Couple’s Corner: Why Bad Habits are Hard to Break?
>> Jan 21, 2011
We’re still talking about habits this week. Well, I’ve ever shared here about my old bad habits that I feel hard to change. Why is it hard to break our bad habits? We call some behaviors as habits if we always do these behaviors frequently.
Honestly, I don’t know the right answer. My hubby often complains about my disorganized behavior. I really want to change; but it’s difficult. I’ve read lots of great advice out there about how to change bad habit; but it only held out for a few days, and I always come back to my old habit. Sigh.
Honestly, I don’t know the right answer. My hubby often complains about my disorganized behavior. I really want to change; but it’s difficult. I’ve read lots of great advice out there about how to change bad habit; but it only held out for a few days, and I always come back to my old habit. Sigh.
It makes me curious enough to find the answer. Fortunately, I found an article that explained this situation. In fact, it relates with basic human biology, especially human brain!
I’ll share here a brief of the article to you:
There’s a small region in the middle of human brain that owes ability to form memories: the hippocampus. This brain region is the gateway to forming and recalling memories.
The hippocampus keeps most of the things that you see and experience in short term memory while other regions of your brain are working out if it’s actually important. If what you’ve seen or learnt is important, then the hippocampus will record it. If it’s not important then it’s rapidly lost, and you’re not capable to remember it easily.
Your brain will remember things if only there has been some importance attached to it, often because of repetitive experience. It’s how we learn almost everything. It’s how to change the old habit and have a new better one.
Check this out: repetition and reinforcement things that are important for you to remember are the triggers your brain requires to begin forming long lasting memories and behavior patterns.
You have to actually try something different, and then you must repeat it and practice it until your hippocampus realizes it’s important and you remember it, and act on it automatically.
If we’ve just read this and that tips without practicing it repetitively, our brain will not see it as important things; we’ll forget it easily. That’s why it’s hard to change the old bad habits, if we don’t try to do the new and better habits repeatedly and continually. Keep doing it with discipline, until your hippocampus remembers it!
