Change is not easy and it has a neuroscientific explanation: Our habits are all stored in our primitive brain whereas our cognitive capacities like our awareness, attention, self-regulation, decision-making, are located in the neocortex. And neuroscientists have shown that it takes longer time and more energy for the neocortex to operate compared to the limbic system. That is the reason why it takes more time and efforts to think about and do something new than react automatically out of habit or instinct. That also explains why many people find it hard to maintain commitment and at the end do not change. Through mindfulness practice, we strengthen the neural connection in the neocortex related to the attention and mindful awareness, so we become more and more aware of our mind traps, our thoughts, our fears, our emotions, our behaviours. By this way, it becomes easier to catch ourselves at the moment we are about to fall into a self-defeating habit and to choose not to relapse in it. Mindfulness gives you options. And the more this process is repeated, the more we can rewire our brain for a more skilful response which will turn to a more helpful habit. That is the reason why it takes time, practice and conscious effort to break habits and to replace them by a new one. The idea behind is also to transfer the control from the primitive brain to the pre-frontal cortex (part of the neocortex) which can analyse and critique what you are about to do. However, the pre-frontal cortex cannot function properly if under stress (real or perceived) or distracted. Here again, through the attention training that occurs during mindfulness practice, we become better at noticing our internal and external distractions and bring back our attention to where we need it to be. At the same time, numerous researches have also demonstrated the calming effect that mindfulness has on the stress response. So definitively, having a regular mindfulness practice helps your neocortex to function optimally. How to do that? One way to do that is simply by taking the time, at least 5 minutes per day, to pause, and bring your attention to your breath. And every time you notice your mind wandering, you gently bring it back to your breath, with kindness and no judgements. Final thought: Maybe one of the greatest lesson that mindfulness gives us is that we all encounter failures along the way, and it’s okay. This is part of our journey, and we need to accept them with compassion, to learn from them and to move on. If you want to give mindfulness a try (and hopefully adopt it): [email protected] Key take-away: Mindfulness is one effective way to support you in your habit change journey. It gives you awareness, options, acceptance and control over the process. And what you will find is that as you strengthen your mindfulness practice, changing habits becomes easier. Photo credit : Geralt - Pixabay
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AuthorHi ! I'm Nadege Esteban. As a Mindfulness Trainer and Coach, I promote mindfulness as a way of living and working… and I gave myself this personal mission: to inspire as much as possible people to give mindfulness a try and hopefully to adopt it in their daily life. Be Inspired
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