Page 31 - MHC Magazine 2018

Milnerton Hebrew Congregation - High Holy Days 5779 31

watch yourself grow into your higher expectations.

2. Break your routine.

When we learn new skills we use our prefrontal cortex, the part of our brain in charge of deliberate,
rational thought. (Think of learning to drive: fi rst-time drivers don’t carry on conversations, for
instance - all their attention is focused on what they’re doing.) Once we master a skill, however,
it gets downgraded to our basal ganglia, a part of our brains that is associated with emotion and
memory. (This is why driving is second nature to us, allowing us to talk or listen to the radio with
one part of our brains while we use another to navigate a car.) Finally, our brains experience a third
emotion: pleasure, when a habitual act is completed.

We tend to perform activities the same way each time when we’re in our usual environment.
Changing our surroundings, however, breaks up the three-part loop that governs habits in our brains.
When our usual cues and
rewards are absent, it’s
easier to change our
behavior.

This year, consider ways
to go someplace new -
literally. Volunteering at a
new place, joining a new
community, reaching out
to new people are all ways
to push ourselves beyond
our comfort zones, escape
our default ways of doing
things, and give ourselves
space to be someone new.

3. Evaluate your
community.

The people we surround
ourselves with are crucial
to our own behavior.

In one recent study
monitoring students who
transferred to a new
university, entrenched
habits like reading the
newspaper, exercising,
and watching television
were all altered;
transfer students quickly
conformed to the habits
of their new community.

The people we surround
ourselves with have
profound effects on the
way we do things and the
decisions we make. Even
our most intimate choices
might be infl uenced
by those in our wider
community. One study
found that being privy to
the details of a friend’s
divorce increased one’s
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