3 Ways To Change Habit Loops And Addiction To Your Thoughts

Written by: Alaina Schwartz, Executive Contributor

Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.

Most of us are addicts without even realizing it. Addicted to habits and thoughts that don’t serve our goals and vision.

What??? How is that possible?

Experts estimate that we:

• Have approximately sixty to eighty thousand (60-80k) thoughts a day.

• Say 98-99% of the same things again and again to ourselves, and

• 80% of those thoughts are negative.

That’s 48,000-64,000 negative thoughts a day!

Experts also estimate that 95% of what you think and believe comes from your subconscious mind that you’re not even aware of and 95-99% of your life comes from the programming of your subconscious mind.

Your subconscious mind is a million times more powerful than your conscious mind.

That means that most people are running the same negative thoughts day in and day out over and over again. They’re mostly unaware of those thoughts as they’re contained in the subconscious mind and those thoughts are running the show 95% of the time.

It also means that your conscious mind, which sees your vision and wants to accomplish your goals and dreams, is controlling 5% of your day. You are consciously impacting your decision making, thoughts and actions 1.2 hours a day (less if you only count waking hours)!!!

Having negative thoughts causes the release of certain chemicals in your body. Those hormones of stress (i.e., cortisol, adrenaline, norepinephrine, etc.) are literally addictive. You now have a habit.

This is one of the reasons it’s so hard to break habits and thought patterns. Your body will do everything it can to get you thinking the same thoughts, so you do the same thing, so it can feel the same emotions, so it can get another hit of the same chemicals. Now you’re stuck in this negative feedback loop. Negative thoughts feed negative feelings, which feed more negative thoughts. It’s a loop that’s hard to break without commitment and awareness.

Meet my client, I’ll call Katy. Katy is a person who has subconscious trust issues. Consciously she is not aware of these issues. In both her personal and business relationships, she experiences many people violating her trust – shady business dealings, not delivering on promises, being cheated on, etc. She did not understand that she was attracting these experiences because of her subconscious programming. For what you believe in your subconscious mind you create in your lived experience.

Meet my client I’ll call Tim. Tim believed that his value was derived from working hard and giving to others first. He was filling everyone else’s cup first and was feeling like no matter how hard he worked he couldn’t reach his goal. If you don’t fill your tank up with gas, the car will come to a grinding halt soon enough. He was having this experience over and over again. He had an internal values conflict. He wanted to be successful but focusing on himself and not others first meant he was selfish so he would sabotage his own success by giving to others first.

So how do you break the negative feedback loop?

Here are 3 ways to break the addiction to your thoughts and habits:

1. Create a pattern interrupt – The first thing most people do when they wake up is check their phone (go down the email or social media rabbit hole), go to the bathroom, check their phone in the bathroom again, make coffee, shower, etc. You’re programming your mind to have the same day as yesterday because you’re going through the same (e)motions. Do something different!

For example, don’t check your phone for 30-60 minutes upon waking. Instead, before your feet hit the floor to get out of bed, focus on 3 things you are grateful for (really FEEL the gratitude). Or brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand. Hold your fork with your non-dominant hand. Pour your coffee with your non-dominant hand. You get the idea.

2. Implant habits that will serve who you want to be – Meditation, journaling, exercise, eating healthy are some examples. Imagine you were already experiencing the vision you desired, who would you have to be to have created that vision? What are the habits that a person would have? Start being that person today.

3. Cultivate elevated emotions like joy, gratitude, a love for life, regardless of what’s happening in your circumstances. We’ve all heard so much about the benefits of gratitude. You cannot be in gratitude and any form of suffering (anxiety, depression, anger, frustration, lack, etc.) at the same time.

Gratitude moves you into your parasympathetic nervous system, out of fight, flight or freeze and habituated emotions. You have so much more to be grateful for than you realize.

The key is to rinse and repeat throughout the day. If you do this for a half-hour to an hour in the morning but then the other 23 hours of the day you're doing the same as usual, it’s like trying to lose weight and eating a healthy breakfast but then eating junk food for the rest of the day.

If you’re ready to experience your life with emotional and financial freedom and without resistance, reach out to me here and let’s chat!

For more info, I invite you to connect with me here on LinkedIn or visit Alaina Schwartz and follow Alaina on Facebook and Instagram. Here’s a free case study to watch! Read more from Alaina!

Alaina Schwartz, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Alaina Schwartz is the Founder & CEO of Alaina Schwartz Enterprises. She’s a speaker, best-selling author, and Intuitive Mindset Mentor. At 14, Alaina suffered a traumatic brain injury, and her mother was told she’d have permanent brain damage. Her mother retrained Alaina’s brain for a full recovery. Then, after 18 years as an attorney in the music industry and the EVP and Exec Board Member of the largest independent music company globally, she walked away from it all to discover her purpose. Her personal life completely unraveled. She became hyper-focused on building her life purpose and rewiring her brain again for success and fulfillment. She has created a multiple six-figure company and a beautiful life since. As an Intuitive Mindset Coach/Mentor, she uses those experiences and her training as the foundation of her work with entrepreneurs, helping them break through upper limits and clear the blocks that are preventing them from creating 7+ figure businesses with ease. Alaina’s mission is to help people remember who they truly are so they can live their purpose and full potential.