1. Notice the URGE. 2. Get CURIOUS. 3. Feel the JOY of letting go. 4. And, REPEAT. Awesome way of giving away bad habits!😊

I quit smoking 12 years ago. The physical withdraw just lasted the first 48 hours, after that time my body didn't beg me for nicotine anymore. After that all I had to fight was the impulse to light a cigarette. What I learned in the process is that the impulse and crave last no longer than 40 seconds. So next time you want to do what you shouldn't, remember: fight that crave and it will vanish in less than 40 seconds

My summary of the simple way of breaking bad habits: 1. Notice the urge by identifying what our urge is that makes us want to do that bad habit in the first place like eating a chocolate cake, we know that it’s bad for us to eat the cake or give in to doing that specific urge and then feeling guilty after doing it knowing that it’s something we need to quit doing. 2. Get curious as in don’t force yourself to stop, get curiously aware what it’s really like when you do that bad habit it’s actually awful. Seeing what we get from our habits helps us understand them at a deeper level. You don’t have to force ourselves to hold back or restrain ourselves from being interested in doing that bad habit in the first place. This is what mindfulness is all about, seeing really clearly what we get when we get caught up in our behaviors, becoming disenchanted on a visceral level, and from this disenchanted stance naturally letting go. This isn’t to say that this magically goes away, it over time we get to see more and more clearly of the results that we’re letting go of our old habits and forming new ones. When we get curious, we get to step out of our bad habits in fear based habits and step into being. as being curious will feel rewarding after we step out of our old habits. 3. Feel the joy of letting go. As we step out of the process in letting go, by being just curiously aware of what’s happening, we soon feel a joy of ending that bad habit, and by continuing this joy of ending this bad habit, we will forget that we ever had that habit in the first place. 4. Repeat, and it will set us free.

This is how I quit smoking and how I got out of depression. I didn’t know there was a term for it I just started to pay attention to my surroundings and be in the moment. When I did that in a deep depression I all of sudden felt awake and noticed my brain felt foggy and slow. It scared me because I didn’t understand at the time that I was depressed. So I looked up ways to battle it and started to work on it until I was on a exercise and sleep routine, ate right and quit smoking then I felt better. It’s strange how your brain kind of goes into autopilot if you don’t pay attention. And if your brain is on autopilot it’s driven by primal reward systems. Don’t fight yourself on every little thing. Just be in the moment and try to understand your body and what’s happening in that instance. It really does help and I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed this!

My habit is reading comments while watching the video but i dont pay attention to the video and then the video ends and all i read was comments. 😂

You know you are at rock bottom when you start procatinaning by watching videos about procrastination

He's like a nicer, less sarcastic Steve Jobs.

It is crazy that I spent so many years trying to find a way to be confident and consistent..i looked to all these different methods and paid so much to find help.. when literally the one thing I needed was to change the beliefs I had of myself ...by changing the root of the cause..the ability to change all of those things came from my own self. I can't express the relief i found from depression, anger, bad habits and low self esteem. I wish more people would try using mindfulness and affirmations. It is so easy.

So, I googled "how to change habits", saw this video, clicked, turns out I watched it 2 years ago, yet to no avail. What has my life come to..

The key point: When you feel the urge to get distracted, smoke a cigarette, eat cake, Take a moment to analyze that feeling of craving. You feel a little jittery, a little restless - try to understand that feeling. The act of mindfully paying attention to the craving allows you to separate yourself from it and let it go.

When your bad habits bring you to videos about breaking bad habits...

this video quite literally saved my life. I have been through many traumatic moments in my life, and through those moments i developed chronic stress and tension. i found and ended up using this video as a prompt for a rhetorical analysis essay. through that essay i was able to understand how powerful and good it feels to be present in the current moment. truly makes all life’s problems disappear.

