How to unlearn any bad habit

Bad habits are forms of behavior that become part of a person’s personality and image, causing colossal harm. Repeated actions become automatic, penetrating into consciousness. They begin to control our desires and thoughts. In the end, we become addicted and cannot get rid of bad habits.

Bad habits are expressed in certain actions and deeds that have negative consequences for the human body. Getting rid of them is more difficult than it might seem at first glance. This is due to psychological attachment to the act of performing a particular action.

Such habits include: drinking alcohol, unhealthy or uncontrolled eating, the desire to bite nails and much more, which we will discuss in this article.

For children and teenagers: What are bad habits and how to get rid of them?

Children and teenagers are the main group of people who have several bad habits. According to statistics and research, 75% of children are susceptible to performing certain negative actions.

Read also:
List of daily habits that will improve your quality of life | Based on my own experience

It is easier to get rid of bad habits at a young age, since they have not yet become a full-fledged part of the personality. The following habits are identified that appear in childhood and adolescence:

Nail biting;
Picking your nose or ears;
Loud chewing of food (chomping);
Chewing on pens and pencils.

It is necessary to get rid of them, since these habits reduce the attractiveness of a teenager, betray bad manners and negatively affect the appearance.

Decision-making

This stage is perhaps the most important. To get rid of a bad habit, you need to make a firm decision to do so. Moreover, the decision should not be anyhow, but firm, unshakable, “iron”, which not a single “rolling pin” will break. This is where all your willpower will come into play.

But, of course, we are not always able to resist the temptation to return to our beloved habit. And if the main reason for our desire to get rid of it does not work, we can create several points of no return for ourselves. Consider, for example, that if you start smoking again, no matter what you do, you will always be late for the bus, and there will always be something waiting for you at home that makes you feel bad. Or another good way is a simple argument. Make a bet with your wife that if you suddenly smoke, she will do “what she has to do.” This will be a great motivation for you to forget about cigarettes for a long time. You can come up with anything you want.

But I would like to add one more thing: in the film adaptation of the work of the “horror master” Stephen King “Stop Smoking Corporation”, according to the work, as a similar motivation for a man who wanted, but could not, quit his addiction, there was a fear that his wife would be left without finger Great motivation, isn't it? Although, in real life you shouldn’t resort to it.

#1: Nail biting

This effect is observed in 85% of children and adolescents. Timely awareness of the problem will help you overcome the habit quickly and without emotional stress.

Reasons for appearance

In 90% of cases, nail biting is associated with emotional and physical overload, as well as stress. This is a kind of response to the changes that have occurred in life.

According to statistics, children begin to bite their nails the moment their daily routine or environment changes. For example, the beginning of the school year.

Why should you stop biting your nails?

Nail biting causes mechanical damage to the nail plate and makes it weaker. Visually, nails become unkempt and lose their natural shade. Communication with other people becomes difficult as many people do not like to watch such action.

Consequences of nail biting

What's stopping you from getting rid of it?

The main problem is that the child does not understand that he is faced with a problem. In this way he relieves tension, so he does not want to fight the habit on his own.

Effective ways and methods for getting rid of

For children, the best way to get rid of nail biting is attention from their parents. They must find an activity that will distract the child at the moment when he wants to put his fingers in his mouth.

What changes await after defeating a bad habit?

Calm;
Nails will regain their healthy appearance, stop peeling and become stronger;
Teenage girls will have the opportunity to have an attractive manicure that will become part of their image.

Mirovich told what habits “originally from the USSR” remain with modern people

Even modern people still have many habits that “come from” the USSR. Back then they were caused by the poverty of life, but people continue to follow them, even if they now have enough money.

