Before you start/finish reading this, please go to the Nourished Path Private Facebook Page (join) and watch the video I just posted to accompany this post (sorry I look a mess and hadn’t brushed anything before doing it, but that’s how that page is – very off the cuff and real!)…anyway watch, read and take it in, because this could be HUGE in helping you change or improve any part of your life: Health, wealth, business, job, relationships, etc…
This teaching is based in Neuroscience and has to do with something called Neuroplasticity.
Basically our brains at a young (or old) age, or even epigenetically (through our ancestors), develop coding – neural connections – which translate into beliefs which can result in behavior or habits that may or may not support our wellbeing.
These habits form ‘grooves’ in our neural networks that become deeply ingrained and in many cases, very automatic for us.
Let’s use eating as an example… Think about something you currently do with food that seems out of your control.
An example for me is having something sweet (dark chocolate) after dinner. I developed a groove – almost like Pavlov’s dog – that when dinner was done, I would reach into my stash of dark chocolate and have a piece.
No thought required. It just happened.
This wasn’t a terrible habit, but it’s a good example of a deeply worn groove. Looking back, when I was younger and less “healthy”, I probably would eat a candy bar or cookies after dinner, so I morphed to something a bit more halo-ish like dark chocolate and now I usually just have my stevia hot cocoa drink which satisfies the groove’s pull. So that’s an example of using substitution, without changing the groove.
In the video, I talk about how I transformed my ‘drinking too much wine’ habit. This was an area that I really wanted to change. It was effecting me negatively and I felt like I couldn’t quite reign it in enough to where I could have just a couple of glasses of wine socially. This was due to some beliefs and social anxiety stuff I identified in my process
I reprogrammed my grooves into a new groove through hypnosis, which is a bit of a shortcut and very effective (for me anyway), but not required. All you really need to change a habit is belief, focus and consistency.
I have a visual for you that I heard recently that really illustrates how this works when creating new habits.
Imagine a field.
At the far edge of the field is a house. Let the house represent your new desired behavior or goal.
The field is untouched. The grass and weeds are overgrown. You see the house and you’re in your car and there’s no other way to get to the house, so you have to drive through the overgrowth.
At first it’s really rough riding. You sputter and bounce all over the place. It’s a struggle to get to the house. But you get there.
The next day, you go again, on the same path. And again, the next day. And again and again and again. It gets easier each time because the path is starting to form. You’ve created a new groove.
The old habit and behavior is still there. It’s a super highway leading to McDonald’s. It will keep pulling you toward it, because the brain likes easy and smooth – deep grooves are the easiest – but you’re focused on the house on the edge of the field. You believe you are worthy of that goal. You have decided and are committed to it. Period.
Keep focusing. Keep wearing down that path until it becomes as smooth and automatic as the superhighway. Eventually, if you stop using the superhighway, it’ll start to get overgrown too.
Have you been successful with substitutions and/or with making new grooves? Where do you struggle? Comment below or in the group about your grooves. I’d love to hear from you and help where I can. xo
In love and health,
Ev
