Forming habits- How NLP can help

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We have heard often enough that Practice, Practice and Practice to become perfect…

Not only perfect, Practice also makes our behaviours permanent

And it all happens at the neurology level.

All habits and behaviours that we have, comprise of neural pathways(a network of neurons connected by dendrites). When we repeatedly perform a certain behaviour, the number of dendrites increases. Neurons communicate with each other through something called?Neuronal firing(transmitting of messages)

According to Psychologist Deann Ware, Ph.D., when our brain cells communicate frequently, the connection between them strengthens. Ans so, “the messages that travel the same pathway in the brain over and over begin to transmit faster and faster.” When there are enough repetitions, these behaviors become automatic.

Think of behaviours which are complicated and yet, automatic – eg. Reading, driving, or?riding a bike - we do these automatically because neural pathways have formed and strengthened over time with enough repetition

Think of it like a mud track- more the number of times it is used, the stronger it becomes. And over a period of time, with repeated use, it becomes a well-formed path or a road

As we practice new behaviours, we train our brains to create new neural pathways. These pathways get stronger with repetition and practice until the behavior is the new normal.

That is how behaviour change takes place. We can actually cause changes in our neural pathways by not doing the behaviour that needs a change- that neural pathway over time will become redundant.

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It is said?that it takes about 10,000 repetitions to master a skill and to develop the associated neural pathway.

Malcolm?Gladwell?has referred?to this throughout his book as the “10,000-hour rule,” asserting that the the only way to achieve true expertise in any skill is just?a matter of practicing (though in the correct way), for 10 000 hours at least.

While there could be a debate about how many exact number of hours, it is an established fact that habits form with enough repetitions – new neural pathways can be created by strengthening them by repeated use. There can be no one estimate for everyone, as it varies form person to person

Neuro Linguistic programming or NLP focusses on transformation through this principle.

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1.????Involving all senses through Visualisation- When we connect the new behavior to as many areas of the brain as possible, we create new neural pathways to all these areas. By involving all our five senses, we can create “stickiness” that helps form neural pathways. So, an NLP practitioner might ask you to recall or imagine what you see, hear, feel , smell or taste when you do the new behaviour. This creates and strengthens the neural pathways to the centers of the brain which are responsible for these sensations. Hence, a larger part of the brain gets involved and there is more ‘stickiness’

2.????Past references – we can also refer to the time in the past when a person might be doing that behaviour or similar behaviour, and get them to remember what they felt, saw or heard when they did that behaviour. That tells them that they already have evidence of that or similar behaviour and can now do that easily(the neural pathway exists, it just needs to be reactivated)

3.????Celebrate wins – every time the desired behaviour is executed, a ‘reward’ helps to keep the person motivated. Rewarding in any form is associated with the release of Doapmine(and some other neuro transmiitors) which leads to the feeling of pleasure and satisfaction. This positive reinforcement helps us sustain the new behaviour

4.????An NLP practitioner or a coach can design new strategies to overcome barriers or resistance. They can tweak the goal if it is not ecological or help the person design smaller goals towards the same outcome

What has to be kept in mind is that every person is different and everyone has their own experiences and beliefs. One has to take the subjective experiences into account while trying to ‘rewire’ the brain or establishing a habit.

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There is a very interesting observation in Dr. Rick Hanson’s?Hardwiring Happiness. In this, the neuropsychologist says that our brains are naturally wired toward the negative.

For example, if we have 10 experiences during the day, 5 neutral everyday ones, 4 positive experiences, and just one negative experience, we are wired?to think about that single negative experience before going to bed that night.

Now, if this is the natural tendency, how we change or rewire our brains tto focus on the positive or good experiences?

Dr Hanson says one way of doing this by focussing on the good for 10-20 seconds and really being immersed in that experience sensorially so that it gets stored in our long term memory. And by repeating this exercise often enough, we can rewire our brains to focus more on the positives!

So, it all boils down to what we focus on and how we build our mental muscles.

When we consciously focus on what we desire, involve all our senses and visualise it often enough, we build the mental muscle( the neural pathways) to make our subconscious work for us.

Simple enough – so why don’t you try it out by taking up a challenge for yourself? Build a habit that you’re meaning to – whatever it may be – practice it out enough number of times. Over time, not only will it become easier to execute, it will also get cemented in your Neurology – or as we say, it’ll become a habit!

#nlp?#nlptrainer?#nlpcoach?#lifecoach?#personalsuccess?#knowledge?#habits #forminghabits #neuralpathways #newhabits #practice #practicemakesperfect #practicemakespermanent

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