00:00:00:03 - 00:00:22:22 Kate Hi. I'm Kate from Psych for Life. If you're here, you're probably interested in cutting out a habit that doesn't serve your goals. We all have examples of that in our lives. Maybe it's an unhealthy habit or something you just want to be more mindful about. I know I'm working on cutting back sugar right now, and as someone with a sweet tooth, it is not easy. 00:00:23:13 - 00:00:49:03 Kate Often, breaking habits can feel even more daunting than starting new ones. But rest assured, we have science back tips to help you kick your unwanted habit to the curb. In this video, we will discuss how to identify a bad or unwanted habit. Three Habit breaking interventions, the behavioral rebound effect, and how to avoid it, and how to set yourself up for success. 00:00:51:04 - 00:01:14:03 Kate So what is a bad habit? When we talk about a bad habit, what we really mean is a habit that doesn't serve your personal goals in a given situation. As an example, let's say you're working on getting better sleep scrolling social media for the hour before bedtime. No longer serves that goal in that situation. So there's a situational context to it. 00:01:14:09 - 00:01:34:15 Kate Certain habits might be good or bad. Maybe it's a dentist appointment and you're nervous and you're watching a meditation on social media to help calm you down. In that case, it would be a good habit. There are no hard and fast rules. It's all about what your personal goals are. This means that deciding what habits you want to break is a personal choice. 00:01:34:27 - 00:01:56:04 Kate If you're into writing things down, go ahead and get out that pen and paper now or open up your mental notebook first. Think of what's your goal? I have an overall goal right now of increasing my health my vitality, the extent to which I feel good every day. As I look at some of my habits, I have some good habits. 00:01:56:10 - 00:02:24:02 Kate For instance, I tend to have a pretty healthy high protein lunch every day, and then I have some not so good habits. That dessert I have most nights after dinner is not serving my overall goal. So that's a habit that I want to change. Keep in mind, not all habits are health related. Maybe you came here wanting to break a different type of habit, like overcommitting yourself or using a sharp tone with your children or your partner. 00:02:24:18 - 00:02:48:06 Kate Whatever it is, write it down and think about what goal it's associated with, and we're going to tackle how to break those habits. This will help you identify which habits you might want to consider breaking and eventually replacing with a better habit. One thing that's important to remember that unlike habit formation, which can be automatic breaking a habit must be purposeful. 00:02:48:24 - 00:03:14:26 Kate Habits don't automatically change just because our goals do. In our Habit Formation video. We talk about three components of forming a habit. Repetition, cues and rewards. When we're trying to break a habit, it's those three things that we're trying to disrupt. So the behavior no longer occurs. Experts have identified three interventions that help break that cycle and therefore break the bad habit. 00:03:15:16 - 00:03:52:16 Kate Number one is disrupt the habits cues to manipulate your environment to better serve your goals. And three, be more mindful of your behaviors. The first intervention is to disrupt the cues that trigger the unwanted habit and our habit formation video. We talk about cues being a time of day, location, or even specific people. This means that you need to remove the cues that are making you engage in the unwanted behavior So, for example, if your habit is scrolling social media before bedtime, leave your phone in another room. 00:03:54:00 - 00:04:24:00 Kate Often life itself can disrupt our habits and we can use that to our advantage. Habit researchers would initial suggest that when we have naturally occurring life changes, that can be an optimal time to change our habits. These events include moving houses, getting a new job, getting married, or having a child. Because these life events already disrupt your life, they make it easier to remove cues for an unwanted habit. 00:04:24:04 - 00:04:43:21 Kate A 2005 study found that 36% of reports of people successfully breaking a habit involved moving to a new location. Of course, you can't move every time you want to break a habit so use other life events. If you're about to start a new job. Take a moment to consider what habits you want to break as you start your new routine. 00:04:44:09 - 00:05:26:27 Kate If a major life change is not in the cards, there are smaller ways to manipulate your environment. Changing your environment can be done in two intentional ways. Adding friction to make the bad habit harder to perform or reducing friction to make a healthier replacement easier. In my example, of reducing my sugar intake and adding friction to the bad habit by not having cookies available and by not storing any soda in my refrigerator, I'm reducing friction to make the healthier habit easier by having fruits and vegetables already chopped up, ready to eat, and by stocking my refrigerator with flavored water. 00:05:27:18 - 00:05:52:23 Kate Now it's your turn. Take a moment to think about how you can add friction to your unwanted habits and how you can reduce friction to the behaviors that serve your goals. The third intervention is to be mindful of your actions. Otherwise known as vigilant monitoring. Often when people want to stop performing a behavior, they can consciously remind themselves not to do it. 00:05:52:24 - 00:06:16:26 Kate Which can be very effective. Research has shown that consciously reminding ourselves not to engage in an unwanted habit can be a very useful tool. We can use Post-it notes or even reminders on our phone, so we're not unconsciously engaging in the unwanted habit. For example, if screen time is the issue. There are apps that you can download that will cut off screen time once you reach your desired limit. 00:06:18:03 - 00:06:44:21 Kate Research by Wood and Neil suggests that if you're using reminders to stop a bad behavior, you're likely to be even more successful if those reminders also point to an easily available positive option. This is especially useful when removing a cue for a bad habit is not an option. Let's give an example. Let's say you use your phone for work, but every time you open up your phone, you find yourself also opening social media. 00:06:45:14 - 00:07:06:24 Kate A positive alternative might be when you receive a message on your cell phone for work. Go to the music app instead. Pick a new song and get back to work. If you're trying to break a bad habit, you should be aware of the behavioral rebound effect. This is a fancy way of saying that when trying to suppress your thoughts about something, sometimes you think about it even more. 00:07:08:14 - 00:07:37:11 Kate Thinking about it more can increase the odds that you'll act on it. In one study, researchers found that people who were told to actively avoid thinking about eating chocolate actually consumed more than people who were told to think about how much they wanted to eat chocolate. A similar study looked at smokers who were trying to quit and found that smokers who were told to actively not think about smoking smoked more than those who were not instructed to restrict their thoughts about smoking. 00:07:38:04 - 00:08:09:14 Kate So as you try to break a habit, don't try to suppress your thoughts about the habit itself. Instead, acknowledge and accept your thoughts as they come up and work on your behaviors and actions to ensure you have healthier options available when you're building your plan. Remember to be specific to change your environment, to avoid the habits cues like not having cookies in the house And finally, to plan an alternative behavior to better suit your goals like having healthy snacks available. 00:08:09:22 - 00:08:40:08 Kate So here are our key takeaways for breaking unwanted habits. One Habits don't have intrinsic value. Instead, a bad habit is simply one that no longer serves your goals. To try to avoid cues and situations that remind you of the unwanted habit. Three. Make desirable alternate lives as easy as possible. Four Be mindful of your actions, but don't try to suppress thinking about the habit. 00:08:40:26 - 00:09:01:25 Kate Five Make a plan of action. And six Find yourself an accountability partner if you can. Once you've come up with your plan to either make a new habit or break an unwanted habit, the next step is sticking to it. Join us in our next video to learn tips and techniques for sticking to your habits. See you there.