Ending Bad Habits

The key to breaking bad habits is to replace them with good ones. Though many of us have heard this, let’s stop to consider some of the deeper wisdom of the concept. By replacing bad habits with other neutral or good habits we are not just replacing one habit with another. To end bad habits we must erase focus and mental associations connected with the bad habit.

So one of the main things to avoid when trying to end a bad habit is to beat yourself up about it. Every time you focus on the topic of your bad habit, even very generally, all you are doing is inhibiting the rewriting of personal associations. If you have a moment of weakness and indulge in the habit you are trying to end, don’t sit there and feel guilty, obsessing over the situation, just move forward and try to see how the weakness was triggered and how you could avoid it in the future.

Also, if we spend time berating ourselves for our past mistakes what do you think the main message is that we are giving ourselves in terms of self-image? We are saying, effectively, “I can’t do anything right, so why even bother”. When a better reaction to a hurdle in the way of ending a bad habit would be something like, “well, that was one step back, but I’ve learned from the experience and all I can do is move forward from here.”

In the early stages of ending a bad habit, it may be useful to blatantly substitute the bad habit with a good habit, or something less bad than the one you are trying to end. If you’re quite stoic you may even wish to consider replacing the bad habit you want to end with an extremely beneficial habit. For example, say you want to end your addiction to cigarettes, could you replace one cigarette a day with five minutes of exercise and increase this by one session every day?

For some, adding challenge to the end of a bad habit can help make it interesting and fun. These types of structured games with rewriting our habits can bring a type of order to the entire topic of habits we’d like to change, such that we are less likely to feel overwhelmed when we come to the hurdles along the way of change.

Be realistic with your habit ending goals. If you set the bar too high you will only disappoint yourself and this usually leads to dissolution of the original plan to end the habit. Take some time to sit and write down what you’d like to see change and by what degree. Then you’ll get a feel for how long the process is likely to take. Be patient yet firm with yourself and you’re sure to succeed. Remember, it’s always worth trying again if you don’t succeed at first, as we learn something from every failure that can help future attempts.

Change is difficult, there’s no denying this fact. But there are ways we can open our minds and hearts to change that make endings appear more positively as new beginnings. This is can be a helpful way to approach ending a habit you do not like. Realize that there will be moments of temptation and internal struggle, but that if you succeed you will be rewarded with new perspectives and new areas of self to explore.

Aura Mirchandani is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory.