“Habits live in a context.”

Part of an occasional series about phrases that this therapist finds himself repeating, often.

Photo by Daniel Hjalmarsson on Unsplash

As a clinician in private practice, one of the phrases that I hear myself repeating often is “Habits live in a context.” These habits could be a behavior that you observe in your child, but could just as easily be your own! Either way, the habit is “living and breathing” with you. Yes, this phrase is intended to conjure up the idea that like any living thing, habits have soil in which they grow and an environment which supports them.

Habits are like a plant in a way.

So if we use this analogy, of habits as plants, as “living in a context”, then we can step back and not focus so much on the habit itself, but look at the environment of all the supporting structures around a particular habit.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

Some questions might help:

• Where am I when the habit takes place?
• What time of day/night seems to be the prime time when the habit makes an appearance?
• What else is necessary for the habit to live?