Belarusian blogger Maxim Mirovich spoke about this on LiveJournal.
He recalled that when Soviet posters showed rockets roaming the expanses of the Universe, 95% of the population darned socks on light bulbs and could not properly cure their teeth. Top 10 habits originating from the USSR

Darn torn socks

The blogger wrote that, according to fans of the USSR, all the inhabitants of this country lived richly and freely and could afford to buy anything - but the household habits from that era tell a completely different story. One such habit is darning holey socks.

In the USSR, there were even many “proven ways” of how best to do this - one of the ways was to stretch a torn sock over a light bulb - they say, this will help the holey sock retain its shape.

“If you have socks with holes, be sure to throw them away, don’t embarrass yourself. A pair of good socks now costs less than a cup of coffee in a cafe,” Mirovich wrote.

Always repairing shoes

Another everyday habit that was born in the USSR due to total poverty and shortages - people repaired shoes for years, because in order to buy something new and decent, there was simply no money. A pair of normal shoes could cost half, if not the entire average salary in the USSR.

Soviet citizens could have “their” shoemaker (just like “their” dentist and “their” sausage seller), who could make repairs a little better than others - for a small additional prize in the form of chocolate or alcohol. At the same time, they repaired and patched up even things that could no longer be repaired - they sewed up the collapsed backs of shoes, glued “prevention” to the soles worn out over time, and tinted the worn leather.

Never treat teeth

The author wrote that in the “country of victorious socialism” people ate quite poorly - good protein was in short supply, there were few fruits and vegetables on sale (especially in winter), which is why many citizens already had bad teeth by the age of 30-40. Plus, there was no normal dentistry in the USSR - holey teeth were drilled with a “torture” drill at low speeds, without anesthesia, and then covered with gray and rough cement (with a hardener that smelled of acetone 5 meters away) - which is why people in the USSR were very They didn’t like going to the dentist.

“As a result, few people in the USSR had good teeth and a snow-white smile. Many people, out of old habit, continue to be afraid of going to the dentist and shyly hide their teeth, smiling in the “chicken butt” style. Now there are no unsolvable problems with teeth, and besides, everything is now done completely painlessly,” the blogger wrote.

Buy products for future use

A purely Soviet habit left over from those times is to fill kitchen cabinets with bags of porridge/pasta/potatoes. It was possible to understand this habit in the USSR - products were often in short supply, and if a store “threw away”, for example, good pasta or stewed meat, it was better to take 4-5 packs, otherwise they might not be on sale for a long time.

Now any products remain available at any time of the year and at any time of the day or night, and there is no practical sense in filling kitchen cabinets with kilograms of buckwheat, pasta and potatoes.

Do not throw away old clothes, wash the floor with a T-shirt

“Another indicator of purely Soviet poverty is to never throw away old clothes. Even the most tattered, stretched and darned T-shirt will be worn for years as home clothes, after which it will be solemnly transferred to the category of rags - they will wash the floor in the apartment for a couple of years, carefully drying the rag on the wall of the bathtub,” the author recalled.

Have a bag of packages at home.

Good plastic bags were in great short supply in the USSR - and this applied to both large bags (with handles and prints) and small transparent bags. Usually, if a Soviet person bought something that was packaged in a plastic bag, the bag was carefully preserved, and then used many times and washed periodically - if, for example, meat was stored in the bag. Some even managed to store, wash and use milk cartons for years - this was a very popular household packaging in the late eighties and early nineties.

Keep a jar of old buttons at home

“Another mysterious Soviet habit that emerged from poverty and shortages - in many apartments in the USSR there was a huge jar filled with old buttons, and most often the owners could not even remember where it came from. At the same time, everyone continued to perform the ancient Soviet ritual - if, for example, an old shirt was about to be demoted to rags, then the buttons were carefully cut off and placed in this jar. “Because my grandmother did it,” Mirovich wrote.

In the USSR, this could at least be understood - normal buttons were in short supply, and keeping them at home was justified. But now no one needs this, especially since the buttons on modern things are of a completely different style.

