Expecting to quit your bad habit in 21 days?
It’s different for everyone. Hypnotherapy can definitely help.
Unwanted Habits! What bad habits are you having difficulty changing? Smoking? Snacking? Procrastinations? Vaping? Too much junk food? Overspending? Being too messy? Can’t focus? Get upset at everything? Too nervous to drive on motorway? Etc.
Whatever unwanted habits that you want to change, you may have heard the theory that it takes 21 days to form a habit. This number originates from a widely popular 1960 book called Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon, that noticed it took 21 days for people to get used to their new faces. However, more up to date research suggests that changing a habit isn’t really that clear-cut.
This study found that the average time it takes for a new habit to form is 66 days!
The research also found out that everyone is different. This means it could take you anywhere between 18 days to over 254 days!
Of course, the longer you keep “at it” the better!
What is the best way to break an unwanted habit?
Habit forming and breaking can be quite closely linked. Breaking a habit really means establishing a new habit. It’s actually about establishing new neural connections in the brain.
Brain synapses
Unfortunately we can replace unwanted habit with another bad habit .Think about how some people replace smoking with vaping. only to get hooked on that. Or replace drinking too much alcohol with constant unhealthy snacking
A positive, healthy replacement behaviour is what you will need. And the good news is that hypnotherapy can help you bring in new, healthy behaviours so you can get over your bad habit whatever that may be.
As mentioned above there is no typical time frame for breaking an unwanted habit, and hypnotherapy works with this on an individual level. The best way to break an unhealthy habit and form a new one will include a mix of personality, motivation, circumstances and the habit in question. This is why hypnotherapy can help you, as it takes into account your history and turning points in your life that may have caused the habit in the first place. And then it can be easier to work out what positive replacement behaviour would be more useful. Hypnotherapy is the “secret sauce” which can help you to reset your subconscious mind, which make the job of breaking an unwanted habit far easier and quicker.
And experts also agree that people who align their habit breaking with their personal values will change their behaviour faster. In other words, you’ve got to want to change.
This is far better than doing it to please other people, bowing to pressure from others. .
To successfully break an unwanted habit you need to think of your strongest motivation. What could that be? Losing weight and improving your health so that you can run around in the park with your kids or grandkids? Quit smoking so that you can play sports or dance without getting short of breath? Being cleaner and tidier so that you lose things less? Stop self doubt and procrastinating, so you keep focus and get things done?
Whatever your motivation is, breaking a bad habit will be much easier if you align it with your personal values.
Do it for YOU and not because you are feeling pressure from friends, family or wider society.
What do you want to give up?
And what positive behaviour could you replace it with?
Want to break an unwanted habit? Contact us today. or call us on +64 (09) 8377877