10 Steps for Breaking Habits

Habits not only easily fall into the categories of good or bad, but also sit on a continuum in our ability to exercise control over them: Some are mild, like taking off your shoes and dumping in the middle of the living every night; other moderate like eating dinner in front of the TV, drinking too much when you go to a party, or interrupting others when their talking; and those that are strong and addictive – like smoking, nail-biting, watching porn. Habits become hard to break to because they are deeply wired, by constant repetition, in our brains. And when you add pleasure to them – like you have with drugs or porn – the pleasure centers of the midbrain get fired up as well, and continue to fire long after the habits stop creating the cravings.