The way I understood it is that whenever you find yourself doing something you shouldn't, don't try to force yourself out of doing it (unless it's immoral, dangerous etc.) via discipline, but think about the negative consequences of doing so and try to learn and understand both these consequences and your present state of mind and feelings. By thinking about it you satisfy your curiosity and feel somewhat rewarded and help yourself to conceptualise why you should not do something and thus stop. Right now I should go to bed, but I've not yet, so now I shall think about why I need to go to bed, why I do not want to, and what the consequence will be in the morning if I don't. Hopefully then I shall convince myself to go to sleep.

Notice the urge Get curious, Feel the joy of letting go Repeat

My addiction was/is self harm (I don’t think addictions ever really go away because you always have to deal with the urges, but I’ve been sober for a while). And this literally is it too. It reminds me of “Ride the Wave” (DBT skill), where you acknowledge and remain curious about your urge, but you don’t act on it. So yes, you can do it! I believe in you 🥺🥰

Watching this video to stop watching youtube so much "I used the stones to destroy the stones"

Just got of The procrastination video and im procrastinating and i what to break the habit

My entire life is a bad habit at this point

I quit smoking & gambling 3 yrs ago...Everyday this makes me happy. 😊

"The best way to break a bad habit is to stop doing it" - Issac Newton

this is the only way i learned to quit smoking. i learned about how the addiction worked and this interpretation helped me not feed the addiction further. also i removed all my reasons to smoke because none of them made sense when i examined them closer. every time i failed quitting before, i was falling back on old reasons that no longer made sense at this point. i haven't smoked in over a year now.

"I want you to really focus on how this cake tastes" ... "Tastes f*** amazing" **takes another piece**

It actually works I studied for 4 hours today and i didnt let my urge to check my phone distract me

I have been in and out of mental health treatment for many years. Mindfulness is always given as a tool I should use to ground myself. This is the first time it's been explained in a way that makes sense to me, and feels achievable. Thank you. Just "focus on your breathing" or "think about the sensations in your feet" doesn't make any sense to me!

Seems like a good find, added this to my “watch later” playlist

disenchantment is key to enlightenment. being okay with being alone because it is an opportunity for creativity. keep breathing.

When I quit facebook, I went through withdrawal for a while, but then I experienced a wave of creativity and renewed enthusiasm about what can be accomplished rather than who I should hate and why. Social media definitely knows all about this so called "instinct" of conditioning and reward

Trigger > Behaviour > Reward. It's interesting to apply this to so many things, not just alcohol, smoking, food. Social Media for example.

Feel the urge. Get curious. Let go. Repeat.

Mindfulness is also very good for self-growth and personal life. I wish my school had this as a subject, when I was in school.

This speaker, Justin Brewer, wrote an excellent book on this with greater detail and practical examples. It's called "Unwinding Anxiety". It's the only self help book I've read all the way through on. Great book!

When I was a child an adult told me that curiosity kills people. Thus, it will kill ME. After some time I stopped being curious and for years I tried (as much as I could) to stay neutral and not to care about what’s happening around me. Now I find it difficult to find a new passion and to actually learn very useful things that will help me grow as a human. I’ve lost interest in what used to make me happy and I have no clue about what I want to be in the future, all because I stopped experimenting new things. As an adult, even if you feel stressed or tired or whatever, you must watch your words because everything that you say to a child is very impactful for them and the effects might be really negative. I’ll now try to be curious again and use the mindfulness method to get rid of my bad habits and to get to know my inner self better. Thank you for this video! I really really deeded it.

7 years ago, I quit smoking doing exactly this. I referred to it as "unlearning the lies" I had told myself lies to make smoking cool and hip, but they were just lies. When I remembered how gross and painful smoking really was I easily quit. I never relapsed. I even took a drag at the 6-month mark to check, and yep it was nasty. Never again. Mindful awareness.

KZfaq is the bad habit..

