The Habit of Stinkin’ Thinkin’ b y Gwe n S ch r a nk
Think about something that took you a really long
Let’s take a look at a different life habit. Most
time to learn, such as how to talk. Your first efforts to
people spend a lot of time “stinkin’ thinkin’” about
learn involved you as a toddler mimicking the sounds
negative experiences, fears, and failures. We don’t
that were around you; paying attention to the way
often think back to where or when we started to
your parents lips moved as they communicated with
form those thought habits because somewhere along
you. You noticed the way they held you and smiled at
the way, we practiced doing it over and over until it
you when you responded to them. You probably don’t
became an automatic habit loop. Most mental health
remember that because you were so young, but it is
professionals don’t believe that people want to
the process that everyone goes through to learn how
purposely bring themselves down by thinking negative
to speak. We all learned to talk by watching, listening,
thoughts, but it’s the center from which all of our
and practicing what others were doing around us.
actions stem, making it an important topic to unpack.
It turns out that habits are formed the same way we learn to talk, but it is called a “habit loop.” It’s a psychological pattern in which a cue or trigger tells your brain to go into automatic mode and allows the behavior to unfold. That process then creates a routine which becomes the behavior. Then a reward manifests which helps the brain remember the habit loop for the future. Back to talking, the more that we practiced the better we could speak. It became easier, up to the point to where we required very little thought to talking and responding to others. And like talking, this habit loop makes certain behaviors become automatic. Studies have shown that people will perform automatic behaviors the same way every single time if they’re in the same environment. But if their environment changes, it’s likely that behavior will change.
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