A Simple Way to Break a Bad Habit | Judson Brewer | TED

0:12 When I was first learning to meditate,

0:14 the instruction was to simply pay attention to my breath,

0:17 and when my mind wandered, to bring it back.

0:20 Sounded simple enough.

0:22 Yet I'd sit on these silent retreats,

0:25 sweating through T-shirts in the middle of winter.

0:29 I'd take naps every chance I got because it was really hard work.

0:32 Actually, it was exhausting.

0:35 The instruction was simple enough but I was missing something really important.

0:40 So why is it so hard to pay attention?

0:43 Well, studies show that even when we're really trying to pay

0:46 attention to something— like maybe this talk— at some point,

0:50 about half of us will drift off into a daydream,

0:52 or have this urge to check our Twitter feed.

0:56 So what's going on here?

0:59 It turns out that we're fighting one

1:01 of the most evolutionarily-conserved learning

1:02 processes currently known in science,

1:05 one that's conserved back to the most basic nervous systems known to man.

1:09 This reward-based learning process is

1:11 called positive and negative reinforcement, and basically goes like this.

1:16 We see some food that looks good, our brain says, "Calories!

1:20 Survival!" We eat the food, we taste it— it tastes good.

1:23 And especially with sugar, our bodies send a signal to our brain that says,

1:27 "Remember what you're eating and where you found it." We lay

1:32 down this context-dependent memory and learn to repeat the process next time.

1:36 See food, eat food, feel good, repeat.

1:40 Trigger, behavior, reward.

1:43 Simple, right?

1:45 Well, after a while, our creative brains say, "You know what?

1:49 You can use this for more than just remembering where food is.

1:52 You know, next time you feel bad,

1:55 why don't you try eating something good so you'll

1:57 feel better?" We thank our brains for the great idea,

2:01 try this and quickly learn that if we eat chocolate

2:04 or ice cream when we're mad or sad, we feel better.

2:08 Same process, just a different trigger.

2:11 Instead of this hunger signal coming from our stomach,

2:14 this emotional signal— feeling sad— triggers that urge to eat.

2:19 Maybe in our teenage years, we were a nerd at school,

2:23 and we see those rebel kids outside smoking and we think,

2:26 "Hey, I want to be cool." So we start smoking.

2:29 The Marlboro Man wasn't a dork, and that was no accident.

2:33 See cool, smoke to be cool, feel good.

2:37 Repeat.

2:37 Trigger, behavior, reward.

2:40 And each time we do this, we learn to repeat the process and it becomes a habit.

2:45 So later, feeling stressed out triggers that urge

2:49 to smoke a cigarette or to eat something sweet.

2:53 Now, with these same brain processes, we've gone from learning to survive

2:58 to literally killing ourselves with these habits.

3:00 Obesity and smoking are among the leading preventable

3:03 causes of morbidity and mortality in the world.

3:07 So back to my breath.

3:09 What if instead of fighting our brains,

3:12 or trying to force ourselves to pay attention,

3:14 we instead tapped into this natural, reward-based learning process...

3:18 but added a twist?

3:20 What if instead we just got really curious

3:22 about what was happening in our momentary experience?

3:25 I'll give you an example.

3:26 In my lab, we studied whether

3:28 mindfulness training could help people quit smoking.

3:31 Now, just like trying to force myself to pay attention to my breath,

3:34 they could try to force themselves to quit smoking.

3:38 And the majority of them had tried

3:39 this before and failed— on average, six times.

3:43 Now, with mindfulness training,

3:45 we dropped the bit about forcing and instead focused on being curious.

3:49 In fact, we even told them to smoke.

3:52 What?

3:53 Yeah, we said, "Go ahead and smoke, just be really curious about what it's like

3:57 when you do." And what did they notice?

4:00 Well here's an example from one of our smokers.

4:02 She said, "Mindful smoking:

4:04 smells like stinky cheese and tastes like chemicals, YUCK!" Now,

4:10 she knew, cognitively that smoking was bad

4:12 for her, that's why she joined our program.

4:15 What she discovered just by being curiously aware

4:18 when she smoked was that smoking tastes like shit.

4:23 (Laughter) Now, she moved from knowledge to wisdom.

4:30 She moved from knowing in her head that smoking

4:32 was bad for her to knowing it in her bones, and the spell of smoking was broken.

4:38 She started to become disenchanted with her behavior.

4:42 Now, the prefrontal cortex,

4:45 that youngest part of our brain from an evolutionary perspective,

4:48 it understands on an intellectual level that we shouldn't smoke.

