Why do so many people know about the dangers or smoking or being physically inactive yet do so little to change their smoking or activity patterns? That question puzzled scientists for a long time. Fortunately, health psychologists have insights on how you may make lasting changes to improve your lifestyle. For all behaviours that are defined around a purpose, for instance, running to increase your physical activity, and which we do regularly, we will use the term ‘habits’ moving forward.
Find a very good reason
The first enabler to changing your brain health habits for the better is to find a very good reason to do so. Do you wish to be able to run a 5k or even more? Do you want to climb a mountain by bike or hiking? Don’t underestimate the role of vanity, there is no shame in improving health habits like eating lots of veggies or going to the gym and coincidentally also looking belter as a result. Ideally, choose a goal that is achievable with constant, small efforts. Don’t plan to change your whole life, this works only in exceptional circumstances.
For some people, it may help to find a goal they want to reach at an older age rather far in the future, such as witnessing their grandchildren’s graduation or wedding. But a more ideal goal would have a higher urgency, which motivates us to do something now instead of sometime in the future (which may turn out to be never). So starting some running in the winter months to run a 5k in spring may be doable. When stopping drinking alcohol for good, a period of 100 days may be a good length of time to figure out ways to abstain in different emotional states and situations. The formation of habits may be achieved faster depending on the frequency we can do the new behaviours (daily works better than weekly) and the ease with which we incorporate the new behaviour into our routine. More on this later.
One goal at a time
We all know the “I have got to change my life” feeling, and some periods in our lives may feel like we have let too many bad habits accumulate, and which should all be addressed. But changing a habit or forming a new habit requires mental effort, so-called self-regulation. In a way, we can think of self-regulation as a muscle. With training, it will become stronger over time. But in the short run, overexerting self-regulation can lead to exhaustion, with the danger of impulsive behaviours taking over. So, the wise way to spend our mental energy is to focus on one behaviour change or new behaviour at a time.
Integrate the behaviour smoothly
What is the best way to make new brain-health behaviours stick? By learning an association between your old routine and your new behaviour. If you wish to take up running in the morning, associate running with an activity right before, for example, waking up, getting dressed, checking your emails once and then go out the door to run. Make the new behavior easier by preparing for it, for example, laying out clothes and shoes for running the night before. Once you are out of the door, starting running may feel terrible at first, so the secret here is to spend your mental energy to keep running or walking fast until the point when the running becomes more pleasing.
Don’t worry about lost days
As we set up goals and the behaviours to reach them, we tend to be harsh with ourselves if we don’t carry out the new behaviour as often or as long as planned. This is why thinking in challenges – e.g. 30 days with specific food and exercise – may backfire because each lost day sets the timer back to zero, when, in fact, you have done a lot to reach your goal by sticking to the new behaviour all of the days before. Our advice is to let go of the frustration and encourage yourself to do the behaviour again as soon as you can. Just pick up where you left off. And don’t do the health challenge just for the sake of the challenge, but for the benefits that hopefully come with it. Stay away from all challenges that sound extreme unless you know they are safe and you have tons of mental energy to spare on them.
How can new healthy behaviours feel so uncomfortable?
It is common for people who take up new behaviours to not feel good while doing the new behaviour. This is again where we need to spend our mental energy: Focus on the very good reason why you wanted to take up the new behaviour and keep reminding yourself that carrying out the behaviour will get you closer to your goal. Put up visual reminders on the note board or into your calendar. Remind yourself also that the behaviour will not make you feel uncomfortable forever, it will get easier over time.
How to measure if you were successful in forming a new habit?
There are different ways to define if you established a new habit successfully. You can define reaching your goal, for example, participating in a 5k or going 100 days without alcohol, as an indicator of success. You may define a more specific longer-term goal, such as building up muscle mass to a certain percentage of body weight. A shorter-term goal may be learning a handstand. You know best if a series of smaller goals or a larger goal works better for you.
You can also be proud if you notice that carrying out the new behaviour takes less and less effort. A sign of success is if you don’t even think (or argue with yourself over) about whether you’ll carry out the new behaviour anymore and just do it.
Juggling habits with all other responsibilities
Making time for a new brain-healthy habit may feel impossible for many of us. After all, we need to let go of another activity we would have liked or needed to carry out instead. Some activities can be combined: watching TV or streaming only in the gym on the treadmill or the peloton. If not: Making a habit stick is considerably easier if you remind yourself of your very good reason you started it. Adopt the bird’s eye view: Yes, the healthy habit may take time away from your family who wants to spend time with you, but they also want and need you to be in good health, so the healthy habit will serve them in the long run too.
Want more actions to support brain health? Explore our tool here.