I had smoked for 45 years; it had ceased to have any redeeming qualities decades ago, but I smoked 2-3 packs a day. I learned that I needed emergency open heart surgery unrelated to smoking, but I knew being on extreme pain medication for weeks could get me past the physical addiction. That left me with the psychological addiction partly relieved by whatever medications that were still required from surgery. After a dozen years clean, I still can't believe I did it.

I love this talk, it's really right to my thought. Eventhough I have never practiced breath or mediatate like him, but I understand how hard to get concentration, curious to form our behavior and get rid of bad habit. It's really hard, really.

I clicked on this while procrastinating...

there goes almost 9 minutes of daydreaming , I heard thankyou and I realised he finished

I smoke for the first time when I was 12 but I became a regular smoker when I entered college. It was from my 2nd sem to final year final sem, that I couldn't give up. From 2nd sem to 4th sem (2017-18), I was totally addicted to smoking. Could never give up. But unlike other ppl of my age, I didn't start smoking to look cool but just to avoid the small stresses which I used to come across everyday. This made me unable to face any kind of stress and always rely on it. I became able to avoid these urges which I used to get triggered by my friends who were smokers too. They always used to call me up and say "hey man, let's go for a smoke" and whenever I used to hear the word "smoke ", I failed to control my urge. Later, I realised that I was just one of the guys with whom they just smoke cigarettes. With others, they went for movies, playing any sports or drinking alcohol. I was just the go-to cigarette guy. Realised that. Felt bad. And since that day, I pushed myself to avoid being near or anyone who smokes cigarettes. In the process, I lost a lot of friends, but I got myself. Finally, from February 2020, I was able to control my urges to smoke and now I'm a non-smoker for 7 months. Thanks to the lockdown induced by the Covid pandemic, I was able to do this at last.

Thank you for this. This video has brought a new perspective to me, and I feel like I can finally kick bad habits. Notice the urge, be curious, and feel the joy of letting go.

notes: 0:00 How it works? You see cake, your brain see calorie survival, you eat you taste, you remember this. Trigger, behavior reward. 2:00 Diffrent trigger, maybe despite of hunger, feeling bad? Feel bad? Eat to feel better See cool, smoke cool, feeling better, feeling trigger behavior reward Each time we do this we learn this, and becoma a habit 3:40 Concious. Be aware while you doing this 5:30 See clearly what we get from habit, let go and form new habit 6;40 curiosity, feels good, and what we notice when we are curious? The cravings are made simply by body sensation. And this body sensation bring and go. Just be curious, about this sensation. Be aware of what happening inside your body and head. And enjoy of letting go

I quit smoking years ago by unknowingly practicing what he said. Quitting smoking is actually easy, if you have the right mindset. I had been a smoker for more than 17 years and a very heavy smoker for the last four years when I decided to drop the stupid habit.

Does anyone else make these goals like "im not going to use twitter tommorow i use it to much" then the next day u end up using it and feel guilty

In a nutshell, the speaker talks about how bad habits work. We think this is a good way to know how the brain works to control our bad habit such as smoking and emotional eating. After watching this video we became more aware of how to control our bad habits and how to overcome them. Finally we recommend watching this video even if you don’t have any bad habits but just to learn about yourself ;)))

So basically be aware of what you are doing and notice the negative effects.

Wow, tough crowd haha

I stopped smoking by being 'curious' (mindful). Smoking in a booth at the airport I paid close attention to how the cigarette tasted and felt (disgusting). I looked around the smoke filled room (as these booths often are), looked at the table (covered in ash) and was completely turned off. I threw my cigarettes away right there, got on the plane from Zurich to Lisbon and from there to the Azores and had a 3 week smoke free holiday (and after - by then I had started training again). Add on; when I thought about having a cigarette (craving - it happened, but surprisingly little) I took a deep breath and focused on what I had gained and enjoyed the freedom of breathing better, rather then thinking that I had given something up.

