Break The Habit Cycle: The Brain’s Reward System - Deepstash

Break The Habit Cycle: The Brain’s Reward System

The brain labels our actions and behaviour as ‘rewarding’, usually in our formative years. We need to review our behaviour and habits and update the brain’s reward system.

Example: We may be having a habit of eating a lot of cake, since our childhood. Now as an adult, the habit is resulting in a high intake of sugar, without our realizing it.

If we use this method to review and update our reward system, the brain will naturally lose the urge to take the habitual action, something much more powerful than using willpower, which only suppresses the urge.

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camille_aa

Mental health is health. Meditation nerd.

The idea is part of this collection:

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Break The Habit Cycle: Creating Space

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  • Review and update the brain’s reward system in a positive way, inserting good behaviour and positive habit loops.

Break The Habit Cycle: Map Out The Habits

We are struggling with anxiety as our habits don’t let us part with it, with the pleasure and pain coming in a package. The habit loop of any habit cycle is:

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The reward system

The reward system in our brain exists to ensure we seek out what we need. If eating nutritious food or being smiled at pleases us, we try to secure more of these stimuli. However, seeking pleasure can also result in people becoming addicted, indebted or overweight.

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