Remembered

"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility."

-James Thurber, writer and cartoonist (1894-1961)

Resolutions, or not?

I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. – Paul, Romans 7:18-20, The Message paraphrase

Do you sometimes feel like it's tough to do the things you want to do? How about new year resolutions? have you made any, or not? I’ve taken a pass on the resolution thing for the last many years. But this year I’m deciding to give gentle attention to establishing a few healthier habits while letting go of some unhealthy ones.

At a seminar I attended a couple months back - “How the Brain Forms New Habits: Why Willpower is Not Enough,” sponsored by Institute for Brain Potential and presented by Bill M. Kelly (PhD/Professor in the Dept of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth) - I gleaned a few ideas to apply for a more resolute life this year.

And in the chance that you too might want to form any new health habits, for this January’s 1^st Wednesday wellness email I pass along some suggestions. Being rather fascinated with this stuff I get long-winded: you’re invited to merely look for the section of interest and scan just that if this seems too long [as it may well be for many ;-)].

Understanding habits and your reward system

*Habits, both good and bad, are learned and maintained by rewards, and are activated by dopamine circuits associated with motivation and reward (reward is not necessarily pleasure, euphoria, or feel good; rather, it is something that increases the likelihood of repetition even though not always associated with positive affect). Reward takes you from an immediate state of good to great, ok to good, or from bad to ok or less bad; reward equals reinforcement.

*A habit can be a behavior, thought, or emotional response. Bad habits cause immediate benefit, but long-term harm with repetition; good habits cause immediate and long-term benefit.

*Correcting our conscious beliefs or expectations around value (of the habit or behavior) changes our dopamine neuron estimates (that is, the brain’s guess as to how desirable the behavior is, how much ‘reward’ it will bring, or what benefit will result; for example, being given a placebo “painkiller’ increased release of dopamine in persons anticipating a painful stimulus (Scott et al., 2007), dopamine neurons were activated because the expectation was for relief).

Eliminating unhealthful “bad” habits

*Be aware of overvaluing bad habits that have been linked to

-other rewards (like pretty faces, symbols of power, successes, or relief – advertisers know this!), or

-secondary gain: like social acceptance – fitting in by eating the junk food your ‘friends’ are eating; like having people feel bad for us and help us – getting a back massage when we hurt; like getting out of doing something we fear – being sick to avoid the math test; like getting attention for bad behavior – joking around in class; like escaping tedium – smoke breaks, chocolate/alcohol intake.

*Notice maladaptive associations: identify harmful habits, track the context of what triggers or precedes the habit, then avoid the triggers (such as, don’t go to drinking parties if alcoholic), create competing good habits off the same trigger (for example: take five deep breaths rather than smoking, when feeling anxious; get a cup of tea when feeling bored instead of eating a candy bar or cookie).

*Bring attention to when a habit isn’t working and initiate a new strategy (ex

ample: instead of responding defensively to negative input, take three deep breaths while determining to see the other person’s perspective).

*Link habits to values: explicitly identify and prioritize values and consider your habitual practices in the context of these values. Do your habits support or conflict with your values? When values and habits conflict, reminding yourself of the value and developing a plan to live by the value can help change habits (such as, if I value a healthy body, the practice of counting calories is a constant reminder that I have a long-term goal and that I value physical wellness).

Establishing healthy “good” habits

*Develop good habits by observation: we unconsciously mimic the behaviors, feelings, and thoughts of those around us; our brains have mirror neurons that fire as if we were doing what we are watching others do and those neurons map onto our motor systems. So hang out with people choosing desirable lifestyles.

*Develop good habits by imagery: practicing or running through a new behavior in our imagination can speed learning, as the brain goes through some of the same patterns for firing and activation when imaging as when actually doing. Some examples:

1. Real practice playing the piano reshaped representation of the fingers in the motor cortex; one week of imagining playing the piano for two hours a day caused the same motor cortex restructuring; This plastic human brain cortex article cites a Pascual-Leone 1996 study finding.

2. Two groups did a finger exercise for four weeks, one group did actual physical movement with the result of 30% stronger muscles at end, other group imagined the exercise with result of 22% stronger; for more see Guang Yue and Kelly Cole article abstract and the finding is mentioned here.

*Create new associations to encourage good habits (for example: spinach makes you strong, eating fruits and vegetables clear your skin or boost your immune system hearty, doing yoga impresses women or eases your back pain, prayer quiets your anxiety).

*Avoid merely depriving yourself, rather enrich your life (we need to REPLACE bad habits with good ones; try devising enticing rewards for healthful habits!).

