4. The science behind breaking and making habits. | Dr Philippa Lally

(Former Healthy Habits Podcast)

In this episode of joyful. I talk with Dr Philippa Lally - a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Surrey in England and Co-Director of the Habit Application and Theory Research Group. Her research focuses on investigating habitual behaviours and, together with Dr Benjamin Gardner, she works on introducing habit-based approaches to promote healthy habits in general public.

In today's episode we discuss what are habits, how can they help us in becoming healthier in our daily lives and what are some common myths and misconceptions about them. With the rise of popularity of the Atomic Habits book and Wellbeing blogs and podcasts, more and more people become interested in the notion of good and bad habits. Today, Dr Lally is there to offer a scientific perspective on what we actually know about how good and bad habits may contribute or restrain us from living a healthy life and she offers some tips on how to make a good habit stick.
Take your notebook to write all that down and join us in joyful. 

🪄 The magical power of habit - Can Habits have the power to make us live healthier lives?
📖 What current research tells us about habit formation?
🫐 The role of the environment & healthy choices

#HitTheBooks
Wood, W. (2021). Good habits, bad habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick, Macmillan.
Dr Philippa Lally's research

Chapters:
00:00:00 Intro & Guest presentation
00:02:33 Are habits automatic or intentional? Definition of Habit
00:08:42 Simple and Complex Habits, Habit Instigation and Execution
00:12:30 Habit formation
00:22:03 Bad Habits and Addictions
00:25:26 Habits on a neuronal level & How habits contribute to our well being.
00:33:31 Atomic Habits & Other books
00:35:16 Legal Rules and Environment in Good Habit Formaiton
00:39:08 How to break a bad habit?
00:44:01 Habits for Patients Living With and Beyond Cancer
00:48:41 The rise of Popularity of Habit Formation for Well-being and CBT Therapy
00:54:36 Dr Lally's New Year's Resolutions
00:56:35 Challenge #6