Habit Energy is precisely that powerful force that drags us through life; it is the essence of how we are racing through life and not actually able to be present at times and see reality for what it is.
From personal experience, I feel that some of our anxiety/distress or stress, in part, comes from some of our own “bad habits”. I came across something called “habit energy,” as an alternative to understanding some of our maladaptive habits or drives.
For some of us, here is an example of how this plays out in life. We have a conversation with someone and, a few hours later or even immediately, our brain automatically ruminates on “how did the conversation go?” “Do they think I am stupid?” “Did I offend them?” “Did I sound weird?”
Due to these ruminations, the whole day can go by in emotional distress or unease. This is an example of social anxiety, and, unfortunately, some people have a biological predisposition for it, and it manifests as a “habit energy” in that it is what “naturally happens” in a person’s brain with social anxiety.
Some of our habit energies are productive and can cause satisfaction, and some can cause distress. The next time you find yourself giving into one of your negative “habit energies” try to reframe your thought to the opposite such as “what if that conversation made me sound really smart?” “what if I came off really charming?”.
Our amygdala, one of the more primitive parts of our brain, has its own “internal working model” of how it processes things even though it may not be consistent with reality, but once we identify some of these negative emotions/feelings/processes we can strengthen our brain by volitionally using our frontal lobe to reframe our thoughts. Evolutionarily, anxiety continues to "survive" in humans because we need it to ensure our survival in unsafe circumstances. We can view it as a friend who was beneficial in the past, and still is at times, but one that we need to keep our distance from:)
Try to identify a "habit energy" in you and how you can transform it! Let me know if you have questions!