Set up “artificial” more immediate rewards to encourage behaviors whose benefits are more long-term. For example:

Aim for weight loss: for 1^st 5# lost - reward of getting a massage, for 2^nd 5# loss - reward of purchase of arts and crafts floor lamp;

Aim to reduce, in half, amount of time or money spent on indulgences (such as eating out, intake of alcohol and sweets) – reward of ‘splurging’ by spending time doing centering prayer and learning about enneagram, reward of smart phone and data plan;

Aim to exercise 3x/week consistently: after 3 weeks - reward of purchase of brown trendy boots, after 6 we

eks- new jeans.

[Note: programs that reward for completing target behaviors are proven effective interventions for substance use and overeating, or so says workshop presenter Kelley, though I haven’t yet tracked down that research.]

*Understand the limits of willpower to NOT do something: willpower is not great at preventing bad habits because it requires active focus and holding the intention in working memory (you have to remember not to do it), which fills up your working memory and slows the orbitofrontal cortex from stalling your habit, so that, especially when multi-tasking, you will often do the bad habit before catching yourself. In short, trying not to do something will make you constantly think about it, and usually increases rather than decreases the behavior.

*Use willpower (or more accurately, your brain’s pre-frontal cortex) to your advantage to:

- evaluate your associations,

- connect “bad” habits to long-term consequences,

- pre-plan for and avoid high-risk situations,

- have an alternate solution ready,

- initiate a new strategy,

- decide to persevere through a difficult task.

*Take whatever small steps seem possible today (don’t wait until you are “ready to change”) – any little step in the right direction will reshape your brain and new steps will seem more manageable.

Reinforcing healthy habits

*Set up triggers for continuing the healthy behaviors:

- reminders (such as, use pictures or other visual cues, prompts, thought triggers like "when I catch self grumbling I will say three positives about the situation"),

- scheduling (plan time and opportunities for health habits),

- associations (such as, practice mindfulness: notice the pleasures associated with the healthy things you’re doing);

- making it easy to do the ‘right’ thing (create a physical space that facilitates the desired choice).

*Associate with social groups that value healthful living: attend support and mutual help groups, or find friend/s who model behaviors you desire or who can problem-solve with you barriers to improvements.

*Train up your autopilot (so as to continue to respond healthily when stressed, multi-tasking, or distracted) by practicing directed attention:

(1) learn to notice opportunities for healthy responses, such as looking for stairs to climb, whole food to eat, happy healthful people to hang with, things you can fix.

(2) learn to disregard opportunities for unhealthful responses, such as threats (ignore them), unsolvable problems (let ‘em go), sugary treats (someone else can eat them), trigger situations (plan to avoid).

*If prone to immediate gratification, focus on creating an environment that supports your movement toward health rather than trying to act better in an unsupportive environment:

- remove opportunities to do bad habits (some examples: skip all-you-can-eat buffets, use smaller dishware, forgo the liquor cabinet in the house or treats on your desk, watch shows on the internet instead of TV so that you have to consciously interact to watch the next show),

- focus on keeping your life rich with social support.

*Keep reducing stress (get enough sleep, eat at regular intervals, pace your work loads, develop a sense of control over stress such as pre-planning solutions to avoid crisis and learning what you can control and using this power to reduce exposure to the things you can’t control).

An aside for parents (just FYI in hopes of aiding, not to heap guilt on anyone): Kelley made the claim (I believe based on animal studies (like mother, like daughter, 2001) that stress responses are at least partly learned through early experiences with maternal response. Children of mothers who comfort and provide safety cues/assurances after stressors were more stress resilient. When mothers did not provide or didn’t have time to provide the safety cues, children were more prone to stress-related disease and more prone to addictive disease later in life.

*Foster adaptability and creativity and prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain most engaged in voluntary and conscious behavior regulation) effectiveness through

- challenging yourself with non-threatening problem-solving games (play!),

- trying out diverse strategies in situations, and

- accepting a measure of failure when trying out new things.

What I most take home from all of this can be summarized by: letting go of bad habits for healthy habits will improve my life, and I can aid that by REPLACING the bad habits, rather than focus on depriving myself.

That “take away” encourages me: it makes it seem doable. I’ve noticed as well that it’s God's heart to urge us toward letting go of the harmful so as to embrace what will benefit or “profit” us.

“I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go.” – Isaiah 48:17b.

Believing that all good is from God, I wish for you that God (however you define him/her) will be with you this year in pursuing all things good and profitable and well.

May this be, for you, a year of waking to new wellness possibilities and potentials. Happy new year to you!

On Waking, by John O’Donohue

I give thanks for arriving

Safely in a new dawn,

For the gift of eyes

To see the world,

The gift of mind

To feel at home

In my life.

The waves of possibility

Breaking on the shore of dawn,

The harvest of the past

That awaits my hunger,

And all the furtherings

This new day will bring.