Automated habits enable our brains to run more efficiently – we have more brain power available for tasks that really need it and efficiency means smaller brains. Making habitsĬonscious decision making requires more processing power and happens in a different part of our brains, hence the apparent disconnect between what we sometimes do, and what we’d like to be doing. Experts suggest that at least 40% of the things we do every day happen without our conscious awareness (think arriving without remembering driving there…), because once we get familiar with a pattern, our brain automates it and stores it in the habit centre deep in the basal ganglia. For example arriving home after a busy day may trigger you into automatically reaching for a glass of wine, your yoga mat or your running shoes. Habits are learned behaviours and patterns of behaviour that are repeated and reinforced in response to contextual cues. This interest has been tickled recently by reading Charles Duhigg’s book ‘The Power of Habit’.
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