Sober Synthesis

“You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.”—Roy T. Bennett.

• 70% of our waking behavior is habitual. Developing new habits creates new neural circuits (neuroplasticity).
• Developing a habit can take between 18 to 254 days. The variation is largely the difference in how much effort it takes to overcome limbic friction. 
  • Limbic friction is the strain required to overcome anxiety and/or lack of motivation or fatigue related to building a new habit..
• Task-bracketing (the beginning and end behaviors that are associated with a habit, though not with the habit itself), activate neural circuits in our brain that manage starting an action or stopping an action (go, no go). 
  • Task bracketing determines habit strength and whether habits become context independent (i.e. brushing your teeth).
• Habit strength increases when state of mind and body are best matched to the task.

Establishing New Habits

• Link harder habits to linchpin habits (enjoyable and easier to execute habits). For example, regular exercise, if you enjoy exercise, makes it easier to maintain less enjoyable habits (i.e. eating healthy, regular hydration, healthy sleep routine).
• Apply procedural memory. Visualize detailed specific steps taken before, during, and after the activity that one wants to make a habit.
• Match habit with best time of day
  • 0-8 hours after waking (highest elevation of epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine, and cortisol) is the best state to engage in activities that are harder to start and/or sustain (i.e. aerobic exercise).
  • 9-14 hours after waking (epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine decrease and serotonin increases) is the best state to engage in creative calmer activities (i.e. music, journaling, art).

1. Cue: choose a trigger to tell your brain to start the behavior you want to turn into a habit.
2. Routine: execute the routine, ideally starting with a small, actionable chunk. Try to avoid starting with an overly ambitious new routine.
3. Reward: do something enjoyable, which will tell your brain that this particular habit loop is worth remembering for the future.

Important Note: The hardest part is to execute the routine right after the cue.

Breaking Habits

• Link an established healthy habit to the unhealthy habit to decrease the neural circuit connection of the unhealthy habit. 
  • Engage in an established healthy habit asap after recognizing starting and/or completing the unhealthy habit. Much better brain strategy than “punishment”.

Proposed questions for thought/sharing:

1. Is there a new habit that you developed to support your health/wellness/recovery and how did you establish that habit?

2.  Is there an unhealthy habit that you successfully stopped to support your health/wellness/recovery and how did you break that habit?

Disclaimer:

This summary is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed.