Your habits are not your destiny.

By Patty Vasconez guest blogger.

To connect with Patty on Facebook click here. (in English)

Or visit her website www.PattyVasconez.com (In Spanish)

Understanding how daily habits influence our decisions has become one of the most exciting topics in research. Especially marketers want to know how to influence them. Habits, rather than conscious decision-making, shape almost half of the choices we make on a daily basis. We become familiar with the tasks at hand and our actions and reactions become automatic. Eventually, many of them turn into habits. We form habits and routines for the brain to keep functioning and to save some energy. It would crash if kept in constant overwork and that’s why we struggle so much when we are trying to change them or just learning new things, because our brain is using much more energy.

Unfortunately, there is a downside. Old habits, even counter-productive ones, can be persistent and difficult to change. They become our comfort zone and then we don’t care to re-examine them and replace or eliminate them when necessary. The forming of a new habit requires (1) a cue that triggers the brain to go into automatic mode, (2) a routine or automatic reaction that follows in response, and (3) a reward, which also helps the brain to decide whether a particular experience is worth remembering for the future. Rewards could be just an easy way out. Some of us don’t bother to find out why are we afraid to change; even though change is the only constant in the world. Seems and feels better to overlook serious emotional problems and quick-fix them ignoring ourselves as a whole and go for immediate gratification which doesn’t materialize until later when we can’t manage our weight, our drinking or smoking habits, compulsive disorders, stress, etc. Over time, this cycle – cue, routine, and reward – becomes more and more automatic. The results can reach from a simple tendency to cravings to a significant addiction.

What exactly turns an event into a cue and what represents a reward depends on the individual as well as on the situation. Both, cues and rewards, can be obvious or not; we may not even realize their presence at all, but our brain registers and uses them to form automatic behaviors.

This is the good news. Habits aren’t destiny. They can be ignored, changed, replaced, learned, unlearned, relearned. Unfortunately, old habits die hard. Actually, they never fully disappear. Once a habit is established, it will rear its head at any chance it gets. Unless you deliberately fight a habit – unless you find new cues and rewards – the old pattern will unfold automatically.

Therefore, your habits are not your destiny. Nothing has been predetermined yet. Every day of your life is like a white piece of paper with nothing written on it. It’s your choice to create the life you want to live, experiencing happiness, freedom, psychological flexibility.

Hypnosis can alleviate this struggle and save your brain’s energy. When you want a behavior to become automatic, you have to send the message to the center where habits, the good and the bad ones are created and stay which is, your subconscious mind, where the real power resides, where things happen automatically – heart beating, eyes blinking, breathing, moving your right and then your left foot when you are walking without thinking about it. There is no magic in it, you don’t need to believe or not; you don’t have to be suggestible or not, you just need to give yourself permission to be in a relaxed state, so that your subconscious mind can hear the suggestions. Be willing to practice the new behavior and within 21 days or times doing it, it becomes a habit. Try it with something simple like getting up in the morning and drinking a glass of water, set an alarm to remind you to do it. Some of you will notice that even before the 21 days period, you will be doing it automatically even if the alarm doesn't go off.

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