[Issue #32 | Part 3] Let's Get Nerdy With It
A deep dive into the science of behavior change [longread]
This is the final piece to our Behavior Change series; Here’s part 1 and part 2 - I love hearing from you! Let me know if this series has been helpful or any other thoughts you may have: adpurchas@gmail.com or simply reply to this email.
How do you change your behavior? Change what you worship.”
-Timothy Keller
I’ve beat the proverbial horse with my constant claiming of the stories in our heads spouting a lot of half-truths, embellished experiences, and me trying to remember that the stories are just that.
But when we believe the stories in our heads are true, or believing the stories we tell ourselves, stories we’ve picked up over the course of time are true, more true than the actual reality, we begin acting as if those stories were true. Our behavior tends to match our thoughts. But, why? And how do we stop behaving from a place of a shaken past and instead, behave out of the external, raw experience of the present moment, no matter how difficult the moment might be?
Habit and Memory
To start our scientific deluge and to better emphasize the power of the habit loop, we’re going to borrow from author Charles Duhigg, whom drives the point home with his descriptive narrative about a medical patient and his memory.
In his book, “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business,” Duhigg examines habit formation at the neuro-and psychological levels
(I highly recommend grabbing a copy to keep on hand - it’s a great book that is also easy to read and easy to grasp). The fascinating story of Eugene begins when Eugene’s wife became quite concerned about her husband’s recent lack of memory. Eugene had recently suffered from an unknown illness, and now, Eugene’s wife said, he was struggling to remember things, big events, from all their years together.
Then a scientist, Larry Squire, a professor and expert in the fields of neuroanatomy and memory, met with Eugene and his wife once Eugene was recovered enough from this unknown disease that had made him ill; So ill, he had come close to death. Eventually, it was discovered that Eugene had caught a rare case of viral encephalitis and Eugene had a turn of terrible luck - the virus seemed to have spread to Eugene’s brain where it’s the virus essentially ate the tissue that comprises, catalogs, and categorizes memory.
This is where things get crazy.
The miraculous thing Squire noted was that, while Eugene couldn’t tell him where the bathroom was (inside Eugene’s own home), Eugene could easily navigate his way to the bathroom, without help or guidance. Curious.
And when Squire began to notice that Eugene, unable to commit simple things to his short-term memory, would somehow manage to always find his way home after long walks in the neighborhood, his curiosity piqued. The things that seemed to challenge Eugene on his walks were the rare times there was debris in the area, or something else changing an otherwise-always-the-same landscape, making it difficult for Eugene to re-orient himself. Duhigg captures this when he says:
“Squire’s studies would show that even someone who can’t remember his own age or almost anything else can develop habits that seem inconceivably complex—until you realize that everyone relies on similar neurological processes every day. His and others’ research would help reveal the subconscious mechanisms that impact the countless choices that seem as if they’re the products of well-reasoned thought, but actually are influenced by urges most of us barely recognize or understand.”
“Later that week, a visitor joined Eugene on his daily stroll. They walked for about fifteen minutes through the perpetual spring of Southern California, the scent of oleanders heavy in the air. Eugene didn’t say much, but he always led the way and seemed to know where he was going. He never asked for directions. As they rounded the corner near his house, the visitor asked Eugene where he lived. “I don’t know, exactly,” he said. Then he walked up his sidewalk, opened his front door, went into the living room, and turned on the television.”
This part gets me, “until you realize that everyone relies on similar neurological processes every day.” This is why habits are habitual things we do without much awareness or thought about it. Changing that is difficult and it takes focused, principled, purposeful effort to be willing to changing these autonomous rituals and routines of ours.
And this, “subconscious mechanisms that impact the countless choices that seem as if they’re the products of well-reasoned thought, but actually are influenced by urges most of us barely recognize or understand.” This subconscious mechanism, which we know now is the basal ganglia, helps explain why Eugene was able to find his way around (most of the time) without being able to remember his daughter’s name or where he lived - his environment produced cues for his habits to trigger. - his deep, inner brain took over, essentially getting him where he intended, even if he didn’t remember his own daughter, or house.
Behavior and the Brain
What is the basal ganglia? It’s a group of subcortical nuclei located deep within our brains that helps us regulate our voluntary movement as well as helping us process the cycle of of reward and motivation.
The basal ganglia is where our default hangs out and it’s especially efficient at encoding things, freeing up precious brain resources, allowing us to do things without much thought. The basal ganglia is stellar at partitioning our brain’s metaphorical hard-drives while also constantly task-managing all the other inputs thrown into our brain’s systems; this, in the end, is a way for our brain to save energy, like a mini survival mode, but not that extreme. The basal ganglia is a complex network that interacts with other areas of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex, the thalamus, and the brainstem, making it a very busy system indeed.
