 |
||
I was searching around the blogosphere and up came this great blog by Leo Babauta
His story begins where mine did, when he quit smoking. And the leverage he has got off that habit change is amazing.
He has a guest post on the site from Scott Young that deals with eliminating habits.
It’s a great post and you can read it here:
http://zenhabits.net/2007/07/20-tricks-to-nuke-a-bad-habit/
Scott Young has a great series on his blog about mastering your habits.
I do not agree with the fact that he says quote
“Habits can’t be removed. They must be upgraded or replaced.”
Don’t think that’s true, I gave up smoking nearly 12 months ago. The technique was to contact my subconscious directly, and it’s not been replaced with anything, well, not consciously anyway!
Check out the link, you will find Scott’s series interesting…
I remember posting about the Basal Ganglia before in this post:
http://www.thehabitcode.com/2006/09/22/its-all-in-the-basal-ganglia/
In fact it was my second post…
Well after my other post today about the Insular Cortex I found another posting about the Basal Ganglia. What intrigues me about this post is the effect of Parkinsons Disease and the fact that many patients find that they cannot ’start’ an associated group of movements such as walking. We already know that the actual act of walking can be carried out autonomously by the spinal column alone. What is intriguing is the starting of the sequence. maybe it is that that is controlled by the higher brain functions such as the Insular Cortex and Basal Ganglia.
Another thing about the post on the Insular Cortex is the fact that the smokers had no craving or even recolection that they smoked. The trigger of smoking never actually occured. Although the motor reflex action is probably stored somewhere the actual visual/emotional stimulus did not trigger the urge to smoke.
Read more about Habit Formation in the Basal Ganglia at :
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/habit.html
Or Here:
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro05/web1/mmcgovern.html
Instead of trying to stop your bad habits, why not just start new habits that will eventually replace the bad ones. Take a healthy habit such as walking for half an hour before breakfast. If you start by just getting out of bed and just getting out of the house no matter what the weather is like, within weeks it will be installed as a habit. Will power is required for this of course, but try these resources to help.
Boots change one thing - Instead of changing seven things about yourself - just start with one!
Yes… I found a site yesterday to put your Podcast online and then post a blog link to it. It’s early days but I can see it being a good place to post my Podcast… Heck I wasn’t even thinking of posting a Podcast until I found the site but within ten minutes it was all set up. Pretty good.
Try the site here http://habits.podomatic.com
