How to Break Bad Habits

Mental Health

After almost two years of Covid-19, many of us have formed bad habits that we find hard to break. These habits vary from overusing our smartphone and unhealthy eating, to drinking too much.
Here are some advice on how to break these bad habits:

Name your habit and what it really gives you.

Write down some details about your bad habit and include what you think it really gives you. For example, you might write: “I think I use my phone too much. I do it when I’m at a loose end and don’t really know what to do with myself. I think I feel more connected and less alone”. In this case, your phone is giving you a sense of connection. That’s a key reason why you find it hard to reduce the time you spend on it.

Track your habit and share it with someone.

Write down how much time you give the habit and how often you do it. For example, how many evenings in the average week do you have a drink? Tracking helps you to take ownership over what you are already investing in the habit. When you track on the outside, you stop cheating yourself on the inside, for example, by saying “It’s not that bad.” Tell someone close to you that you are tracking your bad habit. Reaching out like this makes the habit easier to see from a distance, because everything is harder to see alone and from the inside.

Change your habit’s environment.

Habits are facilitated by the outside environment as well as by the inside environment. For example, you are more likely to overeat if there is junk food in your kitchen. Removing junk food will make it a little easier to give up because this change in your environment will help you in a weak moment. Breaking every habit involves weak moments, changing your environment helps you prepare for them.

Satisfy what your habit gives you with a better routine.

Bad habits must be replaced with routines that say something more meaningful about who you are. People who have rich and full lives have routines, not bad habits. Look again at your habit and see if it tells you that what you were really looking for was: a treat; a little break; me-time; letting yourself off the hook, or connection with others. If these really are the things you need, let’s start getting them in a healthier, happier way that you can have full ownership over. In other words, channel those needs into workable, happy routines, rather than channeling them into bad habits. It’s about making sure that you carve out time and space for the things in your life you want the most, rather than squeezing them into bad habits that only bring you shame and frustration.

If all your needs were being met, you wouldn’t be stuck inside bad habits, with all the shame and frustration that go with them. The first step in changing bad habits is being open and honest with yourself. Then you can start taking small practical steps toward change.

In conjunction with Brian Pennie, we created a two-hour workshop discussing the above tips and other ways we can break our bad habits. You can find this here: https://www.perspectivesireland.com/training-events/breaking-bad-habits/.

We hope you can take something from this blogpost.

Take care,
Ciara and Yvonne.