The above are eight practical and effective methods extracted from the most popular psychology course "Self-control" in Stanford University. Let's change old habits, cultivate healthy new habits, overcome procrastination, grasp the key points and manage stress.
1, meditation
Meditation is not to let you think nothing, but to let you not be too distracted and forget your original goal.
The human brain, like a student with a strong thirst for knowledge, has a reaction to experience beyond everyone's imagination. If you let your brain learn math every day, it will get better and better. If you worry it, it will become more and more worried. If you stay focused, it will become more and more focused. So we can strengthen our self-control by training our brains. Among these methods of training the brain, meditation is the simplest and most painless.
Neuroscientists have found that if you often let your brain meditate, it will not only become good at meditation, but also improve your self-control, as well as your ability to concentrate, manage stress, resist impulses and know yourself. It is found that daily meditation training lasting for 8 weeks can improve people's self-awareness and self-control in daily life.
Step 2 slow down your breathing
Slow breathing can activate the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain related to self-control), improve heart rate variability (people with high self-control have higher heart rate variability), and help your body and mind adjust from stress to self-control state.
When we face the challenge of willpower, we might as well try to reduce the breathing frequency to 4~6 times per minute, that is, each breath needs 10~ 15 seconds, which is slower than usual. After a few minutes of such training, you will feel calm, have a sense of control, and be able to restrain your desires and meet challenges. Research shows that sticking to this exercise can enhance your stress resistance and help you to make a good willpower reserve, so let's do 1~2 minutes of breathing training every day to improve your willpower reserve.
Step 3 keep exercising
If you feel too tired, don't want to exercise, or don't have time to exercise, you might as well take exercise as a way to restore your physical strength and willpower.
First of all, exercise has an immediate effect on willpower. 15 minutes of treadmill exercise can reduce the temptation of food and cigarettes. The long-term effect of exercise is more obvious, which can not only relieve ordinary daily stress, but also resist depression. Like meditation, exercise can enrich our brains and make them run faster.
Step 4 get enough sleep
Lack of sleep has the same effect on the brain as mild drunkenness. We all know that people have no self-control when they are drunk.
Many people understand the necessity of getting enough sleep, but they always fall into the state of "doing one more thing" at night, and then brush friends circle, Weibo and Jane books for the last time. If you know that you can get more sleep, but you can't go to bed early, then don't think about sleeping. Think about what you want first, enough sleep and stronger willpower. Or wandering in the empty network world at night? The real problem for us to "get more sleep" is to stay away from what keeps us awake.
5, training "willpower muscles"
All your muscles can become stronger as long as you train. If self-control is muscle, we should also train it.
Learn to control small things that you couldn't control before, so as to exercise your self-control muscles and improve your overall willpower. These little things include changing posture, holding a handle hard every day, giving up sweets and recording expenses. Although these small self-control exercises seem insignificant, they can enable us to cope with our most concerned willpower challenges, such as concentrating on work, resisting temptation and better controlling emotions.
Step 6 understand yourself
Self-criticism will reduce enthusiasm and self-control, and it is also the most likely factor to lead to depression.
In the process of self-control, failure is inevitable. Please forgive yourself when you fail. Many people think that self-criticism is the basis of self-control, and self-understanding will lead to self-indulgence. However, many studies show that self-criticism will reduce enthusiasm and self-control, and it is also the most likely factor to lead to depression. On the contrary, self-understanding will enhance enthusiasm and self-control.
7. Meet your future self
Meeting your future self can not only increase your savings, but also help you cope with all kinds of willpower challenges and be your best self.
People who think that their future self is closely related to the present will protect themselves from the worst impulses, be more clear about their goals, sacrifice their present happiness and invest in their future self.
8. Willpower infection
Self-control is influenced by social identity, which makes willpower and temptation contagious.
Our brains integrate other people's goals, beliefs and behaviors into their own decisions. Similarly, our actions have influenced countless others, and every choice we make is also an encouragement or temptation to others.