Our upbringing and personal likings translate into the habits we develop throughout life. Some habits can prove useful, such as preparing your meals and clothes for work a day prior or wanting to keep your house clean.
But sometimes, we also develop harmful habits such as drinking too much caffeine, smoking, or even biting our nails. In the long run, such unhealthy habits and practices can spell dire consequences for our well-being.
For this reason, it is crucial to break such harmful habits over time.
So, if you have made up your mind about breaking a habit, here’s how you can do it.
Ways to Break Harmful Habits
1. Identify your triggers
Triggers are reminders that make you want to carry out a certain habit or a feeling that incites you to take a particular action. For example, washing your hands when they get dirty or the feeling of nervousness that makes you scratch your skin.
These reminders and cues are the triggers that become the first step whenever you develop a habit. But when it’s about bad practices, you’ll be triggered to pursue a habit upon witnessing stress, demotivation, or any such feeling.
Therefore, identifying the triggers causing an harmful habits can help you prevent them.
For this purpose, try to spend a few days understanding your pattern and tracking the trigger that causes you to carry out your habitual action. You can write down a few questions to help you keep track.
Answering these questions and tracking your progress will help you determine your triggers. However, if these habits indicate any mental illness, such as anxiety, stress, or depression, seek help from a professional.
It’s worthwhile to acquire therapy and treatment from a mental health center such as Vista Pines Health to regain your health. They’ll help you determine the underlying cause and devise treatments tailored to your issue.
Coming back, you can ask yourselves questions like:
- At what time does it usually occur?
- How do you feel when you carry out that habitual practice?
- Are there people or anyone in particular involved?
- Does something else trigger that action?
After answering most of these questions, you will have a basic understanding of what’s causing your harmful habits. But it’s viable to seek professional assistance to attain satisfactory results.
2. Focus on why you want to change
Before you take a step to eliminate these triggers, it is crucial to find the right motivation to help you during your journey. Research conducted in 2012 says that altering your habits and behavior is easier when the change holds some value or benefits.
Therefore, carve out some time to consider why you want to forgo any harmful habits and what value or benefits you acquire from the change. Listing down the benefits and reasons will help you unearth the right motivation to keep you determined throughout the process.
Moreover, try to write your motivation down on a piece of paper and stick it on the mirror, fridge, or a wall where you can see it regularly. Seeing it will keep your motivation in line and constantly remind you why you’re striving for it.
3. Acquire a friend or family member’s support
It’s less daunting to try and break a bad habit if you’re going through the journey with someone else. So, if you have a friend, family member, or partner who wants to break the same bad habit, try to start your journey together.
For example, if you both want to quit smoking, dealing with the withdrawal and cravings can be quite difficult. But you both can prevent each other from going back to smoking by monitoring each other’s behavior or trying out alternatives.
And while having someone with you doesn’t make these symptoms less painful, it is easier to deal with them together. Apart from that, it also ensures that someone is constantly uplifting you, cheering on your success, and encouraging you whenever you need it.
4. Practice mindfulness
The process we mentioned about identifying your triggers is known as mindfulness. You took a step back and identified your feelings, emotions, actions, and thought processes behind them.
You observed your impulsiveness and found out its cause. Doing all of that made you more aware of yourself.
But practicing mindfulness is more than just knowing what’s going on. It is about being your biggest critic – without being judgmental – and your biggest supporter. So, as you become aware of your thoughts and actions, you will easily identify the triggers.
The next step is the hardest, and it will only become possible if you consciously keep track of your actions, emotions, and yourself in check. That is, to avoid those triggers and cues and prevent yourself from acting on your urges.
5. Replace the habit with something different
It may be less nerve-wracking to break a bad habit if you replace it with a new, better one. For example, let us say that you want to stop mindlessly snacking on junk food throughout the day while watching TV or working.
You can break this particular habit by replacing junk food with healthier snack options. Keep a box of cucumber, cherry tomatoes, celery, carrot, broccoli, and crackers on hand whenever you get the urge.
Opt for a bowl of fruit instead of candy. Or munch on some dry fruits when you’re craving something crunchy.
As you constantly repeat this new behavior, it will become a routine and eventually become a new habit. Here, instead of feeling deprived of sugar or hungry all the time, you will reward yourself with healthier options that energize and fill you up.
This way, your urge to keep up with the new habit will eventually outweigh your desire to keep your old bad habit.
6. Don’t forget frequent reminders
Frequent reminders are crucial to remember why you started this journey in the first place. Leave yourself visual reminders using stickers, printed images, sticky notes, etc. Place these reminders around the trigger area.
For example, if you want to quit drinking soda, stick the reminder on your refrigerator to see it whenever you approach the fridge for a can. You can also set alarms and notifications on your phone with motivational quotes and reminders to keep yourself on track.
Conclusion
Breaking a bad habit can be a tough and arduous process. But remember that it takes time. And at times, you will most likely revert to your old habit. In such situations, be mindful of yourself and try to motivate yourself to try again.
Generally, replacing a harmful habit with something positive has many benefits. So, identify your triggers, replace the bad habits with good ones, seek support, and most of all, keep trying.
