One of the biggest areas of work for a hypnotist is changing habits. So, when Amazon suggested a book titled The Power of Habit, I wanted to see what it was all about. I was able to check it out from the local library.
I was most interested in the relationship of habits to the brain. There was a lot of information in the book about studies that had been conducted with a couple of men who had lost their ability to store information in their long term memory. One by way of surgery and one by way of a viral disease. The part of the brain lost was the same in both cases. The recent patient was able to form new habits even without memory. The location of the habits is in the structure called the basal ganglia. I believe ganglia roughly translated means knot.
The gentleman in the study couldn't tell you where the kitchen in his house was if the two of you were sitting in the living room. When asked what he would do if hungry, he could show you how he would go to the kitchen, get a jar of nuts from the cabinet and eat them. He learned how to go for a walk around the block even though he couldn't tell you which house was his or make a sketch of the block.
Habits form because a certain pattern of behavior leads to a "reward". The whole cycle is driven by a craving. An example from the book is, ONE has a craving for endorphin rush or accomplishment...ONE sees his running shoes lying on the floor(this is a Cue)...ONE gears up and goes for a run(this is the Routine) .....ONE gets the rush or feeling of accomplishment(the Reward).
Some say over 90% of our behavior is habit.
The book goes on to apply habits to organizations. Also, how companies such as Target and Amazon use information collected about you to predict your behavior based on habits. Many other subjects are discussed and related in this book. It would be good to read for almost anyone. One of the things to take away from this book is the idea of the keystone habit. This is one which if you can change it, it will lead you to change many other habits in your life.
Looks like I'm going to be one busy Hypnotist!
