This January at A Lust for Life, we’re debunking the annual tradition of a New Years Resolution and the pledge of “New Year, New Me”. By learning about the neurosci-ence of how we can change our brains with neuroplasticity in creating new habits, we can awaken to a more mindful, positive way of living.
We are a few days into a new year, meaning many failed attempts at kickstarting those unforgivable new year’s resolutions we continue to torture ourselves with. Like most of people, I’ve been trying to beat this dreaded, run down, head cold since Christmas. That means any likelihood of sparking life into my extinguished fitness routine went down the sink with the last of the mulled wine (it is dry January after all).
Dry January, weight loss, fitness; giving up alcohol and tasty treats in return for enduring pain all in the name of becoming a better form of ourselves. In reality though, what was wrong with us pre-new years countdown? We enter each new year with such negative perceptions of ourselves that it’s quite likely we’re setting up for a fall.
In January, a cold, dark month where we’re all broke and fed up after Christmas, we deprive ourselves of all the things we love. Many of us even begin the year hungover which isn’t the ideal state to start cutting out the comfort. By mid to late January we’ve either caved and given up the resolutions already or we haven’t even started and feel we probably never will. And so the cycle continues, the summer beach body dreams and the hopes of the Christmas LBD until we ring in the next New Year; repeatedly feeling terrible for not fulfilling last year’s promise to ourselves.
Again I must ask…what is wrong with you that you need to change so much? This is what I’m asking myself this year.
Rather than implementing resolutions and setting goals which need to be renewed annually, I wanted to delve into the science of creating habits. By setting up a regular, manageable routine in the form of simple habits, how can this lead to a healthier, more positive life?
We know that setting a morning routine with healthy habits is good for us, but what is the neuroscience behind these specific habits. What does it do for us to make the bed in the morning, meditate, stretch, have a shower? We often hear these are the things that set us up for a positive day, but how do these habits change our brain and make us happier?
We have often heard the famous quote, “If you want to change the world, start by making your bed” when Navy Seal Admiral William H. McRaven gave a powerful speech on the wisdom of the simple act of making your bed. He says, by making your bed in the morning, you have completed the first simple task of the day and set in motion the mindset to complete tasks for the rest of the day. It sets the importance of the little things and how by getting the little things right, you will be ready for the completion of the bigger tasks. This one small task offers the big reward of a nicely made bed to get into at the end of a long day. If you’ve had a particularly hard day, encouragement for the next day can come from lying in a comfortable bed.
But what is does making the bed actually do to our brains and how does it set in motion a more positive life?
The neuroscience of habits
Dr Michael Keane is a Behavioural Neuroscientist and Founder of the Actualise Clinic and is a member of the mental health advisory panel on A Lust for Life. I spoke to him about how creating morning habits can help us set up our day and how getting this right can help us grow.
Looking at routine habits such as making the bed, having a shower, brushing your hair and teeth, Michael delved into the neuroscience of what happens to our brains when we’re in auto-pilot, verses when we mindfully take action.
“In some way, all of these actions share some common ground, in that they are actions that may become habits. Habits then run like algorithms (think about driving home or tying your shoelaces). Our brain is good at running algorithms, and it is one of the capacities that make us a supremely successful species. If we had to use “cognitive space” or “brain space” every time we wanted to do something routine, we would spend all of our time thinking about basics that help us exist. So I have to think about buttoning my shirt in the morning, how to brush my teeth, how to tie my shoelaces, how to pedal my bike etc – then I would have no “brain space” left to think about the future, to plan, to imagine, to reflect… and then to worry, and ruminate, and catastrophise… you see where this is going. Our greatest strength – our capacity for abstract reasoning and language – can easily become our greatest enemy. Basal areas of the brain can run algorithms (habits) unquestioningly, so we can function quite well in a mindless fashion. You might not remember getting dressed, or driving to work, or driving home – how often have you arrived home and forgotten to get the milk you had planned to get? These actions can be run automatically while our mind, our conscious mind, is working on other things. So we can function well enough on autopilot, freeing up our Neocortex to do other things. This is great for innovation, planning etc but also leaves us plenty of scope for anxiety, depression, worry etc.”
“Making new habits helps us to move from habitual responding (autopilot – like the algorithms above) to more ‘goal-directed’ behaviour. Example: driving home from work. Today you need to pop to the dry cleaners to pick up your suit for tomorrow. So you have to interrupt the algorithm and replace it with a goal-directed action. You arrive home and think ‘sh*t! I forgot to get the dry cleaning’. Your conscious mind, the Neocortex, was busy ruminating on the email you got from a colleague that was slightly short (are they mad at me?), or planning tomorrow, or thinking about your children, or wondering where you’ll go on holiday this year… so you did not interrupt the algorithm and it played out and you got home.”
On making the bed
“Making the bed is a concrete, time-locked event (normally first thing) that you can do that is a goal-directed behaviour. It may not be a part of the normal preparation for the day but is a goal in and of itself. It is an interruption of the normal morning algorithm (routine) and has to be done consciously. This is where mindfulness comes in – you can see that mindfulness can help break these cycles of automatic responding. You are mindful this morning, and you don’t just enter the routine – you bring activity to the Neocortex and decide mindfully that you are making the bed. You can then work on repeating that, and then that goal-directed action becomes a part of the algorithm. It then, because it does not require too much conscious effort, is pushed off down to basal brain areas like the basal ganglia. The basal ganglia is a bunch of deep brain structures that can play our automatic responses, particularly related to movement. If you can mindfully include a new goal-directed action in the routine, it is subsumed into that routine, and now it’s a part of what you do. This then can influence psychological beliefs, attitudes etc whereby a person can then engage change as a part of the routine (if that makes sense) – you can learn that you can gain control over things and that that can become the new norm. That’s empowering for people, and the virtuous cycle continues.”
