A Simple Technique to Overcome Bad Habits
Use ‘Urge Surfing’ to let cravings come and go without getting swept away by them.
Your environment affects your behavior in a big way. So, if you want to change a bad habit, it’s usually a good practice to remove everything that triggers it from your environment.
But what if the trigger is internal? What if a thought, feeling, or impulse keeps initiating the behavior?
Those kinds of triggers arise spontaneously, so you can’t remove them proactively. And to make matters worse, any attempt to suppress them only makes them stronger.
An Intrusive White Bear
If I, for example, ask you not to think about a white bear, you can be sure the bear pops into your mind anyway. And the more you try not to think about it, the more intrusive the bear will become in your mind.
Psychologists call this phenomenon ironic process theory, and it shows that suppression is not only ineffective but actually counterproductive.
So, if it’s not a good idea to suppress unhelpful thoughts, feelings, and impulses, how should you deal with them?
The answer, in short, is that you should do the exact opposite. Instead of trying to stop these triggers, you…
