Stress Triggers Bad Habits

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In a 2009 study on rats conducted by Rui Costa of the Champalimaud Foundation in Portugal in collaboration with the National Institute of Health, they found that chronic stress acts as a trigger for old habits.

This is an important discovery because the key to habit change is awareness. Being aware of your habits is the stopgap for engaging in destructive habits. If you are aware of the triggers that cause you to engage in bad habits, you can take action to avoid those triggers or to engage in activities that stop those triggers in their tracks before they have a chance to influence your habits.

Chronic stress is caused by external environmental factors. These factors could be almost anything: a demanding boss, deadlines, monthly bills, family, friends, weather, etc. You can feel stress as it is happening. Knowing this, there are things you can do to stop stress and, therefore, prevent bad habits from taking over your life.

For example, suppose deadlines act as a trigger for stress and when you feel stress you have the bad habit of reaching for a cigarette. Procrastination, therefore, is the worst possible thing you can do. The solution is to tackle the project long before the deadline approaches. This will prevent the stress trigger from occurring and thwart the bad cigarette habit.

Awareness of the triggers that create stress in your life and cause you to engage in bad habits, will help you to do certain things that prevent those triggers from occurring.

 

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Thomas C. Corley About Thomas C. Corley

Tom Corley is a bestselling author, speaker, and media contributor for Business Insider, CNBC and a few other national media outlets.

His Rich Habits research has been read, viewed or heard by over 50 million people in 25 countries around the world.

Besides being an author, Tom is also a CPA, CFP, holds a master’s degree in taxation and is President of Cerefice and Company, a CPA firm in New Jersey.
 
Phone Number: 732-382-3800 Ext. 103.
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