4:52 And it tries its hardest to help us change our behavior,

4:56 to help us stop smoking,

4:57 to help us stop eating that second, that third, that fourth cookie.

5:02 We call this cognitive control.

5:04 We're using cognition to control our behavior.

5:07 Unfortunately, this is also the first part of our brain

5:11 that goes offline when we get stressed out, which isn't that helpful.

5:14 Now, we can all relate to this in our own experience.

5:16 We're much more likely to do things like yell

5:19 at our spouse or kids when we're stressed out or tired,

5:21 even though we know it's not going to be helpful.

5:24 We just can't help ourselves.

5:27 When the prefrontal cortex goes offline, we fall back into our old habits,

5:31 which is why this disenchantment is so important.

5:34 Seeing what we get from our habits helps us

5:36 understand them at a deeper level— to know it

5:38 in our bones so we don't have to force

5:40 ourselves to hold back or restrain ourselves from behavior.

5:43 We're just less interested in doing it in the first place.

5:46 And this is what mindfulness is all about:

5:49 Seeing really clearly what we get when we get caught up in our behaviors,

5:53 becoming disenchanted on a visceral level and from this disenchanted stance,

5:59 naturally letting go.

6:00 This isn't to say that, poof, magically we quit smoking.

6:04 But over time, as we learn to see

6:06 more and more clearly the results of our actions,

6:08 we let go of old habits and form new ones.

6:12 The paradox here is that mindfulness is

6:14 just about being really interested in getting close

6:17 and personal with what's actually happening

6:18 in our bodies and minds from moment to moment.

6:22 This willingness to turn toward our experience rather than trying

6:25 to make unpleasant cravings go away as quickly as possible.

6:28 And this willingness to turn toward our experience is supported by curiosity,

6:33 which is naturally rewarding.

6:35 What does curiosity feel like?

6:36 It feels good.

6:39 And what happens when we get curious?

6:41 We start to notice that cravings are simply made up of body sensations— oh,

6:45 there's tightness, there's tension,

6:47 there's restlessness— and that these body sensations come and go.

6:51 These are bite-size pieces of experiences that we can manage

6:55 from moment to moment rather than getting clobbered by this huge,

7:00 scary craving that we choke on.

7:02 In other words, when we get curious, we step out of our old,

7:07 fear-based, reactive habit patterns, and we step into being.

7:12 We become this inner scientist where

7:15 we're eagerly awaiting that next data point.

7:18 Now, this might sound too simplistic to affect behavior.

7:22 But in one study, we found that mindfulness training was twice

7:25 as good as gold standard therapy at helping people quit smoking.

7:29 So it actually works.

7:31 And when we studied the brains of experienced meditators,

7:34 we found that parts of a neural network of self-referential

7:38 processing called the default mode network were at play.

7:41 Now, one current hypothesis is that a region of this network,

7:44 called the posterior cingulate cortex,

7:46 is activated not necessarily by craving itself but when we get caught up in it,

7:50 when we get sucked in, and it takes us for a ride.

7:53 In contrast, when we let go— step out of the process just

7:57 by being curiously aware of what's

7:59 happening— this same brain region quiets down.

8:03 Now we're testing app and online-based mindfulness training

8:06 programs that target these core mechanisms and, ironically,

8:11 use the same technology that's driving us to distraction to help

8:15 us step out of our unhealthy habit patterns of smoking,

8:18 of stress eating and other addictive behaviors.

8:21 Now, remember that bit about context-dependent memory?

8:24 We can deliver these tools to peoples'

8:26 fingertips in the contexts that matter most.

8:29 So we can help them tap into their inherent capacity to be curiously

8:33 aware right when that urge to smoke or stress eat or whatever arises.

8:38 So if you don't smoke or stress eat,

8:40 maybe the next time you feel this urge to check your email when you're bored,

8:44 or you're trying to distract yourself from work,

8:46 or maybe to compulsively respond to that text message when you're driving,

8:51 see if you can tap into this natural capacity,

8:54 just be curiously aware of what's happening

8:57 in your body and mind in that moment.

8:59 It will just be another chance to perpetuate

9:01 one of our endless and exhaustive habit loops...

9:04 or step out of it.

9:06 Instead of see text message, compulsively text back,

9:09 feel a little bit better— notice the urge,

9:12 get curious, feel the joy of letting go and repeat.

9:17 Thank you.

9:18 (Applause)