How to Create New Habits with Cognitive Therapy

What if we told you that you can stop a bad habit with cognitive therapy? What negative behaviors are so ingrained in you that you do them automatically? Maybe you bite your nails or pick at your lips. Perhaps you hit the pantry after work before dinner or veg out on the couch every evening instead of working on your online degree.

Whatever bad habits or behaviors you have, you can change. In Cognitive Therapy, this is known as habit replacement. You train your brain to create new neural pathways by practicing new habits until they become routine.

Why Bad Habits are Hard to Break

You may have tried countless times to stop a bad habit, only for it to return with a vengeance. You may feel accomplished in other areas of your life, but you cannot seem to overcome this one thing. The good news is that it is not your lack of willpower.

Bad habits are hard to break because, on some level, they bring us a sense of temporary pleasure or relief. Your boss yells at you, so you bite your nails to escape the feelings of insecurity.

Your deadline is looming, so you pick at your lips until they chap and bleed because the sensation distracts you from the responsibility. You graze through the pantry in the evenings because you feel overwhelmed with making dinner and cleaning the kitchen every night after working all day.

Bad habits offer temporary relief or pleasure; our brains integrate this behavior into the reward centers. We need to learn to break the cycle by replacing harmful habits with beneficial habits and teaching our brains to create neural pathways for healthier options. We can do this through Cognitive Therapy.

Identify and Replace Troubling Thoughts with Cognitive Therapy

Your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are intricately linked. Negative and intrusive thoughts can influence your emotions and how you act, and negative behaviors can change your feelings and thoughts. This is visualized in an image known as the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) triangle. Each component flows back into the other.

Cognitive therapy helps us identify and replace negative thoughts that result in strong emotions and behaviors. These negative thoughts may be subconscious or happen so quickly that you are unaware of how troubling they are.

Sometimes, changing behaviors can influence emotions and thoughts. This is why creating new habits can benefit your physical, emotional, and mental health. What bad habits do you need to break? What new habits can you use as a replacement?

If you are struggling to identify and replace your negative thoughts or behaviors, seek the guidance of a Christian counselor who can bring their expertise in evidence-backed psychological methods and faith-based principles for a well-rounded therapy in all areas of your life.

Create New Habits

We want the new habits we create to be pleasurable enough for the brain to forge neural pathways and eventually become part of the reward system, granting us a flood of “feel-good” hormones. We also do not want to overwhelm ourselves with activities outside our comfort zone that we give up in a few hours or days.

Choose a replacement habit and build this into your daily routine. You can habit-stack your new activity to make it easier. For example, if your counselor suggests a warm bath when you feel triggered to harm yourself, and you know these impulses typically occur in the early evening, you can create a routine.

After work, you can take a warm bath before making dinner. By the time you have eaten, you may be ready to wind down for the night and have completely lost the urge for self-harm.

Think about the morning, afternoon, and evening routines you have in place. Most people do not stop to think about their activities as routines, but when you repeat the same action daily, it is a routine made of habits. Now, what habit do you need to replace with another? Where can you habit-stack?

Ideas for New Habits

Sometimes, the hardest part is thinking of ideas to replace negative behaviors. We know we need to stop a behavior, but we are not sure what to replace it with that would not derail us in another area.

For example, a man struggling with alcoholism may stop drinking alcohol and going to the bar, however, he may lean heavily on drinking soda pop in its place. Eventually, he will need to decrease his consumption of soda pop to keep from developing high blood pressure and weight gain.

The following is a list of new habits you can try instead of negative behaviors. Many of these can be considered self-care activities as they give you a pleasurable experience.

Journaling

Journaling is an effective way to identify and challenge negative thoughts and beliefs. It allows you to pour your thoughts onto paper. It is also a record you can use to show your counselor about any concerns. You may want to schedule your journaling time at bedtime or keep it with you, journaling during your commute or lunch break.

Exercise

Exercise boosts serotonin, dopamine, and other hormones that leave you feeling good all day. Try exercise as part of your early morning routine for a few weeks and see what a difference it will make in your emotions and thoughts. If you have a specific habit to replace, try a brisk walk during that time.

Changing Routes

Change your route if your bad habit includes stopping at a specific place. Even if you must drive a little longer or take a different train or bus, try an alternate route for a few weeks. Eventually, the pull to stop somewhere will diminish.

Taking a Warm Shower or Bath

A warm bath or shower is a natural way to relax and lower stress levels. Your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) helps your body relax. Most of the time, you may feel like your fight-or-flight response (the sympathetic nervous system) is activated, and your stress levels may be high, resulting in negative behaviors. By activating the PNS, you lower these levels. Try taking one as soon as you get home from work.

Changing into Pajamas

Sometimes, shedding the workday is as easy as putting on a pair of pajamas. The act of putting on clothes to sleep in triggers the brain to think that bedtime is coming and that it is time to wind down. Combine this activity with a warm bath to increase the likelihood of better-quality sleep.

Sipping Tea

Drinking tea and its ingredients in the brew often helps people relax. Hot tea is also an excellent replacement for food cravings. You can find delicious herbal tea flavors in almost any store and online. Choose a time when you need a pot of tea the most, although caffeine-free teas can be drunk anytime.

Popping Bubble Wrap

You may have noticed the trendy new toy known as poppers. Poppers work similarly to bubble wrap in that you can pop them to your heart’s content. With the toy, you flip it over and do it again. Popping bubble wrap or playing with a popper toy relaxes you. It takes little effort, keeps your hands busy and the sound is calming.

Recognize When You Need Help

Cognitive Therapy is effective, and counselors use it to treat people with various mental health conditions. Although you can make changes on your own, your circumstances may require professional guidance, and that is what a Christian counselor offers: professional guidance based on evidence-backed techniques and faith-based principles.

If Christian counseling and Cognitive Therapy sound like a good fit for you, contact our office today or complete the online form. A representative will connect you with a counselor for an assessment session. By implementing new habits, you can change your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Let us get you started.