A habit is a pattern of behavior that we have learned. Habits exist in the various realms of our life: physical, as a repeated action, mental, as a way of thinking, and emotional , as a tendency to respond with the same emotion when a situation recurs.

The benefits that we gain from habits.

The mind is continually challenged to deal with unique situations each of which contains an infinite number of factors. This challenge is enormous, requiring an improvisation with each dynamic factor that is present. To simplify the processing of this data, the mind asks itself "how do I usually respond in this circumstance?", and it finds the answer by referring to the existing elements in the design that corresponds to the situation. Those elements are the records of thoughts, images, energy tones, and behavioral patterns that we created in previous encounters with this design. The mind uses those elements as a template upon which to formulate a response. In addition to those elements, it creates new thoughts, images, energy tones, and actions to adapt the response to this particular circumstance. Habits make our lives simpler. They are shortcuts in our behavior, letting us perform acts automatically, with little or no thought. Without habits, we would be burdened by trivial decisions. If we did not have habits in eating, we would be overwhelmed by the choices at a supermarket. When we perform actions without much thought, we are free to direct our attention toward new challenges and information. Habits are merely defaults, that the mind uses when it is not being guided by intuition.

To confront familiar design situations with a fresh, intuitive perspective, we can cultivate various energy tones such as enthusiasm, playfulness, courage, and adventure. In an approach that has been used by behavioral psychologists, we are associating pleasure with the new behavior. While we implant the new thoughts, images, and actions, we dwell on the pleasure of the desired change, physical, mental, and emotional. Some people perform a complimentary form of therapy associating the unwanted habit with displeasure. This action can actually reinforce the unwanted habit, because the therapy requires us to focus on that unwanted habit, generating additional thoughts and images regarding it.

Techniques for creating, altering, or eliminating particular habits.

	Design Work: Our habits are based in the elements that remain from previous encounters with designs thus, design-work is a direct means for changing our habits physical, mental, and emotional. Affirmation. "I am free to change every aspect of my life." "I enjoy being creative in all situations." "I can do things in a new way." "I am spontaneous.". In addition to these general statements regarding habits, we can repeat statements that affirm the particular new habits that we want to create. Directed Imagination. We can visualize ourselves performing the action that we want to develop into a habit. Modeling. We perform the physical behaviors that we want to develop into habits and we perform the supporting behaviors. If we want to create a habit of a cigarette free life, we use modeling to live in a home that does not have cigarettes, and we also model a person who does not go into situations where we tend to smoke such as bars.
	Intuition: Intuition can suggest the thoughts, images, energy tones, and actions that would be most appropriate in each design encounter. These elements will linger in the design as a default habit for our next encounter. If, we are be guided by intuition in that next encounter we will not use the default at all, however, if we do revert to this default, it is likely to be more effective than any elements that would have been created in a non-intuitive state.
	Intuition can help us to resolve the charge of unresolved design elements. Every design encounter or life situation has a particular dynamic. If we respond intuitively, we give what is meant to given, and we receive what is meant to be received, and we say what is meant to be said. If we do not respond intuitively and instead we respond with a default habit, our response is not entirely accurate, and so we do not fully resolve the dynamic, and the individual elements do not discharge. The inappropriate elements retain their charge while they linger in the design until the next encounter when their energy compels us to act in such a way that we will resolve that charge. This compulsion is a type of habit. We are compelled to act in that manner, repeatedly, until that energy is released. In contrast, if we had acted intuitively, the elements would have discharged during the original encounter, and they would have remained merely as references rather than as charged forces or habits that demand expression. The goal is to be fully intuitive so that we can create a response that will satisfy the dynamics of the situation in contrast to the habitual response. Our habits are still there, but we override them.
	We understand the issues regarding will and willpower with regard to habits. Many people try to use willpower in order to stop performing unwanted habits. Willpower is the attempt to change superficial behavior while denying and repressing the underlying drives and the underlying dynamics of matter and spirit. If we change our behavior without addressing the reason for the behavior, the underlying drive will find a different outlet. If we drop the habit of eating calorie laden chocolate for dessert every night, we can find that the drive is our drive for pleasure, and that we can achieve that same end by eating a piece of fruit instead. We can experiment with various types of substitution. If a piece of fruit doesn't appease our sweet tooth, we can try a sugar free cookie or simply a smaller piece of cake.
	We do not hate our habits, and we do not hate ourselves for using a particular habit. Every habit serves a purpose. It has been our best means for dealing with a design. Now we simply want to try a different approach to that design.
	We forgive ourselves when we experience relapses. Our old habits will remain with us forever, because the elements upon which they were founded will remain in the design elements forever and can be triggered occasionally The goal is not to destroy habits, the goal is to create new elements within a design that have so much critical mass that they tend to be the default that is triggered in a design situation. Relapses will occur less frequently when the following conditions occur: We increase the critical mass of the elements that form the basis of our new habits. We increase our ability to manage stress and change. When we are overwhelmed by stress and change, we tend to revert to automatic habitual behavior, in an attempt to gain stability, and to reduce the mental challenges. This is a necessary protective action when we are overly stressed, but it is not needed if we are dealing effectively with the challenges.

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Last modified: April 13, 2008