I'm reading a great book right now - The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg. With neuro research, he has shown that habits never really disappear, because they are encoded into the structures of our brain. These habits are forever "inhabitants" of of grey matter - lurking there and waiting for the rights cues and rewards.
What a bummer!! - especially, if the habit is bad -(wonderful if habit is good.) Unfortunately, the brain cannot tell the difference between the good and the bad habits. This is not so great news for the 2013 New Year's resolutions - they are pretty much sunk - dead in the water - their fate - hopeless. It also explains why we as a society continue to self-destruct with unhealthy behavior habits and continue to treat our bodies like landfills even when we know these habits are detrimental and noxious. Ahh, but there is a glimmer of hope does it exist - we can re-wire this neuro circuit by disrupting the cue - routine (HABIT) - reward cycle.
I'm finding this to be true as I come back to gymnastics. The same habits that I had training as kid are resurfacing. If I heard it once, I heard it a gazillion times - "Get your head in!" I was the queen of the"turtle head habit" (haha) - I would stick my head out on everything! Giants on bars, full twists on floor, backhandsprings on beam, - it didn't matter. Just this week, Kenan was helping me with back walkovers - and sure enough, - the head goes out. Then, press handstand mount on beam - head goes out. My front handspring vault - head goes out. I have no clue why!? - but will blame it on HABIT. So my focus will be some re-routing these movement habits and concentrating on drills that me eliminate them. The drills will be like cues in the habit cycle - to influence the routine (skill) which results in the reward (correctly performed).
Fun stuff for sure. So darn you Katy Perry - it must be true that "this is a part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me." ( no bad habits ever extinguished - we have to re-route the mental circuit for change :) )
A little vid - of the backwalk over progress - lots to go!
Duhigg, Charles (2012-02-28). The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
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