Mindfulness to help change bad habits

Two things may have happened for you during lockdown: you developed some unwanted habits or you discovered you have existing habits you want to change.

A break from ‘normal’ (eg lockdown, a holiday or illness) disrupts the systems that support your regular helpful routines and before you know it unwanted habits show up! Or the break gives us space to notice more clearly the unwanted patterns that you’d like to change.

So how can mindfulness help with changing a habit? Well, mindfulness is all about developing the skill of being able to choose where to put your attention (and therefore your energy). It’s the opposite of mindlessness, which is where you do things on autopilot. Mindfulness can…

• …help you identify what would really motivate you to change: Do this by thinking about (and writing down) ten negative side effects of the habit, ten positive effects of stopping this habit and your top ten excuses you normally use as reasons why you engage in the habit.
• …help you notice what triggers your habit: Notice what times of day it usually happens? Where are you? Who are you with? What causes it to start? How were you feeling right before? Noticing these will help you make changes to your environment, so that it’s harder for you to engage in the unwanted habit – or easier to avoid it.

Whenever you find yourself wanting to engage in the unwanted habit take a mindful pause (stop what you are doing, and breathe evenly and deeply for 2 minutes). Often this pause allows the urge to pass. If it doesn’t, go forward with it but notice as many details as possible about how you feel and what happens as you are doing it.

Only when you have done these other things, start introducing a healthy replacement behaviour when you feel the urge. For example instead of emotional shopping spend time with friends or instead of snacking all evening go for a walk.

Notice that the old habit takes less energy (willpower) than the new habit. Initiating the new habit can feel like getting a heavy ball rolling: but once it’s rolling it will be easier to keep moving. By paying mindful attention to what happens when you engage in the habit you will feel more accepting of the amount of energy the new habit takes.

And try mindfulness meditation: even a few minutes a day of quiet focus on your breath can help you feel calmer and to think more clearly. You’ll be less likely to spend all your time in autopilot and will notice your triggers more easily. Best of all you’ll be more motivated and habits will be easier to change.