Habits

Creating Healthy Habits - Part 5: If-Then Plans

Creating Healthy Habits - Part 5: If-Then Plans

Struggling to stick to plans? If-Then plans, also known as implementation intentions, are an extensively studied strategy from cognitive psychology that has been shown to increase the likelihood of goal attainment. However, WHAT are if-then plans and HOW do you implement them?

Creating Healthy Habits - Part 4: Limiting Beliefs

Creating Healthy Habits - Part 4: Limiting Beliefs

When we believe that our behaviors are unchangeable, we easily give up and say to ourselves, “I knew I could never do that.” So, let’s take a look at the silent messages that are holding you back - your limiting beliefs - and what to do about them.

Creating Healthy Habits - Part 2: Mindfulness

Creating Healthy Habits - Part 2: Mindfulness

Mindfulness is defined as the awareness that arises when we pay attention in the present moment, on purpose, and non-judgmentally. To understand how mindfulness is involved in forming habits, let’s learn about two systems of the brain and how they impact your behavior.

Creating Healthy Habits - Part 1: A New Approach

Creating Healthy Habits - Part 1: A New Approach

Many of us are dealing with unhealthy habits that we started during the pandemic. Even though we know what we need to do to make changes, we are finding it challenging to commit to healthy habits. We continue to "stress eat." WHY do we do this and WHAT can we do about it?

Do You Hate to Talk on the Phone?

Do You Hate to Talk on the Phone?

If you feel like you have started to delay or avoid making calls, are feeling extremely nervous or anxious before, during, and after a call, or perhaps obsessing or worrying about what you’ll say, you aren’t alone. The good news is that there are things you can do to overcome your phone anxiety and reverse your dislike of phone calls. Here are a few things you can try…

Worried About Your Social Media Use?

Worried About Your Social Media Use?

With the lack of certainty today, it is not surprising that we often don’t feel we have control over our lives. This is troublesome because a sense of control is an essential component of what it means to be human. We will go to great lengths to gain this sense of control, even if it means engaging in non-productive or unwanted behaviors. We are drawn to social media because it reduces our anxiety by giving us a temporary feeling of control (Atroszko et al., 2018). So, are we using it too much?

Making Mindfulness a Habit

Making Mindfulness a Habit

From the beginning, the Levelhead approach to developing a mindfulness practice was based on the assumption that people have busy lives and need to be able to practice whenever, wherever it fits their lifestyle. We realize that people are time-starved and have a limited desire for practices that require more than 5 minutes. Take a look at what recent research says about what is needed to develop a mindfulness practice…

Gratitude as a Habit

Gratitude as a Habit

Recently, I saw a study that captured my attention because it aimed to understand the extent to which participants could establish a habit of gratitude thinking before sleeping (Lo & Leung, 2020). The researchers defined gratitude as an inclination to appreciate and savor daily events and experiences. Here is what the researchers found.