How Mindfulness Works to Change Habits
How Mindfulness Works to Change Habits
Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. When mindfulness is present, we can see our thoughts, feelings, motivations, reactions, and responses with greater clarity and wisdom. We can pause before reacting and choose the appropriate response for the moment we are in.
It’s easy to develop patterns and habits that take us away from our present experience into rumination, worry, and fear, which, in turn, lead to stress and suffering. It’s easy to slip into overeating or over-drinking or other unhealthy behaviors without awareness, offering momentary relief but separating us from our deepest intentions.
How to Change a Habit for Good
It’s important to be aware of our existing habits and patterns of thinking before changing a habit for good. Our patterns of negative thinking are often based on old, well-practiced, automatic cognitive routines (often repetitive). They are motivated by the goal of escaping or avoiding distressing feelings or problematic life situations. These unhelpful routines persist because we remain in a cognitive mode characterized by a number of features. The cofounder of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Zindel Segal calls these the seven drivers of old habits of thinking.
7 Drivers of Old Habits of Thinking
Living on “automatic pilot” (rather than with awareness and conscious choice).
Relating to experience through thought (rather than directly sensing).
Dwelling on and in the past and future (rather than being fully in the present moment).
Trying to avoid, escape, or get rid of unpleasant experience (rather than approach it with interest).
Needing things to be different from how they are (rather than allowing them to be just as they already are).
Seeing thoughts as true and real (rather than as mental events that may or may not correspond to reality).
Treating yourself harshly and unkindly (rather than taking care of yourself with kindness and compassion).
Train Your Mind, Change Your Behavior
Before we can change our behavior, we have to get to know our brains a bit better. We can map out an unpleasant experience in this four-step process: Situation; thought; feeling; behavior.
Situation: I have a meeting.
Thought: I don’t like this meeting.
Feeling: Anger, frustration, anxiety.
Behavior: I go to the meeting, but feel agitated and checked out the whole time. I go to the vending machine right after the meeting and get a snack. Now, I have a habit.
By recognizing our thoughts and how they impact our behavior, we can change our routine to something with a more long-term reward. We often remain in a cycle of unhealthy patterns because we believe that they are rewarding us. When we look closely, we see that many of our habits are not very rewarding. A walk is much more rewarding in the long-run than emotional eating.
Situation: I have a meeting.
Thought: I don’t like this meeting, but I know it is important for me to be there.
Feeling: Ease, contentment.
Behavior: I go to the meeting with an attitude of receptivity. I also make a plan to go for a walk after the meeting as a reward.
Reference:
https://www.mindful.org/how-to-change-your-habits-with-mindfulness/