There are a some other theories on how the basal ganglia affects behavior change:
Reward-based learning: The basal ganglia is involved in reward-based learning, the process by which we learn to repeat actions that lead to positive outcomes. The basal ganglia is able to help us encode new habits and break bad ones because the basal ganglia also has a role in releasing neurotransmitter dopamine. Neurotransmitter dopamine has been closely associated with feelings of pleasure and motivation (hence the major impact upon the reward/motivation circuits).
Inhibition of unwanted behaviors: The basal ganglia also plays a role in inhibiting unwanted or inappropriate behaviors by communicating information between the frontal lobes.
So, to break a habit means we need to literally re-code something else, which takes time. It takes self-compassion, patience, perseverance, courage, to keep going. To keep trying to reach for your best you. If it were easy, it’s likely mental health problems wouldn’t exist and I wouldn’t be writing this newsletter.
The basal ganglia isn’t the only thing at play when we’re talking about habits and behavior change. There’s another system, the DMN, that constantly communicates information in the background, kind of like the basal ganglia, but it’s much more passive than that.
What’s the DMN?
The DMN is a clever shortening of what’s called the default mode network. What makes this network of our brain the default? The DMN is typically only active when we aren’t engaged in a specific task that commands attention and focus, like when we meditate or when I stare out my kitchen window for 10 minutes, fighting boredom.
But the DMN is much larger than that and plays a hugely important role in the formation of habits and modifying our behavior. This is because the DMN is active when we are in our default state of mind, akin to me daydreaming about my future as a writer and author to thinking about the past, or placing memories in their likely-proper time and place within a stack of historical events in your life - I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was about 11 years old (not an adult, not a small child - time/place) and my mother and I were gardening.
PTSD and the DMN
In the study entitled “A longitudinal resting-state functional connectivity analysis on trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress symptoms in older individuals” from the journal NeuroImage: Clinical, Volume 35, 2022, by Carla M.Eisingab, et al., the DMN is explored within the context of PTSD; Granted, the study only involved 110 people, however, it was a study researching the impacts of PTSD throughout life and in particular, in older folks; But it’s one thing we’ve got, so here we go.
From the abstract, we gain our answer quickly (thanks, science!) and which I’ve cut to highlight the important bits for our purposes today without losing or discarding the context of the study (reference the study with the link above to read it in full):
“…Trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are factors known to impact healthy aging and have been reported to be associated with functional connectivity differences. In the present study, we examined and compared differences in within- default mode network (DMN)…between trauma-exposed individuals with and without PTSD symptoms as well as non-traumatized individuals…
RESULTS: The reporting of PTSD symptoms relative to no symptoms was associated with lower within-DMN connectivity, while on a trend level trauma-exposed individuals showed higher…connectivity compared to non-trauma exposed individuals. Consistent with existing models of healthy aging…”
This essentially means that we do, in fact, have some control over how much calm we are able to access and how long we allow ourselves the liberation of a clear head. This tells us, that while the study group may have been small, it’s meaningful that PTSD and its symptoms aren’t necessarily to blame in all the messes we’ve found ourselves in. This says that, hey, we might have a responsibility in where we are now - or, maybe, just maybe, we owe ourselves a high five for making it this fucking far in the first place.
If my default thinking is "everyone’s an asshole, the whole world is against me, why am I so unlovable?” guess what happens? I act out of those thoughts. This study is showcasing that for us, that we have control. Not our symptoms. Not our family. Us.
If I shift my default thinking to align more with the person I want to be, or the person I want others to see me as, things go much more smoothly. Instead of assuming the slow poke ahead of me is just daydreaming and being a jerk, I could choose to either A) not think that much about it at all, giving me space to focus my thoughts somewhere else, or B) attempt to assume nothing, attach no judgements, thereby likely lessening my would-have-been suffering from feeling angry that I’m stuck behind this person, or C) assume the best in this person and have a frame of reference reaching more toward everyone is doing their best today, also thereby lessening the mounting anger I’d typically feel in this situation.
But, science has shown us (using fMRI and other visual methods) that the DMN tends to be hyperactive in people with PTSD. If you can call back to when we covered the topic of hypervigilance, this may have a familiar feeling. As a quick refresher - hypervigilance is being in the fight, flight, freeze state most of the time, making it difficult to “wind down” or relax. How does this impact the DMN?