Collect glass jars

“I noticed this habit among some of my friends - glass jars from purchased canned products (say, pickled cucumbers or peppers) are not thrown away, but washed carefully, the label is carefully washed off from them (using hot water and soap), after which the jars are sent in the kitchen cabinet or on the mezzanine for eternal storage. My question, why exactly are you doing this, made my friends think, after which they gave an answer in the style of “well, I don’t know, it might be useful.” At the same time, the cans continued to stand there for years, becoming covered in dust and taking up useful space in the closet,” the author wrote.

In the USSR, such a habit could be understood - almost everyone there was engaged in “salting”, preparing homemade jam and pickles, but now few people do this, and collecting cans, which then stand on the mezzanine for years, looks like some kind of strange Soviet fetish and atavism .

Eating old bread and all the food on your plate

“Another purely “poor” habit that was born in the USSR is to finish all the food on your plate, even if you are already full. This is where the purely Soviet cult of bread comes into play, as well as the behavioral family model - “grandmother always did this.” You need to understand that my grandmother’s youth was during the hungry years - and if there was lunch in the house, you had to eat it all, because there might not have been dinner, but now there is no practical sense in such a habit,” says Mirovich.

Perpetual repairs

Repairs that lasted for years were typical for Soviet apartments, and this could be understood - there was practically no private market for hired workers in the USSR, and renovations in the apartment were done in most cases on their own - the head of the family came home from work and leisurely, for an hour or two I did repairs a day. In total, the renovation dragged on for years, and often when the strip of wallpaper in the last room was finished, the renovation in the first room (where it all started) had to start again.

“If you don’t want to be a scoop and annoy your neighbors by drilling holes in the walls for years, just save up some money and hire a team of 2-3 well-proven guys, they will do your repairs in a maximum of 2-3 months,” concluded Mirovich.

As OBOZREVATEL reported:

People who are nostalgic for the USSR love to remember how low prices were. True, if you compare them with the salaries of that time, it becomes clear that, except for the simplest products, there was little money for anything.
Residents of the USSR, to whom propaganda told about the production of thousands of tanks and “the most advanced science,” in ordinary life were forced to repair glasses with blue electrical tape and look for advice on how to make scarce mittens for children from the “ears” of an old fur hat.
Household appliances in the USSR cost exorbitant amounts of money. Thus, a TV with a 3x4 cm screen cost as much as two salaries, and in the 60s only 5% of the families of the “superpower” could afford a refrigerator.
Stories about the unprecedented technological effectiveness and reliability of Soviet household appliances in most cases turn out to be myths. In most cases, the best examples are stolen (or less often, bought) in the West.
One of the now popular “Soviet” myths is that supposedly “before perestroika, people lived very well in the Union.” However, store footage from the films, miraculously missed by censors, shatters this statement into dust.
Regular bananas were in terrible short supply in the Soviet Union and were considered a delicacy. To “get” them, people stood in lines for hours, and having bought them, they often did not know how to eat them.
Good quality candies in the USSR were as scarce as any other normal product. The children were given 1-2 pieces each, and instead of sweets, everyone gnawed on sweet briquettes made from concentrated jelly.
“Sausage for 2.20” is one of the symbols that “scoop fans” yearn for and that opponents of the system laugh at. At that time, it was not a product of daily consumption, and due to a shortage of meat, almost all the products of meat processing plants from Ukraine were exported to Moscow.
Only those who either did not read Soviet GOSTs or opened them only on the first page can be sure that the famous Soviet “boiled sausage at 2.20” consisted of 99% of the best meat.
The cheapness of food in the USSR is actually exaggerated. With an average salary, a working person in modern Ukraine can buy almost a third more food than a resident of the Union in 1985.

#2: Picking your nose or ears

It is recorded in 50% of children and 20% of adolescents. The difference is due to the emergence of a certain self-control due to age.

Reasons for appearance

Habit is associated with genetic memory. Children become familiar with the characteristics of the body by removing dried mucus from the nasal cavity. At this time, they relax and begin to think or dream about something.

