Habits ~ Patterns ~ Addictions
Habits & Patterns
We all manage our experience by organizing our thoughts, behaviors, and feelings into patterns. Forming these patterns enables us to create order and make sense of our lives. In fact, these patterns are necessary for survival. Can you imagine having to learn to drive every time we got into our car or having to relearn what to do at the grocery store every time we went shopping?
We form patterns in response to a set of circumstances; when the circumstances repeat, we reapply past patterns because it worked well before. But when circumstances change or our goals change, often we don't adapt our patterns as quickly. Or, we intend the pattern to produce a favorable result and it doesn’t anymore. The result is that some of our current patterns have stopped helping us to get where we now want to go.
Mostly we use the two words – habits and patterns – interchangeably. Sometimes, however, we find it useful to think of habits as having a narrower definition. A single way of behaving, a particular thought, a specific emotion that we repeat.
At the same time we can define patterns as clusters or groups of habits that form a larger body of thoughts, feelings, and actions.
For example, we might feel hesitant to be assertive – a habit at one level – and combine our lack of assertiveness along with other habits into a pattern of disempowerment.
Another example. Each of us may have particular habits we like to do during certain holidays but when we get together with our families and combine a group of habits, we might find it helpful to think of the patterns our families demonstrate during these celebrations.
Why is this worth noting? People in our workshops have found that by examining how their habits combine into larger patterns provides extremely helpful insight into why changing has been such a struggle! They find undiscovered truths in the forest that they have not seen through the trees.
Habits & Addictions
What is a habit and what is an addiction? From our frame of reference, they are in the same general family; they are on the same continuum of repetitive behavior.
However, having an addiction usually comes with a higher price. It is a habit so overdone that in some area of life, a significant compromise is being made.
There are many definitions of addiction. We are less concerned with the definition and more concerned with the grip a habit/addiction has on you, as well as its impact on the quality of your life and those around you.
If you find you are arranging your schedule, relationships, and your identity around a habit, and there are negative impacts, you are probably engaged in addictive behavior. If you find yourself saying "I can stop/control this anytime I want" - but you never do - you might be looking at an addiction. If your repetitive responses to life events repeatedly miss the mark and damage your mental and/or physical health and/or diminish life for those around you, you might be facing an addiction.
Smoking, gambling, internet use, shopping, drinking, and the use of prescription medication – the list goes on and on – are all habits or patterns that can be addictions. Even jogging can be an addiction. Thousands who experience problems in these areas would benefit greatly from HabitShift.
In some cases, though, our workshop is not appropriate.
We do not offer substance abuse treatment, nor are we trained psychotherapists. The HabitShift workshops should not be used as a diversion for real addiction treatment provided by trained practitioners who have a broad array of treatment options at their disposal.
Testimonial
The HabitShift workshop was beyond anything I could have imagined. It gave me tools to shift any habit with confidence…..and success!