Hi Else, great question! thanks so much for posting. I am going to do a separate post about it, as it's so relevant, especially when it comes to emotional eating for example. The short answer: old neural pathways never fully disappear, they just become 'dormant'. When you build new habits, you're creating new pathways, but the old ones are still there, just less active (like an overgrown forest path). Under stress, cognitive overload, or when you are in familiar emotional or environmental triggers, your brain can default back to the older, more automatic patterns because they require less effort to activate. I have personally noticed that getting back on track happens much faster now, compared to before and the explanation for that is that you have those more desirable habit pathways established and ready to reactivate. Your new 'desirable' behaviors are still your default, but the old ones just get louder under certain conditions. It's impossible to erase the old pathways but if you keep your new ones 'well maintained', so to speak, they should usually remain your automatic choice, more often than not, so worth staying consistent.
Very recognizable. How come the brain does want to go back to old “bad” habits even after years of new “good” behaviour?
Hi Else, great question! thanks so much for posting. I am going to do a separate post about it, as it's so relevant, especially when it comes to emotional eating for example. The short answer: old neural pathways never fully disappear, they just become 'dormant'. When you build new habits, you're creating new pathways, but the old ones are still there, just less active (like an overgrown forest path). Under stress, cognitive overload, or when you are in familiar emotional or environmental triggers, your brain can default back to the older, more automatic patterns because they require less effort to activate. I have personally noticed that getting back on track happens much faster now, compared to before and the explanation for that is that you have those more desirable habit pathways established and ready to reactivate. Your new 'desirable' behaviors are still your default, but the old ones just get louder under certain conditions. It's impossible to erase the old pathways but if you keep your new ones 'well maintained', so to speak, they should usually remain your automatic choice, more often than not, so worth staying consistent.