Transformation through Habit Change

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This morning I wanted to spend some additional time talking about the kleshas, the three poisons of craving, aversion and ignorance in the context of habits.  We had a lively discussion last Tuesday night about what exactly it is that causes us to change our habits.  Isn’t that what this is all about?  We’ve been hurtling through life at warp speed, feeling the stress and struggle of suffering in all its various forms, and also having moments of great joy and pleasure and wondering how to savor life more deeply, this precious experience of life that we have been given.

In fact, that is exactly what the Buddha did 2500 years ago—he simply changed the habit of the way he interacted with the world, how he interacted with himself, how he interacted with each moment.  At the simplest level, we are trying to make mindfulness, meditation and positive visualization a habit—pure and simple.  I don’t know about your experience, but I find that I catch myself being mindful and then fall back asleep in distraction, then wake up a few moments…or a few hours later, and remember to be mindful again.  Everything that we have ever done here at the Temple Buddhist Center or will do, is about supporting each other in making Mindfulness, Meditation and Positive Visualization a habit that happens more and more often.  So, what can we do to increase the habit of these power practices?

Last Tuesday, during the discussion about recognizing that moment of craving or aversion or ignorance, Brent made a comment that stuck with me, because I now know that my answer was wrong or at least very incomplete.  He suggested (Brent, I paraphrase, forgive me!) that willpower is what enables us to transform our behavior.  I responded that willpower alone never works according to the research, and that is partially true, but I’ve spent the week reflecting and researching on the role of willpower in changing our habits.   

For anyone interested in diving deeper into this subject, I am going to recommend the book that Pam and Roz recommended to me, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.  In it, he encourages us to see more clearly how cues lead to routines or habits, lead to rewards, which create cravings, which reinforce the habits in order to get the rewards.  Cues can be thoughts, or a physical experience or sensation or locations, or an action, that is now hardwired into us as a signal to respond in a certain way. 

“Most of the time what we do is what we do most of the time.

Sometimes we do something new” (Townsend & Bever, The

integration of habits and rules).

When Buddha sat down under the Bodhi Tree, trying to find an end to suffering, he had a new thought and a new experience that arose.  Now, it’s said that he was immediately enlightened and never went back and went on to teach for 45 years from this place of awakening.  I wasn’t there 2500 years ago, so I can’t be sure, but I suspect that the reality MIGHT have been just a little bit different.  I suggest that Buddha sat under the tree, and had this new thought and this new experience, then continued to reinforce it through re-thinking the thought (through motivation to end suffering) and re-experiencing the action (mindfulness, meditation and positive visualization).  So does willpower play a role in changing habits, particularly the habit of being mindful instead of being distracted?

Wendy Wood and David Neal wrote a fascinating psychology article entitled, “A New Look at Habits and the Habit–Goal Interface”.  Now, that’s a little dry but basically they found that having a goal in and of itself did not change the habit.  Having a goal is a good start--we can all create the goal of meditating for five minutes each day, but when we are then faced with the hardwired habits that we have been building and nurturing and redoing our whole lives, so it seems that having a new goal may not be enough.   

So, is it willpower?  Can we will ourselves to change? 

Back to Charles Duhiggs research, he found that two factors contribute to new habits. 

First, it turns out that we only have so much willpower to begin with. Duhigg describes a research project where people were placed in a room with radishes and cookies. Some participants were told to eat the cookies and others the radishes.  The cookies were warm and smelled so good, fresh from the oven, and the radishes were, well radishes.  The cookie eaters were savoring their cookies, and the radish eaters were forcing themselves to eat the radishes.  Some radish eaters even picked up a cookie to smell it more closely, then put it down and picked up a radish.  Imagine the willpower that took! 

After five minutes, the researcher re-entered the room and asked each group to perform a puzzle about connecting dots on a geometric shape in specific way, they said it was just something to kill time in order to wait for the next step in the process.  The puzzle they gave them was actually impossible to solve.  The cookies eaters had plenty of willpower left to persist in the solving the problem, while the radish eaters, their willpower was depleted, and they struggled mightily.  On average, the cookie eaters spent 60% more time trying to solve the puzzle!  They had lots of willpower left to persist when things were difficult!

The conclusion was that willpower is a muscle—one that we can train to use, and one that gets tired if we are required to use it too much.  AND, willpower can be built up over time.  The other example given was the significant research and training that Starbucks has done about dealing with cranky customers—I guess that goes back to our story last week about the craving for coffee, the cue of the smell and the crankiness that arises from not satisfying that craving.  Starbucks trains their employees to prepare for what they will do when faced with a cranky customer.  Prepare in advance, before the craving or aversion arises. 

This preparation enables us to respond differently when the going gets tough.  Let’s apply this to meditation.   Maybe there was a Sunday some time ago that you wanted to get here on Sunday morning at 9 am to meditate.  The alarm sounded and you hit the off button and went back to sleep.  When you awoke, maybe you were glad you slept in rather than meditate, OR maybe you were disappointed in yourself for not getting up.  What the Buddha did with his disciples was create a supportive environment in order to change their habits little by little.  There were rituals that the monks and nuns were taught to change their habits. For example, each night as they went to bed, the put their begging bowls by the side of the bed, upside down, which is done when a monk or nun dies.  When they would awake, they were instructed to use that moment of realization that they were still alive and to recognize the preciousness of this life that we have been given.  So, what preparation might we do to create that visual cue when we awaken, or during the day or at night, whenever you find your willpower waning and challenging your mindfulness and your goals?

The second important component of successful habit change is taking things in bite-size pieces.  Starting a diet by radically changing everything you do in your life is well-researched to be very likely NOT to work.  BUT, changing something small, can start a chain reaction of positive habits.  For example, simply keeping a food journal one day a week, has been proven to create a series of changes in the way you respond to food. 

So, what bite-size pieces of mindfulness, meditation or positive visualization could we make in our lives this week to get the new habit being formed?  I can tell you all the wonderful things that the Buddha taught, but if it doesn’t result in you creating healthier  habits, then it really is a waste of time. 

Brent, I apologize!  Willpower is a component in habit change, as long as we build it slowly, with preparation and recognition of our limitations.  AND, combine it with new goals and motivations that are available at our fingertips when the going gets tough.  This is what the Buddha realized, and what we can now practice. 

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

  

“Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.” – Buddha

  

“Simplicity is the key to brilliance.” – Bruce Lee