This is exactly how I got off my sugar addiction. Now I don’t have the urge for sweet stuff in the first place. I used to eat something sweet every single day. I just had to have at least some sort of candy bar or a sweet drink. It was miserable I never thought I would be able to break that bad habit because the urge was so strong and trying to fught that urge was so hard and scary it felt overwhelming. But by being really aware and mindful when I’m consuming sugar and seeing the results I became more and more aware about the bad effects. I learned to just ride the urge wave and observing that urge trying to seperate my prefrontal cortex from that “urge”, the whole process of this is very interesting and by just being really curious and trying to understand,analyze my urge the urge goes away eventually. Once you start seeung the urge wave pattern you get to enjoy seeing the urge go away. Now not reacting to that urge itself is really rewarding. I repeated this alot now I never have that craving for sugar in the first place, I can’t believe I used to buy candy bars myself. The whole thing about being mindful and curious seems very ambiguous but you just have to try it for yourself try in baby steps it gets easier

Tell me the truth... We are all here because of procrastination isn't?

I just quit smoking. Probably why KZfaq suggested me this video based on my searches. And I swear to god this is exactly what I did. I didn't know that I was doing this but I delved into the psychology and physiology of quiting cigarettes . Turns out it's actually not that bad. Most of it is in our brain. I can confidently say now that I quit

I’ve just gone 20 years without smoking and I still miss it. I always loved the taste of it so I can’t equate with the description this man offers. I gave up because I promised my children I would, but I had a really tough time of it. I had nightmares so bad that I didn’t want to go to sleep and the craving lasted for absolute ages. I still sometimes dream I’m smoking and then I feel so disappointed in myself! I wish it wasn’t so bad for you, because otherwise I’d take it up again in a heartbeat!

This helped me stop my 8 year long nail biting habbit! 💖💖💖 i feel so much better

this actually worked lol and i didn't even have to physically have the thing there

"close youtube, go back to work"

I hit “Watch Later” on this video like a month ago, now watching it, and realizing I’m even procrastinating watchin vids about procrastination🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

“Notice the urge, get curios, feel the joy of letting go then repeat!” -JUDSON BREWER

It is not difficult to quit drinking. I've done it a thousand times -- W.C. Fields

Schools should teach this in Health class. Actually, they should rip out "Health" class and incorporate a Health and Wellness class that teaches mindfulness. We would teach young people to be better people as well. And hopefully this will permeate throughout the world. Imagine people with better health, less stress, disrupting the chain reaction of causing stress on others, more sustainability, and less money-driven societies and more purpose-driven.

this was a great TED talk and kept right to the point. I have so many little bad habits but they accumulate so that I feel like just about every moment I am doing something I think would be better if I wasn't doing it, from nail biting to picking at my fingers to checking social media to watching way too much youtube, eating stuff that is bad for me, drinking alcohol too often and too much of it (that's a big one but oddly enough I can stop that one for lengths of time much easier than the little stuff) the list goes on and on to where sometimes I sit and just wonder what the heck is wrong with me. even just leaving mean comments to videos I do not like, I keep telling myself not to do it, it doesnt make me feel good then I get a bunch of ugly replys from people and it feels bad some more yet I find myself impulsively doing it . it drives me nuts. I feel like I need to probably think about why I feel a constant need to distract myself and or sooth myself and or stimulate myself.I could be doing so much more progressive things with my life if I was free from impulsive negative behaviors. negative thinking and worrying are also huge things I do that are counterproductive. I basically just make myself miserable constantly then try to make myself feel less miserable and on and on and on.

This should be a part of training everywhere! Awesome!

instead of seeing a text message... compulsively texting back... feeling a little bit better notice the urge... get curious... feel the joy of letting go... repeat I think this is the talk in brief because I felt lost

After wandering around KZfaq for 3 hours, they recommended me this video. Thanks ?

This is the simplest, best explanation of the purpose of meditation I've ever encountered.

Principles of Buddhism (mindfulness) used in a practical way in our daily lives to help people. Easy and efficient. No pills, no wasted money, just a little bit of work you need to put in and it works. Research proves it. Love it.

