Habit

We explain what a habit is, how it is formed, what types exist and various examples. Also, differences with vices.

What is a habit?

a habit It is a behavior carried out regularly that is, repeated over time, which is learned – not innate – and which requires little or no rational commitment.

These types of minimal behaviors make up an important portion of our daily time. They can be beneficial or harmful to our health (in the latter case they would be called “vices”).

Anything can be a habit, when its realization constitutes part of a more or less automatic routine that is, it does not require conscious effort or explicit programming. For example, many people have a cigarette habit, and they usually smoke at certain times and times, such as after eating, or when they get up in the morning, etc.

These behaviors are part of the smoking habit and were learned and incorporated and therefore they can also be disincorporated, although, as the proverb says, breaking the habit is usually more difficult than creating it.

This use of the word habit should not be confused with the others accepted in the dictionary of the Spanish language, and which refer to the clothing of monks, soldiers or students.

See also: Custom

Types of habits

There are various types of habits:

• Physical habits Those that involve the body and health, such as exercising, brushing your teeth after each meal or having a glass of liquor after lunch.
• Social habits Those that involve interaction with others, such as visiting grandma every Sunday or calling a friend on every birthday.
• Mental habits Those that strictly concern the mind, such as the practice of meditation.
• Recreational habits Those that have to do with the way we recreate ourselves, such as playing soccer on Saturday afternoons or spending an hour playing video games after doing homework.
• Affective habits Those that concern affection and its forms of expression, such as the “I love you” farewell to the couple.

Examples of habits

There are many possible habits, and to take note of them we only have to observe our daily routine. Obviously, what is a habit for us is not a habit for others, depending on whether they are an established part of a routine. For example:

• It's a habit go to the bathroom before sleeping.
• It's a habit brush your teeth when you get up, as well as going to the kitchen and heating water to make coffee.
• It's a habit have breakfast in the cafeteria next to work.
• It's a habit greet to office colleagues upon arrival.
• It's a habit smoke a cigarette after lunch.
• It's a habit call our partner when leaving the office.
• It's a habit go to the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• It's a habit take out the trash when you get home.
• It's a habit take a bath at the end of the day.

How are habits formed?

Habits are not natural, but are behaviors learned and instilled through repetition until acquiring a certain automaticity.

Thus, the set of influences we receive at home, at work, at school and throughout our lives, make us adopt certain habits instead of others. As we become aware of them, we can accept them and normalize them or replace them with others that are more convenient or healthier for us.

It is said that 66 days are enough to forge a new habit That is, after two months of sustaining an activity or behavior with the necessary regularity, we will be able to fix it and incorporate it into our behavior. Then, we can start to consider it a habit.

The same criterion also applies to replacing one habit with another: many ex-smokers find it easier to quit smoking if they replace the habit with another, such as chewing gum or having a cup of tea every time they feel like taking up the habit.

Vices

A vice is a harmful habit, that is, that is harmful to health or hinders daily life somehow. There are vices of all kinds, some promoted by addictive or psychotropic substances, such as the consumption of drugs, alcohol or tobacco, and there are others that have a more individual and individual origin.

In any case, the vices are just as hard to break as any other habit, sometimes even harder since there is usually some psychological compensation procedure behind them that has not been exposed to the light of day and that, therefore, operates from the hidden part of the psyche.

Continue in: Vice

References

• “Habit (health sciences)” on Wikipedia.
• “Habit” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
• “Habits, what they are, how they are formed and how to change them according to science” in Habitualmente.
• “What is habit” in Psicoadapta.
• “66 days are enough to change a habit” in El País (Spain).