We all have bad habits, those things that we do that we'd rather not, those things that we know are wrong but still we do them, those things that irritate us but we can't seem to stop... How do we break a bad habit? How do we change ingrained behavior?
I was a Psych major and we studied habits in general, bad habits in particular. I was taught the substitution method- if you want to break a bad habit replace it with another. In theory it works, but putting it into practice is more difficult. We tend to try to just stop doing the bad habit, leaving a vaccuum for the habit, or another, to return.
I saw an interesting illustration last week in Church though, which gave me a new perspective on how to change behavior. The pastor held up a glass filled with brown, dirty water, with all kinds of crud floating in it. This represents our lives, our bad behavior that we'd like to change. Instead of trying to dump it out, to start over if you will, and refill the glass with clean, he just began pouring clean water into the dirty, cruddy mess. As the glass overflowed an amazing thing began to happen: the crud spilled out, the dirty brown water diluted, and the more clean water was added the clearer the glass became. It became evident to me that it is entirely possible to change behavior, not by seeking to eliminate it, but by immersing ourselves in behaviors that we desire and, in time, those negative behaviors will become diluted, weakened, and finally disappear altogether. Subtraction by addition. Food for thought...
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