How We Form Habits
Thoughtful Thursday
Are you aware of the power and endless possibilities of essential oils?
There are many uses…providing safe, effective, therapeutic, and non-toxic benefits, which are available from the essential oils you already have in your home! We love using essential oils and have found many creative ways to use them every day.
What have we found? Daily use has created a foundation for our physical vitality, but more importantly, they have enhanced our lives in so many other ways!
This month we focus our attention on how we form habits and the ways we can use this dynamic power to support healthy lifestyle choices!
The Power of Habits Over Our Behaviors
Habits! We all have them! We have the usual way of behaving; something we do often in a regular and repeated way. Habits can be the foundation for healthy lifestyle choices, daily routines, as well as our emotional and mental stability. Some habits we love…like family traditions…like our routine of going to the gym…like regularly doing some activity on our joy list…like taking our vitamins and using our essential oils daily!
Some habits can be hidden to our conscious mind. For example, I get in the car to drive home from work with an intention to stop at the drycleaner on my way home, and before I know it, I am in my driveway laughing at myself, thinking: “How did I get here?!!”
Merriam-Webster dictionary includes this definition of a habit: “An acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary”. Involuntary behavior…this is where we repeat certain patterns over and over again, with little or no awareness or intention that we are choosing to do it. It is in that space where we can sometimes become enslaved to them! And I am sure we can all name habits we have that may be nearly or completely involuntary. Can you think of one now? Is it a habit that you love or is it one you wish you could move beyond? Is the outcome of this habit desirable or undesirable?
“Neurons that fire together, wire together.” This Hebbian learning theory of the brain is part of the work by Donald Hebb, author of The Organization of Behavior (1949). Every single experience, thought, feeling, or physical sensation triggers thousands of neurons and they start to form a collective neural network. When you have repeated experiences, your brain learns over time to treat it with the same responses, the same neurons. Then these established networks we have created help us learn, remember, and recall information in an effective way. That’s the good news!
This gift can sometimes go awry as this collective network is the foundation for habitual behavior. We have learned a specific response to a specific experience, and even when that experience happens again and isn’t the same as the original one, we respond to it in much the same way.
So what can we do?
We end up with these behavioral patterns through frequent repetition. Is there anything we can do to break a habit once it has been formed? Emphatically, yes!!
1. Changing a habit starts with awareness!
Charles Duhigg, New York Times business writer and author of The Power of Habit says "What we know from lab studies is that it's never too late to break a habit. Habits are malleable throughout your entire life. But we also know that the best way to change a habit is to understand its structure — that once you tell people about the cue and the reward and you force them to recognize what those factors are in a behavior, it becomes much, much easier to change." Simply stated, changing a habit starts with AWARENESS…awareness of the triggers, awareness of the rewards, and awareness of the desired outcome!
2. Flood the brain with new ideas!
Our brain chemistry and the physiology of the body is part of how our habits form in the first place! We seek the release of endorphins, dopamine, adrenalin, cortisol, and oxytocin; these chemical highways become habitual, even motivating us to recreate circumstances to then experience the same chemical responses over and over again. Support this awareness and desire for change! Flood the brain with new chemistry; new ideas; new thought patterns. This is the path to success.
3. Introduce essential oils and positive affirmations!
An essential oil’s therapeutic action is based on its chemistry. “Essential oils are a mix of volatile organic compounds that contribute to the fragrance and wellbeing of the plant...The key to unlocking the benefits of an essential oil lies in revealing the chemical constituents present in the oil.” ~Essential Oils Unlocked by P J Hanks
With a therapeutic grade essential oil, and with an understanding of the gifts which the underlying chemistry brings to therapeutic use, we can influence our very thought patterns!
Here are some of my favorite uses (aromatic, topical, and/or internal) to support awareness, new thoughts and ideas, and smooth the transition to healthier lifestyle choices:
With a high content of limonene, Wild Orange has an energizing aroma and inhaling deeply can quickly uplift the mood. This can help with mood swings associated with the process of letting go.
I love to diffuse Bergamot for a sense of self confidence. Belief in our own ability to make the changes we desire is another key to our success.
With a high content of linalool, Petitgrain can help ease feelings of tension, help calm the nervous system and promote restful sleep.* This can help us be kind and gentle to ourselves and others as we navigate our new choices.
Here’s another great protocol for supporting change in Living Healthy & Happily Ever After, by Rebecca Linder Hintze, M.Sc and Dr. Susan Lawton:
Frankincense (5 drops), Myrrh (4 drops), Clary Sage (2 drops), Patchouli (2 drops), and Lemon (1 drop) essential oils combined with one tablespoon of fractionated coconut oil in a glass roller bottle.
Apply to wrists and bones behind the ears; breathe deeply from hands after rubbing a few drops in the palms.
“I am courageous and capable of enjoying newfound gifts and talents.”
Harness the Power of Your Habits
Want to learn more about how to harness the power of your habits to create thriving health and vitality? Watch this recording of our new 90 Transformation Program!!
90 Day Transformation:
· Month 1 get things humming (in with good)
· Month 2 out with bad
· Month 3 targeted support
· Measurable detectable visible results in first 30 days, while cellular turnover requires 90 days.
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Watch for more articles sharing resources and solutions to help you build your foundation for health, one belief, one goal, one experience at a time! You are invited to follow me on my substack blog to make sure you don’t miss articles as they are published.
Essential oils are safe, effective and very affordable. However, not all essential oils are created equal! Be an educated consumer and use only certified pure, tested grade essential oils for your family!