We have been told for decades that willpower is what we need more of. If we just had more of that elusive thing, we’d have more control over unhealthy behaviors. More power to start and keep good habits. More of the stuff we want, less of what we don’t.

We know now that things have to change at a much more fundamental level, deep in the brain’s intricate web of neurons, to create lasting behavioral transformation.

A common phrase heard in neural-scientific circles is, Neurons that fire together, wire together. What this means is, basically: when you do something over and over and over again, the brain learns a new pattern. What we have often mis-identified as “strong willpower” in others — the guy who always seems to have no trouble turning down junk food; the co-worker who exercises five days a week, rain or shine; the friend who regularly makes time to meditate, even with a busy schedule — is actually just us observing the millionth time that person is participating in a well-established habit.

The brain has a vested interest in forming habitual behaviors. Why? Because it takes much less work. Habits are super efficient from a brainpower standpoint.

Think of all the things you do every day that you don’t even think about — brushing your teeth, tying your shoes, parallel parking, locking your car door over your shoulder as you walk into work while carrying your computer bag and purse and sipping your coffee. It’s all pretty amazing when you think of it. Your brain has all of those often-repeated actions stored in such a way that you don’t have to devote precious brain real estate to concentrating on every single thing you do all the time.

Likewise, the primal stress/fear response that’s lodged deep in the lower brain’s amygdala — while mostly useless (and in some cases, detrimental) for us in our everyday 21st-century lives — still allows the brain to go on auto pilot. For this reason, the lower brain actually resists change. New behaviors take more energy, even when those new behaviors are healthy. So the reason we often struggle so much to break bad habits and start good ones is not the lack of willpower, but the lack of neural connections telling our brains to lock into a new repetitive patterns.

Is there anything we can do to help our brain relinquish its grip on habits that don’t serve us and instead latch on to behaviors that help us live stronger, brighter, more vital lives?

According to Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, the formation of habits starts in a part of the brain called the basal ganglia. The basal ganglia is part of the Limbic System — the area of the brain that regulates emotion and memory. It influences emotions and the visceral responses to those emotions, motivation, mood, pattern recognition, and sensations of pain and pleasure.

In the three phases of what neuroscientists call the “habit loop,” the basal ganglia basically takes a behavior and makes it a habit. First, there’s the cue, the thing that “triggers” a certain behavior. Next comes the routine, or the behavior itself (this is what we observe as a habitual action). Once the action is taken, the brain releases feel-good or reward neurotransmitters, like dopamine or serotonin; these signal the brain to store both the trigger and the action for next time, so that we can be prompted to do it again. (A reward is only needed to create a habit, not to maintain one — so once the habit is established, the reward can diminish, and we’ll still feel prompted to do the same thing.)

So, if we’re looking to eliminate choices that detract from wellness and establish choices that enhance our lives, we need to pay attention to the habit loop: What’s the cue? What’s the behavior? And what’s the reward? What is it that our bodies, minds, and spirits are really craving that the engrained habit is serving on the surface but not deeply fulfilling?

One simple example: if you eat potato chips every time you sit down to watch TV at night after dinner, chances are it’s not hunger that’s prompting the habit. Is it the advertising? Are you thirsty? Bored? Or maybe just tired? It could be that your body is actually telling you to stretch, read, and go to bed instead of watching TV — and that that behavior could produce the chemical “reward” that would contribute to cementing a new habit.

The really cool thing is this: the basal ganglia directly connects the lower and higher brain functions. It is the communicator between the two. It basically translates the decisions made by your higher brain, creates new neural pathways, and turns those new choices into automatic routines.

Your Higher Brain Living® sessions are specifically designed to send energy to the prefrontal cortex — the very part of the brain that starts the communication with the basal ganglia. So the more you can engage and activate your higher brain, the better chance you have of making the decisions that initiate the whole habit-forming sequence in your brain. Instead of being driven constantly by lower-brain habits that are simply occurring on auto-pilot, when you energize the prefrontal cortex, you’re empowering yourself to start a new conversation in your brain’s neurons — a conversation that is filled with possibility, wellness, and purpose.

Are you ready to start creating the habits that will support your best self? Join us at our next presentation and find out how Higher Brain Living® can help. Click on the box below to view the schedule of our upcoming events.

Cheers to Evolution of Humanity,

Sunny Nason

Forget willpower — this is how you really make change