The habit is also a manifestation of attention deficit disorder (ADD). As people age, the habit may persist if a person feels lonely or cannot concentrate on one thing.

Why should you stop picking your nose and ears?

You should get rid of nose picking in order to maintain the health of the mucous membrane. During such actions, delicate tissues can easily be damaged. As a result, a wound will appear in the nose, which will cause discomfort.

Another reason for getting rid of it is poor aesthetics. People around you will not want to communicate with you and be friends. There will be new reasons for ridicule.

What's stopping you from getting rid of it?

The barrier to deliverance is self-doubt and fear. Subconsciously, a child or teenager finds protection at the moment when the process of picking their nose or ears occurs. He forgets about the problems, but after completing the process they reappear in his thoughts, which forces him to return to the habit again and again.

Read also:
50 tips for teenagers that will help them in the future

Effective ways and methods for getting rid of

The main recommendation is to find an interesting activity that will distract and relax. In the case of kids, playing with parents is the best way. There are many hobbies for teenagers - drawing, modeling, programming. Doing fine work with your hands (embroidery, knitting, assembling a mosaic) will help distract you.

Interesting sites for finding hobbies:

Vikium
Puzzle English
Foxford
Tetrika-school

What changes await after defeating a bad habit?

The main change is self-confidence;
The child will have a new hobby;
The fear that someone will see you picking your nose or ears will disappear;
The excessive load on the nervous system will disappear;
They will want to communicate with you, since there will be no reason for ridicule.

Rejection of bad habits

Sooner or later the realization comes: “We can’t live like this any longer,” and we begin to fight. But it is precisely the idea of fighting a bad habit that is in itself erroneous and utopian. Just as a swamp sucks in a tripping traveler, so our habit drags us deeper and deeper. And just like in a swamp, the more we resist, the faster we drown. What is the reason? And the reason is precisely that we are “floundering in the swamp” of our habit. There is a simple rule: what we think about is what we become. By trying to fight our habit, we concentrate on it and, thus, only increase its importance and significance in our lives. That is why sometimes a person addicted to something can live for a week without it, being carried away by something else, but as soon as he declares war on his addiction, temptations await him literally at every step. How then to fight a bad habit? The secret is not to fight it at all.

Do you know what “methadone therapy” is? This is a method of treating drug addiction, when the addict, instead of hard drugs, is given a lighter one with fewer side effects. The example is not entirely successful, but the essence of the fight against any bad habit is similar. It is necessary not to eliminate the harmful addiction, but to replace it with a “useful” addiction, or at least with a less harmful one. For example: if you have a habit of watching your favorite TV series in the evenings, create a habit of practicing yoga in the evenings. Even 20-30 minutes of practice will change your energy and, most importantly, redirect your attention. If such a radical replacement is still difficult for you, you can replace watching the series with watching some kind of educational lecture, for example, about overcoming the same addictions and bad habits. By the way, it’s a great motivator.

There is a version that a habit is formed within 21 days. Thus, if you perform the same action for 21 days, it will become a habit. Don't take my word for it, just do an experiment. 21 days is not such a long time to overpower yourself in something. And it is important not to forbid yourself something, but simply replace one habit with another. And if for 21 days, instead of watching a TV series in the evenings, you practice yoga - it will become a habit, and, lo and behold, you simply won’t have time left for anything else, because you will need to devote this time to yoga. By the way, a very important point - most addictions are present in our lives only because we have a lot of free time. When we don't know what to spend our time on, we start looking for ways to entertain ourselves. Thus, most addictions arise simply out of boredom, and then turn into a long-term habit. If you occupy all your free time with self-development or, even better, helping others along this path, then there will simply be no time left for all sorts of nonsense.

