Anatomy of a Habit
Optimal wellness often includes changing small habits that will enhance your health and well-being rather than detract from it. For example, if you have a habit of heading to the pantry for a snack when you get home at the end of your day, you can change that by understanding the anatomy of a habit.
Understanding Habits
American journalist and non-fiction author Charles Duhigg explores the science behind habit formation and creation in his NY Times bestseller The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, perhaps the seminal book on understanding habits. Duhigg asserts that all habits begin with a cue, followed by a craving, and end with a reward. If you want to replace a bad habit, like snacking every evening, with a better one, you have to identify the cue and the reward and feed the craving with a new routine. The cue and the reward remain the same.
Let’s dissect this example. What is the cue that makes you head to the pantry? Is it stress or fatigue from the day, or is it hunger? What is the reward after you eat? Do you feel relaxed or satiated? If it is stress or fatigue from the day, and the reward you seek is relaxation, perhaps changing the bad routine into a better routine will accomplish the same thing. You may find that a short walk outside will clear your mind of stress, and you will feel relaxed after you complete a spin around the block. Same trigger, same reward, different routine. You actually move your body while avoiding empty calories and experience the same reward you are seeking.
Sounds simple, and it can be that easy if you spend time identifying what triggers your cue (stress) and what reward you are seeking (relaxation).
Experiencing Setbacks
However, Duhigg cautions that creating new habits often is easy until life brings a significant setback or stressful event. This is often why humans relapse from having been successful in breaking a bad habit, even for a very long time, like being sober for years and then starting to drink again.
Duhigg shares the latest research that suggests there is one additional element required to maintain a new habit: belief. Whether it is alcoholics maintaining sobriety or Coach Tony Dungy’s Indiana Colts winning the Super Bowl, the required additional element backed by research is belief.
Humans who change their routine while they also believe in something larger than themselves and have hope that their circumstances will get better are able to maintain new habits, even when confronted with a significant life event.
It’s evidence that hope matters. Feeding our souls with hope in the future is integral to building and sustaining new wellness habits.
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