The new year season is always a time where people begin the journey of creating resolutions; sometimes resulting in success or failure. I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about some of the science behind forming healthy habits and techniques to ensure your new habits form healthy routines. The main difference between a habit and routine is the amount of awareness and intention we put into the task. Most simply, habits form based on an automatic urge to do something, often cued by something externally. Most habits don’t start off as habits, they start off as routines. Routines require deliberate action. Habits and routines are regular repeated actions, however routines require intention. Going to an exercise class or practicing an instrument are examples of routines; they require conscious effort and intention.
Habit stacking encourages you to identify one habit you want to start and pair it with an activity you do daily. It’s important to start small (5 mins of a task instead of 1 hour) and to let your environment & current habits cue you to do something differently. This could be something simple like stretching before you have your first cup of coffee or cleaning your kitchen before you watch television.
Most importantly, maintaining mindfulness on how the new habit impacted you/positively benefited you increases the likelihood of doing the habit again (aka making it a routine). Mindfulness gives us the ability to reward ourselves, which helps to internally motivate and reinforce our healthy choices. After you have followed through with engaging in your new habit/activity, give yourself a compliment for sticking to your goal. Afterward, you can ask yourself simple questions like: how did I feel before I did this activity/how do I feel afterward? How does this habit help to improve my life? When do I plan on doing this activity next?
By asking yourself these questions and remaining accountable to your plan, you are forming a “healthy habit loop”, which eventually leads to forming a whole new routine! If you want any guidance or resources on forming new habits, please reach out to the Occupational Therapy team for any assistance.
Sources:
https://nesslabs.com/habits-routines-rituals-intentionality-curve
https://shoury01.medium.com/habits-routines-rituals-understanding-behaviors-3e37a682aab1