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KEY TO CHANGING BEHAVIOR

One key to good health is embracing healthy behavior like eating more fruits and vegetables, exercising regularly and getting adequate sleep.  However, focusing on behavior to improve one’s health may not be the answer for long term success.  Most people know how to eat healthy, yet 68% of Americans are overweight.  Everyone knows the harmful effects of smoking, but 23 million Americans still smoke.  If you want to be healthier and adopt healthy habits, don’t focus on the behavior.  This is the paradox of human behavior.  As strange as it seems, focusing on behavior actually increases stress and sets up failure in most people.  Forcing oneself to embrace healthier habits may work in the short term, but long term results are difficult at best.  Case in point is 66% of people who set New Year’s resolutions fail to keep them by the end of first month.  If trying to adopt new behavior is not the key, then what is? Based on extensive research in cognitive behavior, here are 4 ways to embrace behavior without focusing on them: Change your identity.  Write out a brief description of the person whom you desire to become – your ideal “you.”  Your behavior reflects who you believe you are.  Change your identity and you unconsciously change your behavior without focusing on it. Picture your ideal self.  Visualizing a healthier “you” over and over sends a message to your subconscious mind, which helps move you unconsciously towards the picture your consistently focus on.  The more vivid the picture and the more emotion you attach to it, the faster the transformation. Develop positive self talk.  What you say to yourself has the biggest impact on your identity and how you act and feel.  When you act in a way that is undesirable, instead of berating yourself, say things like, “that’s not like me” or “I’m better than that.” Affirm positive statements.  Write out several positive affirmations which affirm your “ideal you” and read them several times a day.  This sends a message to your mind affirming the “better you.”

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