Hypnotherapy Auckland

And why do we have so many bad habits?

A habit is any action that can be performed  without having to pay conscious attention to it. For example, getting out of a chair, has a habitual pattern to it, the way you walk, run, the side you sleep on in bed, etc. Habits are good, they are routines that save us time and energy.

Habit Hypnosis

However habits do not just magically appear. A habit is formed from repetition.  And we repeat things because whatever that activity is, it is important enough to us at the time that we have to keep doing it.

Things that are important to us are important because they fill a particular need in our life.  A need is anything that when filled, bring us closer to comfort, happiness, or satisfaction. We have a need to sleep. In order to meet this need we go to bed usually at a certain time, sleep in a certain room and on a particular side of the bed.  So we have a habit of preparing ourselves for sleep. Habits are formed to satisfy needs by expending the least amount of energy to fulfill them. Habits free up our consciousness, and by having habits we can direct our attention to thinking, or planning to other tasks.

A habit is easy to break if there is no longer the need behind that habit which formed it in the first place, or if the need can be satisfied in another way. Let’s look at some examples;

1. Is it easy to break the habit of sleeping on the right side of the bed? Yes. Because the need is sleep.  And you can fulfill this need by sleeping on either side of the bed.
2. Is it easy to break a habit of Nail Biting? As a child thumb, sucking and nail biting fills a need of comfort.  As an adult these needs can be filled in many different ways. So nail biting as an adult is easy to break, however it helps if you know the right technique.
3. Is it easy to break the habit of  smoking ? No. Because as long as a smoker smokers, they  continue to create a need. That need is to satisfy the withdrawel of nicotine from their body. This need for nicotine is met by the habit of smoking at certain times of the day and in certain situations to obtain more nicotine.   The need comes first(nicotine), the habit comes second to satisfy the need. ( However there are ways of using hypnosis that can change how the withdrawal effcts of nicotine are interpreted by the mind and this can make stopping easier).
4. Is it easy to break the habit of eating sweets at work Maybe? You may have a habit of eating sweets to fulfill the need of hunger at certain times of the day. To change this habit you take an apple to work, which then fulfill this need.  However if you were in the habit of eating sweets every time you were bored at work, this would may be  more difficult to break. Because the sweets are fulfilling a need, breaking up the boredom. So first you would need to fulfill the need to have challenges or interest at work  in another way, e.g. find more interesting work, e-mail your friends. Then the habit of eating sweets at work is easier to change.

If you find it difficult to break a bad habit, it is because the habit is fulfilling a need for you. What you have to identify is what that need is. And then find a way of satisfying it in another way. Once you can do that the habit is easy to break. Alternatively, if you can’t form new good habits, it is because there is not enough satisfaction in what the habit sets out to accomplish to sustain  it.