BREAKING FREE FROM BAD HABITS

                                                                   BAD HABITS

     Bad Habits are just like our normal daily activities we do. the only difference is that these  set of activities we call 'Bad Habits'  are the ones which in one way or the other has negative side effects on us. we have activities like smoking, biting our nails, excessive drinking, masturbation, spending too many time on social networks and so on. 

 What's more horrifying about these activities are the fact that we still keep doing them even when we  are much aware of their side effects and disadvantages to them. the questions here is why do we keep doing them?

          

  There are so many reasons why we often keep doing these bad habits. one of the main reason is the :

 Rewards - Human brain wasn't created with delayed gravitation ( reward) for a job done , it was created with an instant Gravitation ( rewards) for a job done.  With the developments within decades, the modern world has introduced us all physically to a delayed reward after doing jobs but the problem is that our brains are still in factory setting. ancient people would search, hunt, kill animals and eat it right away because it was a game of survivor ( This is instant gravitation or reward)  but now in the modern world, we work, then get paid in a week or a month time ( this is delayed gravitation or reward). The reason we perform most bad habits its because their rewards are instant and that is what the brain wants. lets take smoking, social media and video games for examples. 

 I might be emotionally stressed today and then I decide to smoke a cigarette to ease my stress. And maybe someday else I become emotionally stressed out again and I decide to hit the gym this time to ease my stress.  These are two different way to ese my emotional stress.. one is GOOD and the other is BAD. 

  The brain knowing fully well that cigarette can easily ease my stress with just once intake ( which is an instant gravitation or reward) but it takes minutes or hours at the gym to ease my stress ( delayed gravitation or reward) , the brain  will chose smoking instead of gym whenever I need to ease my stress. The brain would then store the cigarette smoking habit into the brain and it would produce an urge to smoke whenever you are stressed out again. To change this whole theory and to clear the bad habits from your brain, you first need to know what rewards it provides you with, then you should find alternatives. 

                                Here are ways to tackle and get rid of you bad habits 

 Before we start, I just want you to know that you can't break free from any bad habit if you first don't accept that it is a bad habit and you need to stop it. You have to know the truth, accept it, before you break it. so you must first accept its a bad habit. These are the steps you can take to break a bad habit. 

1. Write Down your Bad habits and Cues ( The triggers)  - It is very important to note your bad habits and triggers. 

examples:  most people smoke to ease stress ( Smoke is the bad Habit here and stress is the Cue or trigger).

most people play too much video games to keep busy ( video games is the bad habit and boredom is the cue or trigger).

most people browse too much social media to bond or relaxation ( social media is the bad habit and relaxation is the cue or trigger).  Hope you get my point here? Just note the Bad habits, and their cues.

2. Make a replacement to these bad habits.  SAME URGES BUT WITH DIFFERENT MEANS TO GET THE SAME REWRADS.

   Instead of smoking to ease stress - you can simply exercise, hit the gym, go for long walks or just take naps. 

instead of playing videos to relax or out of boredom- you can simply engage in sports like footballs, hiking or you can join social clubs. 

instead of browsing social media for relaxation or bonding with others - you can easily go for lunch or coffee with friends , or you can read  books and novels. this is just the first step to take when breaking your bad habits but its not as easy as you think. keep reading.

3, Make Bad habits difficult and make the good habits easier -  Its not just about finding an alternative to make a replacement of the bad habits, you may relapse sometimes or easily fall back into the bad habits. So that's why you need to make a change to your surrounding, you have to optimize your environment in a way that the bad habits would become harder to do and the good habits which are your alternatives to the bad ones will become extra easy to do. This is a point where you will have to make use of your laziness. lets say your bad habit is playing games, then to ensure you get rid of playing games and replacing it with going to the gym, you need to unplug your video game and hide in the wardrobe and then pack your gym bag and place it at that same place that your video game used to be. This will be like a reminder to go to the gym instead of playing video games. Some of you may be like 'I can just easily go bring out my game from the wardrobe, plug it and start playing instead of going to the gym'. 

  Of course you can just go take the game out and start playing but that may not work as you think because your brain is lazy and would want to chose the one that won't stress it much. going to take the game out from the wardrobe would require much more work than just picking up an already packed gym bag and going to the gym, so your brain will trigger you go for the gym bag instead of the game because its ' lazy'. The point here is just to create an obstacle to your bad habit and make the good habit less difficult to do. 

4, Find Motivation and an instant reward- one of the things that makes us keep doing this bad habits is because there  rewards are instant but the consequences are delayed. smoking a cigarette can ease your stress in just a minute but it can kill you later in 10 years time. so to make your Good habits overcome your bad habits, you should find a motivation or an instant reward for yourself whenever you do a good habit. For example, treating yourself to a strawberry protein shake immediately after an exercise ( this is the instant reward). and  maybe playing a music while doing exercises ( this is the motivation). The point here is to reward yourself with something after successfully doing a good habit instead of your bad habit. And also find a source of motivation to keep you on the track of doing the Good Habits.

5, Track your progress - This is another source of a motivation when you are on this long run of breaking a bad habit. you should track your progress.. you can just open your stop watch on your phone the day you begin the journey and then click it and leave it. whenever you feel like quitting or dropping from the journey of breaking free your bad habits, just go back to the stop watch then see how many days and weeks you have gone so far without doing the bad habits, then ask yourself this question ' do I really want to lose all this progress for a little satisfaction of 2 minutes?' .  this  will help you keep going stronger and stronger. 

                                                      Conclusion. 

   You can't break a bad habit over night, breaking a bad habits requires time and efforts, it need perseverance. you may sometimes fail while trying to break a habit but don't give up on your journey just yet. You should learn from your mistake, find out why you relapsed and use it as a lesson and motivation to go stronger. just be on the right path, don't give up, continue going when you fall and you will surely get your desired result. 

  Thank you for reading. I hope this helps you break free from your bad Habits. 

            

                                                   Rex Helps. 

Comment down with any question and I will reply you immediately.