If your engine revs to max RPM, eventually something’s gonna break. There’s not enough rest for the engine. It’s strange, and I’ve yet to understand it, but us humans need our sleep. We have somehow managed to convince ourselves that we can run a stressful life on 5 or 6 hours of sleep, or that our bodies couldn’t possibly need that much rest, or that this work project is way more more important than the years the lack of sleep is stealing from your life. We fight sleep like we fight our own death, and to do what?
What are we doing with our time?
This is why meditation and mindfulness practices have been a proven method of managing PTSD symptoms; Because taking multiple, purposeful, slow deep breaths redirects our oxygen toward our centered Self. Stress is known to constrict the oxygen flow within our brain, which is why chronic stress has been linked to a litany of chronic and killer diseases.
When you have PTSD, or depression, or any other mental health disorder, it can be a tough gig, getting up each day, trying to change your frame of mind, your frame of reference. And it is tough. Because this has been our default mode so long that it’s fucking baked itself into our bones.
This hyperactivity has been linked to the development of negative thought patterns and behaviors. Certain interventions that target the DMN, such as mindfulness and the specific therapeutic modality of CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), may be effective in reducing symptoms of PTSD and promoting habit change. Mindfulness is helpful in reminding us of who it is we truly want to be and CBT allows us to challenge the perspectives, stories, and beliefs we’ve continued to lug around with us.
As someone who has done quite a few different types of therapies over a number of years, CBT was, by far, the most influential and powerful for me when I was struggling with my symptoms chronically. And mindfulness continues to be helpful in guiding me with the invisible hand of my future self.
What Next?
One of the first things we did while I was in intensive PTSD treatment with UCLA’s Operation Mend was think through the routine of my typical day and write it out on a sheet with time blocks.
Then, we went back and wrote out what we wished our days looked like. Once I figured out that I run best on a tight routine (most people suffering from PTSD often have trouble responding to changes in routine and/or structure), it was much easier for me to accept my limitations and even embrace the power of routine.
Then, using my own internal Value System, I was able to orient my behavior from the cornerstone of my values and what I wanted my life and days to look like. Feel like. I got to choose how to spend my precious time instead of being told how I should be spending it, by my mental health, or my emotions, or any other external input other than my true Self.
The time is yours, do what you want with it. Just remember it’s not infinite and at some point, death will come calling you toward a new frontier - but until then, we can live this life in which we currently find ourselves without berating ourselves for failing to follow through on our resolutions because we didn’t give ourselves a real shot at success in the first place.
James Clear did some math for us, challenging our resistance to change:
“The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astounding. Here’s how the math works out: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero.
And the research around behavior change and habit formation (or dropping a habit) also directs us to this very same conclusion.”
Meaning, small, tiny changes over time add up to a larger sum of positive consequences, whereas jumping head first into a well-intentioned goal without a plan tends to lead to a sum of negative gain.
James Clear refers to these itty bitty tiny changes as 1% adjustments, a theory he borrowed from the British cycling coach David Bailsford, who was hired in 2003 with hopes of turning a miserable and failing cycling team into a worldwide force to contend with - and Bailsford made good on his promise. He took the worst cycling team, literally, in the world and, by making incremental, tiny changes to everything from tires to clothing to positions and colors, Bailsford completely re-shaped the cycling team. They went on to win several gold medals and setting or breaking records consistently and haven’t looked back since.
“Bailsford knew that talent on the team wasn’t the issue. Nor was commitment or motivation - but it was a number of small things being tweaked together which allowed Bailsford to bring the cycling team back from the proverbial athlete graveyard.”
How to Make 1% Changes
The list below is by no means exhaustive, but the aim is to give a rough sketch on what stacking some new habits into your routine could look like (And I highly recommend reading Atomic Habits and the Power of Habit - my library happened to have the Kindle versions available to borrow):
Add in that 1 min of meditation while you’re waiting on your coffee to brew or your tea to steep (if you want to work on self-compassion and empathy for others)
Get those extra steps in by taking the stairs or parking further away (if you want to shed a few pounds)
Place your running shoes by the door and have your workout clothes ready to go (if you want to exercise more)
Pre-pack or pre-cook meals that align with your dietary goals, needs, and desires (if you want to eat healthier)
Get into bed with a good book 30 mins before your typical bedtime (if you want to read more)
Check out these resources:
“I’ve found that there are only three things we can do that will create lasting change: Have an epiphany, change our environment, or change our habits in tiny ways.”
BJ Fogg, Tiny Habits
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Find part one of the behavior change series below:
And part two:
Fascinating and important research!