Are Your Habits Helpful?

I’m sure, like me, you have some frustrating, unhelpful habits that you’d love to get rid of.

Whether it’s staying up late to watch ‘just one more’ episode on Netflix, or the biscuit you always have with a cuppa, late night snacking, biting your nails or hitting the snooze button; we know that we’d feel better without them but we keep on doing them!We don’t like the consequences.  They may even slow down the attainment of our goals, yet we keep on going.  Why is that?

Habits and Your Brain

Well, it’s quite simply your brain doing what it’s meant to do.

If I asked you what happens in your mind when you run an unhelpful habit chances are you wouldn’t be able to tell me.  That’s because not much does happen.  We don’t actively think ‘Oh I know, let me start biting my nails now’.

Our unhelpful habits are the product of our unconscious mind providing shortcuts that allow us to save energy and solve problems based on what we already know. Essentially, mental shortcuts that allow our brains to make some fact-based assumptions.

So, as soon as you start filling the kettle to make a cuppa, your brain is already thinking that a biscuit is needed.

Interrupt the Habit

OK, that’s great, but how do we interrupt this process? How do we change it?

The first step is to notice.

Stay present, talk yourself through the process. ‘I’m making a cuppa now because I really want to enjoy a nice cup of tea and just that cup of tea.”  If you want to have a biscuit, choose it consciously.  ‘Do I really want a biscuit now?’  I’ve found that, invariably the answer is no. Yet this also allows me the option to choose to enjoy one if that’s what I really want.

This simple hack will allow you to start making changes at the surface level, at the conscious level.  For long term, sustainable behavioural change, we need to work with the unconscious mind and that’s where NLP comes in with a wonderful variety of techniques to reprogramme the habitual pattern to create a new, more helpful habit.

Interested in 121 support? Check out ‘Coaching with Cake’ to see the various ways we can work together, from one-off sessions to create your inner-cheerleader to intensive day-long breakthrough sessions. All options are available face to face and via Zoom  Coaching with CAKE

What if you could learn to replace unhelpful habits with new helpful ones that move you closer to your goals? What would it be like to feel completely in control of your emotional state? Imagine being able to hear supportive inner-dialogue? What if you learn to eradicate phobias in yourself and others? What would you see yourself doing if you were able to clear up all your limiting beliefs? Learn how to do all this and more at our NLP Practitioner Training. Find out more here: NLP Training

If you want to have a chat about coaching or NLP and find out if it’s right for you, book in for a free, no-obligation chat. You’ll come away with a couple of nuggets to help you, whether you decide to work with me or not. BOOK CALL