Welcome back to the blog! Today we will be covering the last two topics, which are Behavior and Habits. From my perspective, they’re closely linked to each other and that’s why it’s easier to understand them when explored together.

I won’t be getting into deep Psychological explanations and terms here, because you will find people who are better at it than me. Today’s post will be simple introduction to the topic and easy tasks that you can do to become more aware and mindful.

What is Behavior?

Behavior has been defined and explained in so many different ways. But in simple words, Behavior is one’s response or reaction towards his/her environment. Now this environment can include many things; people, objects, sounds, situations, places etc. Most of the things we do in our daily life are a reaction or a response to the stimuli in our environment. Getting irritated when someone keeps fidgeting with things, feeling hungry when you see food, biting your nails when caught in a particular situation, procrastinating when someone turns on the tv, and so on.

We’re constantly using the trial and error method while practicing these behaviors. Which behavior works? How will it affect me if I do this differently? When our plan of action fails, we try out a new method. If it works, we keep using it.

Just for a Self – Assessment, try this activity and reflect on your Behaviors.

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Sometimes we are well aware when behaving in a certain way, sometimes we are not. The real fun and problems start when these behaviors turn into habits.

The relationship between Behavior and Habits

Like we discussed we make use of the trial and error method on a daily basis. When these behaviors start serving us in some or the other way, we start relying on them frequently. These behaviors can be good or bad. For example, you smoke a cigarette for the first time and it doesn’t make much difference. It feels good (Reward). When you’re in stress, you smoke one cigarette again because you’re in need of some relief. Your brain is an expert in forming relations between things! So it automatically associates Stress (Cue), Smoking (Routine) and the Relief (Reward) After a while, for the reward, you start smoking frequently. Then it slowly turns into a Habit. Before you know it, you’re smoking several cigarettes a day without a second thought.

So when behaviors are repeated for Positive outcomes, they slowly become automatic. You don’t have to actually think about doing them. They are deeply ingrained in your mind. These are called Habits. They can be as simple as, locking the door of the washroom when you use it, switching off the fan every time you leave the room or folding your blanket after you wake up in the morning.

The Automaticity of Habits makes them a boon as well as a bane. Think about it, there is not much awareness involved during these activities. You just do them while your mind is busy thinking about other things. Your brain has to utilize time and its resources efficiently and hence it cannot pay attention to each and every thing you do. Therefore, it ingrains these activities in your brain so that it can focus on other important things. But if you’re not aware while practicing your bad habits, you’ll end up contributing largely to your own downfall, and before you know it you will have ruined everything.

If you follow successful people, you’ll notice that they have trained themselves and learnt to use the power of Habits so that they contribute towards their rise, and not downfall. Let’s talk about how we can do that.

The power of building Good Habits

Training your mind to automate good habits might sound difficult, but if you manage to do that you’ll start seeing massive positive changes in your lifestyle. When your mind automates good habits like, reading a book every night, waking up early in the morning, having a healthy breakfast etc. It gets more time to focus on other important things and be creative. It sets up a routine for you that helps you to utilize your time efficiently and creatively, rather than wasting it in thinking about your activities. More importantly, you don’t have to take extra efforts and try hard to sit down and read everyday. It’ll just happen automatically. You get to spend more time executing than planning.

That’s why elders have always focused on the power of Habits. And a Good Habit doesn’t have just one positive effect, it has multiple effects. For example, when you develop the habit of reading every night before you sleep, you have to keep your phone away. The reading will help you increase your vocabulary and knowledge, but when you keep your phone away, you will have less distractions from your activity. Doctors advise you to not use your phone before you sleep, as the light emitted from the screens disturbs your sleep cycle. But if you keep your phone away and read before you sleep, it’ll actually help you get a better sleep! (Might not be the case with horror books!) When you get a good sleep, your next day starts in a better way and you feel more energetic. And you’re ready to work! So just a simple habit of reading before bed can have so many positive effects. Imagine how multiple good habits will affect your life.

I personally think that this is a really beautiful and life changing topic and shouldn’t be discussed in just one post! There are so many amazing things that I have to share with you all about Habits. So we will be concluding our post here today, and we’ll discuss about building new habits next week! Trust me the next post is going to very helpful! See you next week!

Love, Ninad.