What Has Your Habit Been Doing for You? The Neuroscience of Change

A few weeks ago, I found it surprisingly difficult to return to the habit of writing my newsletter.

This was not because I had stopped enjoying it. I still love writing. It supports my own reflection, learning, and healing. Life had simply become busy, unpredictable, and a little “rock and roll.” Once my routine changed, the habit seemed to disappear.

That experience got me thinking: how do habits form, and why can they be so difficult to change?

These questions come up constantly in my work. Clients often tell me they cannot stop worrying, overthinking, clenching their jaw, holding their breath, tightening their belly, apologizing, staying busy, or becoming angry. Sometimes these patterns have been present for so long that they feel like personality traits, or permanent physical limitations.

But a habit is not a character flaw. It is often the brain becoming efficient.

Habits are learned shortcuts

When we repeat a behaviour in a similar context, the brain begins to connect the context with the behaviour. The time of day, the room we are in, what happened immediately beforehand, and even our internal state can become cues.

Eventually, the behaviour may require less conscious attention. This is useful when we are learning to walk, type, drive, prepare breakfast, or follow a bedtime routine. The brain does not need to consciously supervise every detail.

Habit learning involves a network of brain regions, including the basal ganglia and the striatum. These structures help select and organize actions based on previous experience and feedback. However, the basal ganglia are not a single “habit centre.” Habit learning involves distributed circuits that interact with the cortex and other brain systems (Seger & Spiering, 2011).

This is why repetition can make an action feel automatic, but also why changing it may take more than simply deciding to “try harder.”

When protection becomes a pattern

Some patterns develop because they help us manage stress, uncertainty, or a sense of threat.

Worrying may create the feeling that we are preparing for every possible outcome. Checking may offer a brief sense of certainty. Staying busy may help us avoid the discomfort that appears when we slow down. Clenching the jaw or tightening the abdomen may once have helped the body feel ready to respond.

In the short term, these responses may serve a purpose. With repetition, however, they can become the body’s default setting.

A protective response that was once appropriate may persist after the original situation has changed. Over time, bracing, shallow breathing, restricted movement, or constant muscular effort can contribute to stiffness, fatigue, and pain. The body may begin to organize around protection, creating limitations that feel fixed.

This does not mean that chronic pain is “just a habit” or that symptoms are imaginary. Pain is a complex experience influenced by many biological, psychological, and social factors. But persistent nervous-system patterns can influence how the brain interprets sensation, movement, and possible threat.

That is one reason a brain-based approach such as NeuroSomatic Therapy may be helpful. Instead of forcing the body to stretch, perform, or push through, we explore new sensory information through slow, gentle, attentive movement.

Context matters more than willpower

A common belief is that repeating something for 21 days is enough to make it automatic. The research does not support a universal timeline. In a real-world study by Lally and colleagues, the time required for a behaviour to approach automaticity ranged from 18 to 254 days. The average was approximately two months, but there were substantial differences between people and behaviours (Lally et al., 2010). The study also found that missing one opportunity did not meaningfully derail the process. This matters because many people interpret a missed day as failure. In reality, learning is gradual. One interruption does not erase what the brain has already learned.

Context is also crucial. A routine that feels easy at home may become difficult while travelling, during illness, after a major life transition, or when stress levels rise. The behaviour may not have been unlearned. The cues that supported it may simply have changed. Stress can also make flexible, goal-directed behaviour more difficult and increase reliance on familiar responses. Research suggests that stress can shift behaviour toward more habitual strategies, especially when cognitive resources are already stretched (Schwabe & Wolf, 2009; Schwabe et al., 2010).

This may explain why old patterns return when life feels overwhelming. It is not proof that you have gone backward. It may be your nervous system reaching for what is most familiar.

When a habit becomes an identity

Repeated behaviour can gradually shape the story we tell about ourselves.

“I write” can become “I am a writer.” “I worry a lot” can become “I am an anxious person.” “I struggle to say no” can become “I am a people pleaser.”

This identity layer can make change feel threatening. You may not only be changing an action; you may be questioning a familiar story about who you are.

Yet identity is also capable of changing. The brain remains responsive to experience throughout life. If repetition helped build one pattern, new experiences can help create alternatives.

The goal is not to erase your history or fight your body into submission. It is to give your brain enough safety, attention, and variety to discover that another response is possible.

A gentle micro-practice for changing a habit

Choose one pattern you would like to understand, not eliminate immediately.

1. Name it without judgement

Try saying:

“I notice that my jaw is clenching.” “I notice that I am rushing.” “I notice that I am preparing for danger.”

Use language that describes what is happening rather than defining who you are.

2. Ask what it is doing for you

Gently ask:

• What might this pattern be trying to help me manage?

• Does it create certainty, distance, readiness, control, or relief?

• What happens just before it appears?

You do not need an immediate answer. Curiosity is already a different experience from self-criticism.

3. Change the context

If possible, interrupt one part of the usual sequence. Move to another room. Change your posture. Look around and notice three neutral or pleasant details. Put both feet on the floor. Let your exhale lengthen naturally.

A small change in context can create a small pause between the cue and the usual response.

4. Move slowly and pay attention

Try one tiny movement with less effort than usual. Turn your head a few degrees. Soften your hands. Notice the support beneath you. Explore what changes when you do not force the movement.

Slow, conscious movement gives the brain new information. It can support learning because attention, sensation, and choice are present together.

5. Forgive missed days

Change is not a test of perfection. Returning to the practice is part of the practice.

Neuroplasticity leaves room for hope

Habits are powerful because the brain learns from repetition. But that same capacity for learning means that change remains possible.

In NeuroSomatic Therapy and NeuroMovement®, we use deliberate, slow, varied movement and whole-person awareness to help the brain explore more efficient patterns. This may be especially relevant when chronic pain, anxiety, mobility limitations, or protective responses have become deeply familiar.

You do not have to begin by changing everything. Start by noticing one pattern with a little more kindness.

Then ask the question:

What has this habit been doing for me: and what else might be possible now?

If you would like support exploring persistent pain, tension, anxiety, or movement limitations, book a NeuroSomatic Therapy session. Sessions are available in Montreal and online.

This article is for education and does not replace medical or mental-health care. Seek professional assessment for new, severe, or worsening symptoms.

References

• Graybiel, A. M. (2008). Habits, rituals, and the evaluative brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 31, 359–387.

• Hart, G., Bradfield, L. A., & Balleine, B. W. (2018). Prefrontal corticostriatal disconnection blocks the acquisition of goal-directed action. Journal of Neuroscience, 38, 1311–1322.

• Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., & Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 998–1009.

• Seger, C. A., & Spiering, B. J. (2011). A critical review of habit learning and the basal ganglia. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 5, 66.

• Schwabe, L., & Wolf, O. T. (2009). Stress prompts habit behavior in humans. Journal of Neuroscience, 29, 7191–7198.

• Schwabe, L., Tegenthoff, M., Höffken, O., & Wolf, O. T. (2010). Concurrent glucocorticoid and noradrenergic activity shifts instrumental behavior from goal-directed to habitual control. Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 8190–8196.

• Wood, W., & Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 289–314.