How Habits Can Change Your Life (and Your Brain)

You have the power to change your brain!
↓↓↓ More info and sources below ↓↓↓

Got a bad habit you just can’t seem to break? That’s because it’s literally wired into your brain.
Every single thought, action, and feeling changes your brain. When repeated enough times, a habit is formed. This week we’ll talk about how an advertiser in the early 1900s got half of Americans to pick up a new behavior - and make it a habit we all know today.
#habits #brain #neuroscience

REFERENCES:

The power of habit: Why we do what we do in life and in business, Charles Duhill, 2012.

Smith, K. (2016). Habit formation. Dialogues Clin Neurosci, 18(1), 33–43.

Schultz, W., Apicella, P., and Ljungbergb , T. (1993). Responses of Monkey Dopamine Neurons to Reward and Conditioned Stimuli during Successive Steps of Learning a Delayed Response Task. The Journal of Neuroscience, 13(3), 900-913

Christina M.Gremel, C. M., Chancey, J.H., Atwood, B.K., Luo, G., Neve, R., Ramakrishnan, C., Deisseroth, K., Lovinger, D.M., and Costa, R.M. (2016). Endocannabinoid Modulation of Orbitostriatal Circuits Gates Habit Formation. Neuron, 93(6), 1312-1324.

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It’s Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Director: Joe Nicolosi
Writer: Kimberly McCoy, Ph.D.
Creative Director: David Schulte
Editor/animator: Karl Boettcher
Producers: Stephanie Noone and Amanda Fox

Produced by PBS Digital Studios
Music via APM

[PowahSlapEntertainmint]

"Hey smart people"
_(Turns around)_

[AndyTheCameraGuy]

I literally just finished the book The Power of Habit. Perfect timing for this video for me.

[brettito]

Que: I'm hungry
Behavior: Eat an apple
Reward: The Apple tastes good.



But you have to buy apples, have to pick up that habit too.

[zarkzy]

"Think back on how you learned how to ride a bike"
...I didn't...

[HigherHeartWarriorChannel]

I’d love to stop smoking and start exercising regularly instead of intermittently. Also I’d love to stop procrastinating about everything.

[TacomaNative]

This couldn't have come at a better time for me. Changing my life for the better feels so good.

[dontmindme.imjustafraidofe]

This is so educational. I love education. I live for education.

[NewMessage]

I habitually watch these videos... small world.

[unleashingpotential-psycho]

Positive habits are important for living a successful life.

[besmart]

What’s your best or worst habit? What’s a habit you’d like to start or stop doing?

Now you know how!

[rustlingbushes]

I quit smoking, by feeding my addiction for counting how much money I threw away on the habit, and how upset I was about the thousands of dollars that I wasted.

That kept me from buying anymore, and I counted how long it would take me to earn it back. It was eight years! I haven't forgotten that, and it keeps me smoke-free.

[Nofxthepirate]

I love hearing about habits, I read The Power of Habit last year and I can't stop thinking about them. I even did a speech for public speaking class just 2 weeks ago about this exact same subject (it was a visual aid specific speech so the habit loop was a perfect choice). Its fascinating to see how many different ways this topic can be explored!

[yuviyuval]

Hey Joe, what about doing a follow-up video on addictions and how they are formed (in relation to habits) and why some people are more susceptible to addiction than others.

[nnamdi]

It's so cool learning about how powerful the brain is! It's like this huge supercomputer that we all have in our heads! Basic, standard and everyday practices have so much that happens behind them!

[bkfsocy]

I need to stop reading the comments and listem more

[MyDumbQuestion]

Couldn’t have picked a better time to make this video, I’ve been struggling with breaking and creating habits for a while now, with this info it helps put things into perspective and lets me know it can be done.

[livelyrook]

I have a habbit to watch these videos because I have a craving to learn!!

[wheezywaiter]

Prefrontal Cortex? More like Prefrontal BORE...Tex. (Cuz you're from Texas.) Just kidding everybody. I wasn't really bored I just wanted to do a really dumb pun. It's cool. We're friends in real life.

[azngurl]

I love your videos and I love what you have to share. You simplified my favorite book in an extremely understanding way for all. Bill Gates said, “If you can’t explain something simply you don’t really understand it, ” and I believe that you have this gift of demonstrating your understanding of knowledge through your insightful videos.

Great summary!

[camelopardalis]

"How Hobbits are Formed" Huh? No, it says "habits".