Madeeha Syed

Basics of bad habits, understand neuroplasticity, and use it to your advantage.

Kicking Bad Habits: How to Retrain Your Mind?

This article or video has been vetted and verified by Meri Sehat’s specialists. It contains citations and research from validated sources.

Self-help books help improve mental health by discouraging bad habits and instilling healthy practices.

Kicking Bad Habits: How To Retrain Your Mind?

Overview

It&rsquo;s easy to get stuck in a rut. But you don&rsquo;t have to be stuck there forever. If you&rsquo;re trying to break a bad habit, it can be helpful to know that the brain is capable of learning new things and changing its own habits. This means that if you can figure out how your mind works, you can change your life for the better. 
&nbsp;

We all have bad habits. They&rsquo;re things we do that we know make us feel worse, but we keep doing them anyway. Smoking, drinking too much, gambling and checking our phone too frequently are all examples of bad habits.

Bad habits are hard to break because they&rsquo;re usually rooted in some kind of pleasure or reward &mdash; the way a cigarette tastes good when you first get outside after work or how alcohol makes you feel relaxed and confident at parties. But what exactly is a bad habit? How can you recognise one? And most importantly: how can you stop yourself from engaging in this behaviour again?

The first step to re-training your mind is understanding what makes something a &ldquo;bad&rdquo; habit, instead of just any old behaviour with negative consequences &mdash; like not brushing your teeth every day or eating too many sweets on weekends.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

Re-Train Your Mind

Your mind is like a muscle &mdash; it can be trained. Neuroplasticity is the ability of your brain to rewire itself based on new information and experiences. It&rsquo;s what causes babies to learn new things and make sense of their world, but it doesn&rsquo;t stop there: neuroplasticity continues throughout life, allowing us to adapt our minds as we grow older. The fact that you&rsquo;re reading this means your brain has been rewired to at least some extent &mdash; which means that with enough effort, it&rsquo;s possible for you to retrain your mind for other, healthier paths.&nbsp;

There are several examples of neuroplasticity in action: after a stroke or other physical injury, for example, certain parts of the brain will start working overtime as other parts stop functioning properly. That&rsquo;s also true for when someone starts learning how to play chess or speak another language or do anything else requiring some degree of expertise (or even something as simple as learning how not to get lost when driving somewhere new), their brains automatically change themselves so they can better perform those tasks. And even just living through stressful events &mdash; such as losing a job or dealing with family problems &mdash; can cause significant changes throughout our brains&rsquo; neural networks over time 
&nbsp;

Commitment is an essential part of success. If you don&rsquo;t commit, you will fail.

If you want to change the way your mind works and live a better life, then commit to making that happen. It might not be easy at first, but in time things will get easier for you and your new habits will become second nature. Commitment means taking things one day at a time and persevering through all obstacles or challenges that come up during this process. 
&nbsp;

1. Breaking tasks into small steps is an excellent way to re-train your mind and make it easier to stay on the straight and narrow.

2. A small step is something that you can accomplish in a short period of time, such as:

<ul>
	<li>You can do one hour of exercise today.</li>
	<li>You can read for 15 minutes a day this week.</li>
	<li>You can make a list of people you like and why, then call one person from the list each day this week.</li>
	<li>Small steps are more achievable than big ones because they are easier to measure progress on while keeping your motivation levels high at all times by celebrating each tiny victory along the way. 
	&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

When you&#39;ve decided to change your habits, it&#39;s easy to get discouraged by setbacks. It&rsquo;s important to remember that no one is perfect, and that the real goal isn&rsquo;t being perfect &mdash; it&rsquo;s behavioural consistency with your goals. If you slip up once or twice, don&rsquo;t worry! Just try again tomorrow.

The key here is commitment; be flexible in your methods but determined in the goal itself. As long as you&rsquo;re working towards something bigger than yourself, it will be easier for you achieve success even when obstacles present themselves along the way

If you think about it, your brain is an amazing thing. It can adapt and change in response to your environment, which makes it possible for you to learn new things and break bad habits. But not just any old way: the flexibility of your brain allows you to train yourself in positive ways that enhance your life. 
&nbsp;

But how do we go about doing this? Neuroplasticity &mdash; the brain&rsquo;s ability to change and adapt &mdash; is key when it comes to breaking bad habits and re-training our minds. This concept was first popularised by Dr Norman Doidge, who wrote a book called The Brain That Changes Itself Back in 2007. He explains how neuroplasticity works using phantom limb pain as an example: when an arm or leg is amputated (or removed by surgeons), some people continue <a href="https://merisehat.pk/article/natural-remedies-for-pain">feeling pain</a> where the limb once was even though there&rsquo;s no physical cause for their pain anymore.&nbsp;

The reason for this phenomenon has something to do with neurons (nerve cells) dying off from lack of stimulation; when these neurons die off, other ones start working overtime until eventually they occupy their place and transmit signals normally again &mdash; this process can take months or years depending on how many neurons were lost initially. 
&nbsp;

Bottom Line

With all these tips in your back pocket, you&rsquo;ll be well on your way to breaking bad habits and re-training your mind. The key is to remember that it&rsquo;s a process, not an event. You can do this! Remember: one small step at a time.