The Behavior Loop

How We Type and Break Habits  

What’s your behavior? Perhaps you might have a number of good ones and some unhealthy ones right here and there, no matter what your habits are although; we are able to all agree that breaking habits appears virtually inconceivable at occasions. If you’re somebody who struggles with breaking habits or are possibly considering of breaking a behavior however are not sure methods to go about it, you might have come to the appropriate place!  

Now there are numerous methods to breaking habits, however at this time I’m going to be speaking in regards to the Behavior Loop. The Behavior Loop is certainly one of many fashions that psychologists and therapists analysis and use to assist folks break habits. It doesn’t essentially let you know what to do when you have a behavior of biting your nails for instance, it merely acts as a sequence of steps the place you “fill within the blanks” and it guides you to figuring out triggers, rewards, and creating new habits to exchange outdated ones. Do not forget that habits are simply actions or behaviors. They will happen consciously like brushing your enamel each morning or extra unconsciously like selecting and biting your nails.  

Let’s begin with the fundamentals. The Behavior Loop is a 3 step mannequin that was designed by Journalist Charles Duhigg. The three steps within the mannequin are the cue, the routine, and the reward. 

• The cue: Consider this because the set off for the conduct. The set off generally is a particular location, time, emotional state, your motion instantly earlier than the conduct, and even the folks round you.  

• The routine: This one is easy, it’s the precise conduct that happens instantly following the cue. If you happen to do have a behavior that you’ve got had for a very long time, ultimately it could grow to be one thing that you just don’t even discover your self doing except somebody factors it out.  

• The reward: That is the ultimate step and is what reinforces the conduct. Regardless of the reward could also be, the stronger sense of satisfaction it brings you’ll make you develop the conduct extra shortly.  

For the sake of simplicity, right here is an instance of a behavior (nail biting) in motion utilizing the Behavior Loop:  

• The cue: You might be ready on the bus cease and you might be considering of the examination you might be about to take. You begin to really feel pressured since you are nervous for the examination and have a nagging feeling that the bus goes to be late.  

• The routine: You begin to chew in your nails and decide at any hangnails you discover.  

• The reward: The nail biting distracts your racing ideas which eases your nervousness as you get onto the bus to go take your examination.  

Now there are a number of ways in which you can strategy this to interrupt the behavior and even higher, change it with a brand new and more healthy behavior. Finally, the latter needs to be the aim. Upon getting established what the behavior is, or no less than are extra consciously conscious of it (on this case, nail biting), it’s time to begin with the cue.  

By beginning with the cue, you may determine the set off. On this instance, think about that the scholar has grow to be conscious that they’re biting their nails throughout a pandemic (yuck), so the following step could be to look again on the motion that instantly preceded the nail biting. They don’t particularly keep in mind what they had been doing, however they do keep in mind feeling an amazing sense of hysteria. Quickly they’re making connections and keep in mind that time they had been ready in line on the grocery retailer a number of weeks in the past and felt anxious so that they began biting their nails. The set off or cue for this behavior is the emotional state of stress and nervousness. As a pleasant reminder, the attainable cues generally is a location, time, emotional state, an motion previous the conduct, or the folks round you.  

As soon as the cue has been recognized, it’s time to begin the true work. It is a nice alternative to brainstorm some substitute behaviors. It’s in all probability going to take a number of trial and error, however the aim needs to be to discover a new and more healthy substitute conduct that’s going to supply the identical stage or a good better stage of satisfaction.  

Going again to my instance, the scholar is now conscious that they chew their nails when they’re anxious as a result of it helps them really feel extra calm. So it’s time for them to grow to be extra conscious of their cues and triggers and implement new behaviors. Whether or not or not it’s throwing in some earbuds to take heed to their favourite playlist, or texting a pal, discovering a conduct that’s going to assist them really feel simply as calm as nail biting does is the important thing to changing outdated habits with new habits.  

Though every thing that I simply described above may be very easy, this course of isn’t one that’s going to occur in a single day. Figuring out habits and changing them with new ones is a course of that may take weeks, months, and even years. Assessing exterior and inside motivators is a useful method that may expedite the behavior breaking course of. Ask your self why you wish to break the behavior and what breaking the behavior will imply to you.  

I do know that I’ve thrown a number of info at you on this weblog, however for those who take something away from this, let or not it’s the easy undeniable fact that what you think about a wholesome behavior is probably not thought-about a wholesome behavior by others. So for those who resolve that you just want to break a behavior, just be sure you are doing it for you and never the pleasure of others. Tell us what you consider the Behavior Loop and forming new and more healthy habits at Wholesome.UNH@unh.edu!