I can't believe I had to restart the video from the beginning just because I lost focus on about 1-2 minutes in...

The power of now - Eckart tolle I really enjoyed this book. It's a joy

Works for me every time. Haven't smoked since. 1. Notice the Urge 2. Acknowledge/Accept the Urge, don't fight it, don't resist it. 3. Let go the Urge

1. Chú ý đến URGE. 2. Nhận CURIOUS. 3. Cảm thấy NIỀM VUI khi buông bỏ. 4. Và, LẶP LẠI. Một cách tuyệt vời để loại bỏ những thói quen xấu! 😊

8:15 The video is titled "A Simple Way to Break a Bad Habit". It ought to be titled “8 minutes and 15 seconds to get you to buy my app”

Steve Jobs is alive ?

Also taking responsibility for our actions. And saying I worked today I “deserve” this, and then we say it’s ok and then you’re created bad habits. Then children.

Getting rid of habits you don't want and creating habits you do are two sides of the same amazing sword. This is fantastic information! Thank you.

Great, great, great ! Finally a scientifically based method that makes sense. Feeling the pleasure of letting go the instant gratification urge is key in getting rid of compulsory behaviors. Not by avoiding them but by feeling *rewarded* of taking over the control of your thinking process.

I was out of ideas and willpower. I read about delaying a bit when cravings come. I decided to wait 15 minutes when I first woke and really needed it. When I saw that I could, things got less big and scary. I had found a refuge where I could be for a while. That space started getting bigger. I only asked 15 minutes of myself but, I experimented with the time. I was seeing that I could choose. Instead of trying to block cravings out of my mind, I looked at what I was feeling. I wasn't sure what my feelings were so, I started speaking them aloud and whatever came out, came out. (it's probably good to be alone and to not fill the time with diversion. Walk around, do something menial, stare at the wall for a bit but do some listening to your insides). Instead of trying to quit, I tried to breathe freely, which was something else that I read about it. That in itself kind of made me to listen to my insides. I teetered a little but was being good to my inner self. I started having weeks of free breathing. Some of that was probably will power but, by hook or by crook, my space was getting bigger. Pangs of anxiety kept upsetting the apple cart and I'd go back to old ways. If I had to do it again, I would try to watch those feelings for a bit too but, I wasn't hep to it. In the end, I was repulsed by going back. I used e-cigs as needed to relieve cravings. Somehow they didn't perpetuate the cycle. From there it wasn't hard to say good-bye.

Wow, Im meditating for almost 2 years but that brings a whole new meaning to meditating

Now there's an idea worth sharing! Just examine the urge out of curiosity instead of indulging it. This is going to be very helpful.

I'll follow his advice for breaking my procrastination habbit, it is killing me.

Very interesting talk. I quit smoking 28 years ago this Feb. 22nd. I spoke to a man at this church I was going to in the Bay Area who had quit smoking for 20 years. I asked him how he did it. 1) Admit that you have a negative habit 2)replace the bad habit with something positive, because there will be a void where the bad habit used to be. I replaced smoking with going to the gym. I never had withdrawals because for one year I only smoked Ultra light cigarettes and I had reduced my smoking to less than 10 cigarettes a day, usually it was just 2 or 3. I'm very glad I quit because the price of cigarettes is astronomical these days.

Instead of see text message,compulsively text back, feel a little bit better; Try ; notice the urge, get curious, feel the joy of letting go and repeat. Brilliant! 💯 Just Brilliant! 🇨🇦 💛

Brilliant talk. In its essence, changing the mind's behaviour by confronting it without reacting, observing bodily sensations and accepting them for what they are. Even if habits can be 'controlled' through external laws and force, changing them from within where they are rooted in our minds is the challenge. Becoming observant and mindful without any aversion or craving can yield to amazing results. This person has studied meditation, understood and implied it beautifully. All the best.