Life without bad habits

Try practicing this analytical meditation: before taking any action, ask yourself questions: “Why do I need this? What objective benefit will this bring to me or others?” If every time you reach for a cake in the store, you ask yourself: “Do I really want this? Do I really need this? What result will this lead me to?”, then over time (perhaps not immediately) you will become more conscious and will actually make a choice in favor of certain things, and not just repeat the same algorithms of behavior embedded in us by advertising technologies. By practicing such analytical meditation, you yourself will not notice how many bad habits will simply fall off by themselves with almost no effort on your part. If, before the next repetition of any useless or destructive algorithm of behavior, you ask yourself: “What is the point of this?”, then over time you will simply feel sorry for wasting your precious time on something that simply does not make sense and does not lead to any development.

Develop altruism in yourself and try to help others on the path of spiritual improvement, and this will greatly increase your motivation in the fight against bad habits. Because you will know: if you now waste time on some useless stupidity, it will harm not only you, but also those whom you could potentially help at this very time. And awareness of this gives incredible strength and inspiration in the fight against your passions. When Shakyamuni Buddha meditated under the Bodhi tree, passions and carnal desires also came to him in the form of the daughters of Mara. And it was not iron willpower that helped him resist then, but a feeling of deepest compassion for all living beings. After all, he knew: if he retreated now, then he would not be able to teach the imperishable Dharma to billions of living beings. The Tathagata could not allow the evolution of living beings to be postponed for countless kalpas. And this example is worthy of emulation. Not for the sake of your own happiness and freedom, but for the benefit of all living beings, you should curb your passions. This is motivation worthy of a bodhisattva. And with such motivation, victory over passions is simply inevitable.

No. 3. Loud chewing of food (chomping)

This problem is present in 55% of children and adolescents. For some, it goes away on its own, without special intervention from adults. You just need to point out that such behavior is ugly, especially in society.

Reasons for appearance

In childhood, slurping is a consequence of lack of education (in 90% of cases). For teenagers, such an action is an expression of protest. In this way they express their disagreement, because they understand that slurping does not correspond to generally accepted behavior.

Why should you stop slurping?

Indecent behavior at the table will cause additional disagreements between children and adults. There will be reasons for raised voices and new prohibitions. People around you will also not want to communicate with a person who does not know how to behave calmly at the table.

Some parents may prohibit their children from being friends with a child who chews food loudly or slurps. They will think that this way their children will also develop a bad habit.

Effective ways and methods for getting rid of

For a child or teenager, a simple desire to get rid of slurping is not enough. Motivation must be clear and understandable. An effective technique is to imitate your favorite hero, a famous person who demonstrates correct behavior at the table while eating.

What changes await after defeating a bad habit?

Normal relationships with others;
The likelihood of conflict situations in the family will decrease;
Misunderstandings and ridicule from friends will disappear;
You will feel confident and able to overcome any difficulty.

No. 4. Chew pens and pencils

Repetitive action occurs in 90% of cases in the younger generation aged 6-8 years.

Reasons for appearance

The fact is that during school time the child experiences a sharp change in daily routine and responsibilities, resulting in the first serious stress. The process of chewing pens allows you to cope with the problem, distracting you from difficulties.

Why should you stop chewing your pens?

The main reason is to reduce the likelihood of oral injury. Chewing on a pen can negatively affect your dental health. And abandoning it will keep the handles visually attractive.

Effective ways and methods for getting rid of

Eating a nutritious diet will reduce the desire to chew on pens or pencils. The way your body works will help you overcome this bad habit.

Another technique is replacement. When the urge arises to put an object in your mouth, it is better to replace it with cookies, crackers or candy.

What changes await after defeating a bad habit?

Maintaining an attractive appearance of office supplies;
Pens can be borrowed without embarrassment;
And also give to friends.

Read also:
4 main areas for improving adolescent health

We eat and sleep more

The habit of eating a lot. Eat more - more garbage. A lot of garbage - an opportunity to go outside and throw away trash.