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 is a conduct carried out regularly, that is, repeated in the weather, 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 detrimental to our Health (in the latter case they would be called "vices").
Anything can be a habit, when its performance constitutes part of a more or less automatic routine, that is, it does not require a conscious effort or explicit programming. For example, many persons They have the cigarette habit, and usually smoke at certain times and hours, such as after eating, or getting up in the morning, etc.
These behaviors are part of the habit of smoking and were learned and incorporated, and therefore can also be disengaged, 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.
Habit types
There are several types of habits:
- Physical habits. Those that involve the body and health, such as exercising, brushing teeth after every meal or having a glass of liquor after lunch.
- Social habits. Those that involve interacting with others, like 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 football Saturday afternoons or spend an hour playing video games after homework.
- Affective habits. Those that concern affection and their forms of expression, such as the "I love you" farewell to the bride and groom.
Examples of habits
There are many possible habits, and to take note of them we just have to observe our daily routine. Obviously, what for us is a habit, for others it is not, depending on whether they are an installed part of a routine. For example:
- It is a habit to go to the bathroom before sleeping.
- It is a habit to brush your teeth when you get up, as much as going to the kitchen and reheating Water to make coffee.
- It is a habit to have breakfast in the cafeteria next to work.
- It is a habit to greet office colleagues upon arrival.
- It is a habit to smoke a cigarette after lunch.
- It is a habit to call our partner when leaving the office.
- It is a habit to go to the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
- It is a habit to take out the garbage when you get home.
- It is a habit to bathe at the end of the day.
How are habits formed?
Habits are not natural, but are behaviors learned and instilled through repetition, until they acquire a certain automaticity.
Thus, the set of influences that 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 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 criteria also apply to substituting one habit for another: many ex-smokers find it easier to quit if they replace the habit with another, such as chewing gum or having a cup of tea every time they feel like indulging in the habit.
Vices
A vice is a harmful habit, that is, one that is harmful to health or interferes with daily life in some way. There are vices of all kinds, some promoted by substances addictive or psychotropic, such as drug use, alcohol or tobacco, and there are others that have a more their own and individual origin.
In any case, vices are as difficult to break as any other habit, sometimes even more so, 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 occult of the psyche.