breaking a bad habit he suggests: (cue) make it invisible, (craving) make it unattractive, (response) make it difficult, (reward) make it unsatisfying.
Dr Delia McCabe points out the link between nutrition and neuroscience. McCabe notes that a well nourished brain is far better able to create new habits. Our brains, just like our bodies, require energy to continue to function optimally in areas such as decision making, self-discipline, and memory formation. For example, if the decision making process is impeded by malnutrition it can lead to decision-fatigue, and yes that’s a real thing – snickers said it well “you’re not yourself when you’re hungry”. Voluntary actions aside, building new neural pathways requires specific nutrients, much like muscle growth requires protein, so fuel your body right and you’ll boost your habit forming powers.
An added tidbit is to tie your new habits to pre-established positive habits as well as multi-sensory activities. Dr Julie Hani, in The Neuroscience of Behavior Change, suggests “connecting a new behavior to as many areas of the brain as possible helps to develop new neural pathways. By tapping into all five senses, we can create ‘stickiness’ that helps form neural pathways.”
where to start:
The word habit always brings to my mind “willpower”. Willpower is both a beneficial and versatile hardwire – and yes, we require dedicated neural pathways to access it. That being said, every new habit started will also begin to build up your willpower – so that’s like a two for one bonus!! Go you!
Perhaps a great place to begin is with the way we think – our brains are proven hardwired to focus on the negative. In a day full of experiences the brain is hardwired to give more weight to that of the unpleasant – we are actually predisposed to the half empty cup – yup, habitual gloomy thinkers. So why not start by taking back your positive perspective?! Scientists have found that by focussing on a positive experience or occurrence for 10-20seconds, we allow our brains to transfer the information from short term to long term memory. Try doing this each day: think of something you’re grateful for, found joy in, or felt good about and focus on what happened and how it felt (mind, body, soul) for 10 full seconds. Another practise to consider is to create a mental or written list of 5 positive things each day at a specific time (when you wake up or go to bed are easy ones as it ties the behaviour to an existing habit).
Highly relevant in these covid times to be thinking about our new normals and how we can adapt our habits as our super power. So what dial-up connections are you most in need of?
One more neuro note:
The point of change is not just to form new rigid pathways, but to encourage cognitive flexibility. This is why it’s important to keep changing things up – otherwise you’re just replacing one fixed solution for another. Strengthening the neural pathways that will help us be adaptable is just as important as our hardwired connections.
“ ‘We need a balance between habitual and goal-directed actions. For everyday function, we need to be able to make routine actions quickly and efficiently, and habits serve this purpose,’ Gremel said. ‘However, we also encounter changing circumstances, and need the capacity to ‘break habits’ and perform a goal-directed action based on updated information. When we can’t, there can be devastating consequences.’ – University of California – San Diego | How the brain makes and breaks a habit
We are our habits. Our behaviours are the habits we have formed, the habits we live by, the value system we stand by. What do your habits say about you? How would you like to be interpreted? Everything from whether we procrastinate or “proactivate” is the result of our long standing rigidly and dedication to sameness – even the very rejection of routine is in itself a habit. When my kettle fused itself out at 9pm one night, I was surprised to realise just how much of my habit-formed behaviour would be affected until I could get a new one the following afternoon – “Boil water on a stove? What absurdity is this?!” I had remarked (amused by my own awkward discomfort).
So, as you go forth and consider what you want to change about your auto-pilot, how you plan to grow, and who you are…
remember to embrace that superpower
THE HABIT OF ADAPTABILITY.
References
James Clear | How To Start New Habits That Actually Stick | Chapter 3 excerpt from Atomic Habits | https://jamesclear.com/three-steps-habit-change
Amanda Eagleson | Habit Formation: How to Nourish New Neural Pathways and Burn Bad Habits | https://www.optimisticlearner.com/habit-formation/
Dr Julie Hani | The Neuroscience of Behavior Change | https://healthtransformer.co/the-neuroscience-of-behavior-change-bcb567fa83c1
Dr Delia McCabe | Create ‘Sticky’ Habits Using Four Neuroscience Approaches | https://thriveglobal.com/stories/create-sticky-habits-using-four-neuroscience-approaches/
University of California – San Diego | How the brain makes and breaks a habit | https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160526185419.htm
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