Judson Brewer's 'A Simple Way To Break A Bad Habit'

Judson Brewer is a psychiatrist and addiction expert who researches “mindfulness techniques” that help reduce many types of cravings. His TED Talk, titled “A simple way to break a bad habit,” introduces mindfulness techniques.

Brewer begins his talk by talking about his own experiences in meditating and how much of a struggle it was for him to pay attention to what it was he needed to do. He claims there are studies that show half of people will loose focus and drift of into a daydream. It turns out that this goes against an “evolutionary-conserved learning process” found in the most basic nervous systems. The learning process is a reward-based process called positive and negative reinforcement. The process deals with signals that trigger the brain, produce a behavior, and provide a reward. For example, when someone is sad, they may eat chocolate to make themselves feel better. This simple action teaches our brains that if we eat something like chocolate or ice cream when we are upset, we will feel better. There are many different things in life that trigger this process such as being stressed and having the urge to smoke. When speaking of this phenomena, Brewer uses a slight appeal to fear

Bad habits can effect every single one of a person’s well-being. There are many different habits that can negatively effect each wellness dimension (emotional, mental, social, physical, occupational, environmental, spiritual, and financial). Some habits are small enough to where they will only effect someone’s physical well-being; however, a habit such as smoking could effect someone’s job due to loss of productivity which in turn effects finances, but it could also effect someone’s social, physical, and mental well-being. Learning how to deal with a bad habit and eventually break that habit is something that can benefit a person and make their lives that much