BREAKING THE CYCLE
WILL you be waking up on January 1 vowing to change your ways?
Around half of all Britons make New Year resolutions. However, research reveals that within just six weeks, around 90 per cent of these plans have been shelved as we slip back to our old ways
Psychologist Mark Griffiths, Professor of Behavioural Addiction at Nottingham Trent University, said: “The main reason people don’t stick to their resolutions is that they set too many or they’re unrealistic to achieve.
“We fall victim to what’s known as false hope syndrome – characterised by unrealistic expectations about the likely speed, ease and consequences of changing our behaviour.”
The good news is that it’s possible to make resolutions in January that last into spring and beyond if you learn how to break your old habits and make your good intentions stick. forming takes place in part of the brain called the basal ganglia. Decisions are made in a different part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex.
So as soon as a habit becomes automatic, the decision-making part of your brain goes into sleep mode. This is why it’s so easy to focus on something else while you’re doing something habitual – for example, listening to a song on the radio while you’re driving. The removal of any decision making is also why habits form so easily. And while some habits are helpful, such as brushing your teeth, others can work against you.
An example might be automatically clearing your dinner plate, even when you’re already full. Worse still, are bad habits that can have more serious long-term effects on health, such as smoking, eating junk food or excessive drinking.
You can change – all you need is a plan of action. Here’s how to tackle six of the most common bad habits...