5 tricks that the brain keeps you in the power of bad habits

A bad habit can ruin lives. You know it and you really want to get rid of it, but... you're failing.

Want to know why?

And because your brain knows lots of clever ways to keep you in the power of your habits.

 

1. Your brain considers the "future" of you as a completely different person





You know that tomorrow at exactly 8:00 you will have to pass an important exam. And, nevertheless, already hour of the night, and you're still in aimless wanderings through the nooks and crannies of the Internet. Mind-then you certainly understand that it's time to go to bed, and tomorrow your vigil will backfire, but on a subconscious level "future version" of yourself you seem to be a completely different person. One tomorrow, and will deal with the consequences; and today will see some action.

In one scientific study found that when we think about ourselves and other people, aktiviziruyutsya very different parts of our gray matter. It is quite clear — the brain assigns different shares of his beloved, and all the rest, because, first of all, think about your own needs. The strange thing is that some people when thinking about themselves in the future, activated the region that was reserved for "outsiders".

Well, as you now to motivate myself to give up on buns and go to the gym? You may convince yourself that soon you will not secure any one pair of pants, but because your brain refuses to associate themselves with tomorrow's fat, you will manipulate your subconscious to once again enjoy the fragrant cakes.

 

2. For the formation of a stable "good" habits takes about ten weeks

 

 

Let's say you have one or two bad habits from which you should get rid of. You decide to start with in order to get a few good because, as you know, the surest way to overcome addiction is to displace it with another addiction. You buy a subscription to a local gym and plan to work out three times a week, and to win, finally, a passion for cake. Or for beer. Or even to something.

What do you think how much time you have to force yourself while training will be an integral part of your life? And as soon as the exercise begins to be fun?

According to the results of a study on the formation of a habit takes about 66 days. During this time, conscious effort and coercion go into automatism. So if you decide to make friends with a treadmill, keep in mind that only two months later she will turn from torture in usual occupation.

During these two months all sorts of obstacles and slingshot will stand in your way constantly. You'll catch a cold, you have to work late... And all. The end of a good habit and the return to the old "bad" pleasures — because the latter has long been formed and integrated in your life.

This is not because your brain wants to hurt you — he just loves the performance, but bad habits always effective. And the result he seeks: transform your life in a set of repeated actions that you can do on autopilot, to develop on the basis of experience a set of rules that would enable to live life, spending a minimum of energy. All.

So if you want to break the habitual course of your life, you will be very tight. Two months.

 

3. Willpower is a limited resource

 





If you firmly decided, for example, run every morning, and got ready for a long struggle with himself, we consider it our duty to warn you: the greatest danger on your journey to excellence are not a different kind of uncontrolled circumstances, and... lack of motivation. That is, if you, say, run every morning and can already boast of certain success, at some point may decide that you deserve a break.

It turns out that the more often and longer people resist their desires, the less willpower they have to resist the subsequent request. In psychology this phenomenon is called "exhaustion of willpower".

During the experiment, the scientists asked one group of students to memorize a two-digit number and the other seven figures. Then asked the participants from both groups a choice between cake and fruit salad. Amazingly, the students who memorized the seven-digit number chose the cake in two times as often. That is, in order to significantly reduce the force of will and throw in the towel, just remember five extra digits.

Then the researchers conducted another experiment in which approached the same problem from the other direction: volunteers were shown two dishes — one with fresh cookies and another with radishes. Half of the participants had previously been instructed to take a cookie, the other half is to take radish. After that, everyone was asked to solve a complex geometric puzzle. Those that took the radishes, left the job after eight minutes, and those who got the cookies struggled with the puzzle as much as 19 minutes.

Despite the fact that the job did not require any physical effort, the rejection of delicious cookies was taken from the participants of the forces that could be spent on the job.

 

4. The brain uses your progress as an excuse to make yourself some credit

 





For one recent study, scientists gathered a group of dieters and has already achieved notable success people. Volunteers were divided into two groups. Some began to praise for success on the way to achieving its ideal, others nothing special.

After that, both groups were offered a choice between an Apple and a chocolate bar as a thank you gift for participating in the study. 85 percent of those who praised chose the chocolate in the other group chocolate rather only 58 percent of the participants.

Those who sang the praises of decided that they have every right once in a while, reward yourself for successes, while others humbly munching apples.

In other words, the realization of success is the first step to failure.

If "celebration" was limited to just one chocolate bar, that would be big trouble. But... ask any person, vykarabkivaetsya from any addiction, and he confirmed that "once" almost always turns into a stream of small losses, and you don't know it, between your fingers, and not a trace remains.

As we have said, the brain prefers the old, familiar, and therefore less energy-consuming way of being, even if you may not live to forty.

But sometimes...

 

5. You put up with a bad habit, to protect yourself from a failure

 

 

There is a special type of people who are always whining. On their way to success is always some insurmountable obstacle — not one, so another. After talking with this person long enough, you understand — he does not seek to achieve something, just invents a new and new obstacles — and, apparently, on purpose.

This phenomenon psychologists call "masochistic personality disorder". Scientists explain this behavior as follows: the person unconsciously "agrees" to fail, which can relatively easily survive because of the fear of another, some very painful. That is committing some sort of deal.

For example, a single guy, it's just going to refuse to communicate with the girls and will to endure the ridicule than let some pretty woman to reject him as a botanist/mattress/pimply nerd.

And then — very easy to see how this grows another bad habit. For example, office work for you is complicated by the fact that you hate to wear a tie or get up in the morning. In this case, you have a very strong motivation to cherish these weaknesses, because they protect you from shame to be incompetent and fail in professional activities. So you continue to play around, but with the illusion of their own professional brilliance, which is always to be anything but a hindrance. Bad habit is the guardian of your self-esteem.

 

Also interesting: 4 books about how the brain works

Tatiana Chernigovskaya-the Brain remembers everything, past what you've been through, what looked and what smelled

 

And while your conscious "I" hates himself for his weakness, subconscious "I" secretly sabotaging your every attempt to deal with them, because to him your self to anything, the indulgence — that's its only purpose.published

 

Author: Light Gogol

 

P. S. And remember, just changing your mind — together we change the world! ©

Source: mixstuff.ru/archives/7781