The force of the habit

We all have habits. When I decided to start writing a blog my intension was to write most days and I did state in an earlier blog I wouldn’t write every day. The reason I made this statement was that I felt I may not have the time every day, I didn’t want it to become a habit and to be honest I was a little worried I may not be able to think of suitable material every day. To be honest the latter has not been a problem and while I have written a few times during the day (such as now) most of my writings have been done in the evening. This aspect was beginning to become a habit, but would that be a bad thing?

Most people who come to hypnotherapist such as myself want to rid themselves of what they consider a habit. It could be snacking, smoking, nail biting or teeth grinding to name but a few, but they will call it a habit. This may cause you to think habits are a bad thing. Consider why habits develop. We develop habits because of repeated actions that our subconscious considers good for us, they full fill a need. If we just try to stop, the subconscious will fight back and being much more powerful than the conscious it will win in the long term. In the short term we will have a desire to carry out the action which may well occupy our thoughts. This is one of the reasons I didn’t want to blog every day and have tried to vary the time of writing. Habits of course don’t have to be a bad thing, they can be used to help us make changes. If you want to go to the gym every day, go at the same time and go every day. It won’t be long before as the time to go approaches you will want to go. If you want to learn a new language, sit down to study that language at the same time every day. Again it won’t be long before you feel a desire to study as your daily study approaches.

So habits can be good as well as bad, but before you decide to use this form of behaviour modification think about it, and think carefully. Once formed habits can be hard to break without help. So if you decide to use this technique please ensure it is for something you truly wish to change. The term “force of habit” is no exaggeration.