The difference between mind full or mindful in the shower
“Having a shower / brushing your hair etc all follow the same rules. They can be done mindfully or mindlessly. Either way, you can learn in inject mindfulness into these mundane experiences. Rather than looking for 30 minutes and pictures of lakes and mountains, these are wonderful opportunities for mindfulness. This breaks the algorithms. This might seems trite, but it’s very powerful. We are so distracted with news and media etc that we play much of our time in algorithm mode. The conscious is taken up with phones and radios and laptops and work and friends and ads and bad news and Donald Trump etc. Mindful hair brushing allows time to check in with yourself. You can then reap the benefits of mindfulness and the hair brushing can then be a trigger for a little mindfulness in the morning. This applies for teeth brushing etc.”
“The shower is an interesting one. Have you ever had a great idea in the shower? Or a solution presents itself? This is a contained period of time where you can’t do anything else except be in there. The mind wanders and you have a set of sensations that are different – the hot water, shampoo etc. What can happen here is the default mode network can activate, allowing brain areas to connect whose connections are often silenced by ‘conscious’ thought, by the normal hustle and bustle of the day. The DMN comes on when others switch off, and the shower is a great place for this. This then can encourage lateral thinking and good problem-solving. It can also be accompanied by deactivation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). This area is another routine-driver, pushing out solutions to problems we have encountered before (parallel parking, 8 times tables). Deactivating that area can help with innovation and creativity. This can happen in safe, enclosed environments where you can’t do anything else. If you are rushed, or stressed, this won’t work. This also links to self-criticism, which knocks creativity on the head. People who are in flow state show hypo-frontality – that is, their frontal and prefrontal cortices are “offline”. This is when you lose track of time and space and may forget to have lunch, and also the area that can create and maintain self-criticism. This state can be induced in the shower too, and that’s why we tend to get good ideas or solve problems in the shower.”
Isolated goals can be dangerous
“If you are depressed, changing your life feels impossible. Small goal-directed actions like making the bed become bedded-down in the basal ganglia, they run off the algorithm and can create a sense of control and progress. This requires some reflection too, and good psychological support can couch this progress in the right manner. They can be hard to stick to if they are just goals in isolation (this relates to values-based living) and if they are not practised. Marathon-running is a great example. If you run the marathon as a goal you achieve it and then it’s done. I did that, and it’s an empty feeling. Goal achieved, no sense of achievement. No more running. If it’s value-based, the goal of the marathon is a part of the value of ‘being healthy’ or whatever, and the behaviours are much easier to maintain. Goal-setting is dangerous and can lead to lots of unhappiness. BUT, like politics these weeks, it seems like an easy solution, which humans love. Set loads of goals, step by step, achieve them and move on. Not a good way to operate. But I think that might be another discussion.”
Creating new pathways to move out of auto-pilot and into a more mindful life
“All of this then takes advantage of neuroplasticity – the formation of new neural pathways and the relegation of older pathways – I don’t say removal, but rather relegation. When your brain is deciding which course of action to take, it has two options now: the old and new. Neuroplasticity allows you to create the new path and practise makes that path MORE LIKELY to be chosen at any one time. You may use the old one every now and again, but it’s important to remember that the more you use the new one, the more likely it will be you will run that one off the new algorithm tomorrow.
Neuroplasticity takes time, but it’s only a matter of days before new connections grow. It is a matter of debate as to how long it takes for these pathways to be formed and matured, and there are behavioural aspects as well which must be accounted for.”
So what have I learned?
What really struck me from what I’ve learned from Michael in particular; the danger of setting isolated goals rather than forming habits. In June 22nd 2019 I ran a full marathon for charity; that was the goal. After which I felt absolutely no bliss, pride of completion or well, anything, which led me down a confusing mental pathway of; why am I not happy with myself for completing this? What goal can I set next? In the seven months since, I have tried and failed umpteen times to get back into the habit of running, constantly berating myself for getting so far and then falling so behind. Based on my new learning, I now understand the habit of running has to come from a place of doing it because I enjoy it. Short and slow 5km runs to get some air and take in the day around me bring great joy; four-five training runs a week to get in certain distances feel like a chore. In order to build the new neuropathway around this habit, running must become a mindful activity based on my values of being healthy rather than a once off goal based chore that I keep putting off.
This fits in with my thoughts around new years resolutions. We set ourselves goals to lose weight, give up chocolate, quit drinking all without a real purpose behind it. While I gave up drinking myself in May 2018 and haven’t drank since, that new pathway for me worked as I set it for long term health benefits rather than the quick detox. When we find our purpose for what we want to achieve, we can more easily grow the neuroplasticity around this.
Grabbing mindful moments where we can is also beneficial. We can get into the habit of complaining “I can’t get a minute” desperate to find that half-hour we can try to tune out or meditate. When we do find it, that downtime becomes prime time for overthinking, worrying, feeling stress. However, using those moments free to us every day, making the bed, in the shower, getting ready, in a mindful way, allows us not to seek out space but to find it within ourselves daily.
Support Our Campaign
We rely on the generosity of the public to fund our work and so far together we have achieved great things! Please do continue to support us so we can provide future generations in Ireland with the resources to recognise and talk about their emotions, and equip them to navigate the ever-changing world around them as they grow