Weird...I understood this by myself a few months ago and now I'm watching somebody speak about this. Wow! Just so you guys know: it works! You gotta have discipline but it does work

A bad habit is going to Mcdonalds and eating that very expensive and very unhealthy junk food. I quit that behavior several years ago and very good about that decision!

On the other hand, sometimes it also makes sense to understand the cause of bad habits. We are not only conditionable brains but had a childhood too.

Throughout the course of this video I... played a video game, payed some bills, played the guitar, sent text messages, watched TV and took a nap. In fact it took several hours to actually finish the video and consciously understand the message. Definitely gonna look more into this.

Whenever I hear the word "meditation" in the same sentence as something like "and bring it back to the breath" or "try not to think about anything other than the breath" or something along those lines then I know it's not done correctly. You can't really control your thoughts, but you can control the attention you give the thoughts. A wondering thought pattern is inevitable whether your meditating or not. Use those wondering thoughts as your object and observe them. They'll naturally go away once they've been observed and then you'll naturally go back to the breath. Trying not to think of something is a thought within itself.

Absolutely agree with him. Just paying attention to what you are doing makes you stop it.

Totaly agree, this is how I dropped alcohol, sugar (mostly)...and unexpectedly also animal products when I started to focus how these products were actually affecting my body and makes me feel

"Becoming disenchanted on a visceral level, and naturally letting go." -- That is *&^ing genius.

I like the way he chuckles when he says "4th cookie". Like 4 is an unusual number of cookies to eat.

I know all about bad habits because of my history of heavy and long alcohol and drug abuse. There are millions of habits people have, good and bad. When I was using I neglected everything. As insane as it sounds I thought these things were good for me. The problems my addiction caused me and others overwhelmed me and stressed me causing a lot of guilt, shame, and depression. My life was destroyed. I decided to get sober and got into recovery and now all my other habits are good except my smoking and I'm not perfect so I still have some I'm working on. But I've developed habits in every area of my life and it makes a huge difference. You can see in other people the harm done from bad habits and the benefits of good habits. You just have to stay motivated by remembering that and keeping it in mind. Becoming a better person is a good habit too and letting go of bad behaviors.

I’m really happy that I came across this video. I have been struggling to quit smoking for a long time now and this is definitely going to help 😊

7:36 the matrix is breaking

Use mindfulness to overcome bad habits - Seeing really clearly what we get when we get caught up in our behaviours - Overtime as you see more and more clearly the result of your actions, we let go of old habits and form new ones. - Don’t get caught up in it, sucked in it, letting it take you for a ride. By contrast if you become aware of what’s happening that brain region that controls it calms down. - Just be curiously aware of what’s happening to your body and mind in that moment. That’s how you step out of your habit. Resist the urge, get curious and feel the joy of letting go. Repeat Seeing what we get from our habits helps us understand them in a deeper level, to know in our bones. So we don’t have to force ourselves to hold back or restrain ourselves from behaviour. You’re just less interested in doing it in the first place. #notes to revise

It is interesting that Rumi said it about 900 years ago: Stop remorse so you stop sinning. It is the twist paradox. I love it.

I like how he kept calling smoking a habit. He didn't say the word "addiction" until the last few minutes, and he said it exactly one time. Nicotine is more addictive than heroine. I am currently in my first week of quitting after 37 years. My physical withdrawal symptoms are WAYYY worse than I ever would have imagined. I don't know about a sugar addiction, but I do know it affects the brain the same way the other addictive white powders do. People, please beware of listening to other people who would call a serious addiction, a "habit". Sure, if meditation helps, go ahead and meditate, but know that there is way more going on here than just changing up a bad habit.

He looks like Steve Jobs

I quit smoking at the start of this TED talk, but lit up again before the end.

The fact that I am 17 and figured the exact same things he told by myself is jubilant inside.

Mindfulness, overtime we see the truth, on what's actually happening moment to moment. Be curious. 🕊️

" half of us will drift off in a day dream or have the urge to check out twitter accounts " He says asim checking my facebook account lol