ICRAVE Accepting Change and New Behaviors

It is not always easy to change the way you behave, but you can do it

• When you practice a behavior over and over for a long enough period of time, your brain will eventually decide this new behavior is the one that needs to be protected and continued.
• You need to repeat the new behavior for long enough to cement it permanently into your brain and therefore into your life.

Although your brain can change, it is generally set up to resist change, especially sudden change

• People who are ultimately successful in initiating and maintaining major behavioral changes, usually make the changes gradually, one step at a time.

Your Rational Brain (frontal cortex) is the center of impulse control.

• It promotes delayed gratification and helps you behave with the social aspects of society
• It allows you to check and balance yourself so you don’t act impulsively with every temptation that comes your way.
•  This part of the brain has not fully finished developing until an adults mid 20’s, and this plays a role in some of the high risk behavior sometimes seen in teenagers.

Knowing why you do what you do and having an appreciation for the potential consequences of your actions can help shape your behavior.

Re-source: Recondition

to condition again

Your brain operates reflexively. To coax your brain to accepting change, introduce new behaviors gradually.

If you feel your motivation beginning to slip, it is probably because you brain is saying “Oh no you don’t, I sense a change here and I am not going to let that happen.”

• This can leave you feeling frustrated and confused.
• How can you so desperately want to make a change one day and then come up with a thousand reasons not to the next.
• When this happens, remind yourself that this is simply an example of your brain working against you, doing what it thinks it has to, in order to protect you

You can out smart your brain though. It will start to feel more comfortable with your new actions once you start to repeat the new behavior many times.

• So start to repeat the new action many times over again

Another way to accept change is to work within a structure

• Your brain is very rule-based, so it generally feels more comfortable when the rules are clearly defined.
• It takes less energy from your brain when you have a clear set of rules to guide it, than when you have to make decision all along the way.
• The trick with structure though, is when you have to create lasting behavior change.
  • You have to learn how to perform a behavior in all sorts of situations that may be outside the structure you are following.

craving and resource from “The Healthiest You” – Take charge of your brain, to take charge of your life – by Kelly Trevor MD and Betty Keller