TRAIN YOUR BRAIN & CREATE NEW KICK-ASS HABITS
Article by Jentana Lee Dabbs
Photo Credit: Mike Nguyen
Magazine: Issue #22
Deep down inside (or not so deep down) there is the dream vision of yourself screaming to get out and run free, you know it and you feel it, so why is it so dang difficult to create the new habits and thoughts to unleash that vision?
Triggers.
New habits and thoughts are difficult to improve because we have habitual triggers that are everywhere and the people and surroundings around us influence those triggers.
The “Golden Rule of Habit Change”.
Every habit has three components: a cue (or a trigger for an automatic behavior to start), a routine (the behavior itself) and a reward (“dopamine” which is how our brain learns to remember this pattern for the future.) The moment you open your eyes in the morning in the same bed you have been in for years, you are automatically triggering your “cue” for your normal thoughts and behaviors to begin before your morning coffee, which really seems unfair if you are working towards positive change.
Reframe triggers.
Reframing is the general change in a person’s mindset, whether it is a positive or negative change. People who begin a 12 step AA program for drinking, are required to go to 90 meetings in 90 days and they absolutely cannot be around the influences of the people, places and things that would trigger their drinking to relapse, (the cue) and by reframing their minds through supportive repetition and keeping away from old influences, those old triggers will begin to have little power over them in the future.