Sometimes, you start out to make a positive change, and then despite all your good intentions, in a few days or weeks, you’re back to “normal” again, which may not be where you want to be.
So here is why this is happening, and you can blame your brain. Or, you can look at it positively, and know that your brain is actually capable of changing.
Your brain is a physical network of neurons, and they make electrical connections. The more often you repeat a thought or behavior, the wiring strengthens, and the energy required to send electrical impulses is reduced. The brain likes this because it reduces the mental and physical energy required to work.
So, imagine the brain connection for habits like a wide and paved highway. You can go fast and move easily. The brain doesn’t need to spend much energy on it, and you probably just do it without much deliberation.
When you learn something new or try to change your habits, the brain wiring for this isn’t there yet, or it may be very weak if it is. So instead of your brain wiring being like a wide-open highway, your brain has to put a lot of energy to make the change.
So instead of being like a giant highway, starting a new habit is like having to clear a dirt path beside the highway. It is challenging and requires energy. Your brain wants to go back onto that nice, wide highway that it is familiar with, and will do its best to sabotage your efforts to build that new path.
It’s why even though you SAY you want to start eating better when you walk into Starbucks you just can’t resist getting the sugary drink you said a few hours ago you wouldn’t touch again.
But, here is the good news. The adult brain is “neuroplastic,” which means it can make changes. For a long time, researchers didn’t think the adult brain could rewire, so you were basically stuck with potentially unhelpful wiring.
So, the more you use the new path, the wider and clearer it becomes. And, the less you use that old highway, the more overgrown and crumbled it becomes.
Eventually, that shiny highway turns into an old, overgrown path you can barely see, while the new path that used to be a dirt road is turning into a highway! But it will require some emotional and mental intention and practice to make this happen, or taking some mental shortcuts when they are available, which we try to help you learn on this site and through our coaching and hypnosis and EFT work.
