GOOD BAD HABIT

Why our brains are hardwired for both healthy and unhealthy routines

- AILSA HARVEY

Every habit begins as a choice, but not every habit remains one. In fact, a 2025 study by Psychology and Health found that two-thirds of your daily actions are dictated by habits and a minority of your behaviours are chosen. However, these conscious decisions use up the most mental energy. From the moment your alarm goes off, you may immediately rise and head to the bathroom to begin getting ready for the day. If every day started with your brain processing why you had to brush your teeth and considering each step taken to do so, your energy would already have depleted significantly by the early hours. Essentially, a habit is a behaviour loop the brain has learned to depend on.

By repeating actions, the brain learns that a certain action is safe and necessary. It then shifts the corresponding learned neural signals from conscious control to automatic habit circuits. Deeper in the brain, actions become habits by bypassing higher level decision making. Habit formation can be both useful and detrimental. Those we consider to be good habits can increase your productivity, develop new skills, improve health and wellness, and break bigger goals into smaller actions. Yet mixed in with the good are some less desirable learned behaviours. It may seem unfair, but a good habit doesn’t come about as easily as a bad one. This isn't the body setting you up for failure, but instead is caused by good habits having delayed longer term benefits. By contrast, a bad habit usually offers an immediate reward that the brain can more easily become addicted to. These rewards are in the form of pleasure or stress relief, flooding the brain with feelgood chemicals such as dopamine.