There are times when I'm in front of the sink. I start thinking, "Gosh, what am I doing here?" and then I look in the mirror and there is a toothbrush in my hand. But I had already brushed my teeth. Oh no!
Do you have similar memories? For example, have you ever taken a sip of the same coffee one morning and thought that even that moment was almost the same as yesterday?
If you haven't, it's okay, I have!
I am very obsessed with cycles, automatic behaviors and this makes me someone who can notice my automatic behaviors that I am not aware of and even the repetitive cycles of the people around me.
While I don't deeply question other people's behavior for ethical reasons, when it comes to myself, things are different!
Because I have this thought:
These invisible loops seem to be our character from the outside, but how can they be our character if they are invisible? Should we surrender our will to things we have no control over, and be judged on that? That's not me.
So I decided to follow myself (not new, I've been following myself for a while) and it turned out that most of my behaviors were decided by some unknown force, and it was up to me to implement them.
I said, let me take control of this as much as I can, let me change all my automated behaviors that I don't understand, that I don't like, that I don't want to be seen as my character, that don't give me peace.
This journey is not an endless journey, but I realized that I am enjoying it, I am making positive progress, so I thought, why not share this with my readers? I did very well!
Because I realized that some cycles take root not only in our behavior, but also in our thoughts and emotions.
After realizing this, I inevitably began to ask the question:
Whether we shape our habits or our habits shape us.
This thought led me to the very heart of philosophy. Aristotle says that character is actually the sum of our repeated actions. Nietzsche, too, said that man lives his destiny in an ever-repeating cycle. Modern psychology says that these cycles leave physical traces in our brains.
In other words, it's not just about behavior, there is an invisible pattern that determines who we are.
Sometimes we repeat things out of comfort, sometimes out of fear, sometimes just out of "habit".
And these repetitions, unwittingly, give us an identity.
Now let's take a look at how that identity is woven.
In this article, we will talk about how habits shape not only our behavior, but also our thoughts and emotions, and how we can break these cycles with mindfulness.
Philosophical and Scientific Background
Philosophical Perspective
Aristotle and the Nature of Habit
According to Aristotle, character is not something innate; it is shaped over time by repeated behavior.
Ethika Nikomakheia, when he says "virtue is born of habit", he is actually saying in today's language: "Whatever you do continuously, you eventually become." (1*)
For him, hexis was not just repeating an action, but repeating and internalizing the action with consciousness.
Just as a musician's fingers become a reflex, virtue becomes a reflex in the mind.
That is, character is not the result of random choices, but of repeated choices.
This view captures in a much deeper sense what we often trivialize in the modern age with the word "habit".
Because for Aristotle, habit is not just "doing" but "being."
Action, after a certain point, becomes identity; the right action gives rise to the right way of being.
When I think about this, I always think of the following question:
If our habits shape our character, how accurately do the habits we unknowingly acquire reflect who we are?
Drinking coffee the same way in the morning may seem trivial, but it may be feeding our mind's desire to continue being "the same person" every morning.
Stoicians take a similar view:
The serenity of the soul is not the result of random behavior, but of consistent habits.
Marcus Aurelius' statement "The repetition of thoughts shapes your character" is actually a continuation of Aristotle's idea of hexis.
And interestingly enough, this ancient idea finds an almost exact counterpart in neuroscience today.
In other words, Aristotle was unwittingly philosophizing "neural pathways".
Nietzsche - Ebedi Dönüş: The Cosmic Echo of Habit
I know we have talked a lot about Nietzsche's idea of the "eternal return", but at first glance it seems to be just a cosmic repetition:
The universe experiences the same events over and over again in an endless cycle.
But for Nietzsche this is not just a metaphysical theory; it is also a radical test of man's confrontation with his own habits.
He says (2*):
Live your life in such a way that you will want to live the same life again forever.
When we translate this thought into our own inner world, the philosophical weight of our habits comes home to us.
Because if every moment is to be repeated infinitely, then every behavior that we do automatically in the present moment is not just a momentary reflex, but an infinite perpetuation of existence itself intertwined with these behaviors.
In other words, our habits are micro-scale reflections of the eternal return.
The fact that we behave in the same way every morning is an expression not just of a practical order, but of a cycle of existence.
This is what makes Nietzsche's idea dark or frightening.
If repetition is inevitable, our only sphere of freedom is to be conscious of this repetition.
It is not the habit itself that transforms the human being, but the moment of its realization.
For at that moment the cycle ceases to be a necessity; it becomes choice.
Seeing it this way, our habits are no longer just behaviors, but small but profound rituals by which we rewrite our own existence every day.
And if we can honestly ask the question, as Nietzsche said, "are you willing to live the same life forever?", maybe for the first time we can step out of that automatic chain.
Spinoza - Conatus: The Invisible Form of the Striving for Survival
Spinoza argues that every being tends towards the maintenance of its own existence. He calls this conatus. (3*)
This is not just an instinct, but existence itself. The tendency of a stone to fall, of a plant to turn towards the light, of a human being to wake up every morning...
All are different manifestations of the same principle: the effort to maintain existence.
Habits are the most invisible form of this effort.
The body and mind repeat in order to maintain existence.
Every automatic behavior is actually a practical reflection of this drive to "maintain".
But we don't really think about it while we are living.
So unconscious habits make us stagnant. But the beauty is that habits transformed by consciousness make us grow and develop.
Spinoza sees human freedom in not being a slave to the passions. As soon as we understand why we do an action, we no longer submit to it, we choose its direction.
This is why habit is a matter of ethics:
Every repetition either strengthens us or weakens us.
Even getting up early in the morning is an ethical decision, because we choose which aspect of our being to support by that action.
Some habits weaken conatus. For example, repetitive escape behaviors with anxiety.
Some strengthen it. Repeated actions with awareness, for example, replenish life energy.
In other words, a habit is not just a pattern of behavior; it is an ethical touchstone in the way being sustains itself.
With each repetition we actually make a choice:
Either we move ourselves into a more conscious existence, or we unknowingly deplete our own energy.
Scientific Perspective
The Brain's Habit Loop
It is astonishing to see how systematic our unconscious behavior actually is.
Research by neuroscientist Ann Graybiel of MIT shows that habits are not random. They are built step by step by a region deep in the brain called the basal ganglia. (4*)
When observing a mouse complete the same path through a maze faster and faster each day, Graybiel and his team realized:
At first, the brain is constantly active. It was analyzing, deciding, choosing a direction.
But after a while, the brain went on "autopilot".
That is, the mind stopped thinking, and the action became self-sustaining.
This process is explained by three phases, now known as the "habit loop":
Cue (Trigger)
The brain receives a signal. It could be a place, a time, a time, an emotion, or even a smell.
Routine (Behavior)
An automatic behavior begins in response to that signal.
Reward (Reward)
The behavior results in some kind of relief, pleasure, or sense of completion.
As this cycle is completed, the brain's dopamine system kicks in and makes the behavior permanent. (5*)
In essence, every habit is like the conatus of our nervous system. It's the smartest way to save energy for survival.
But here's where the problem starts:
The brain doesn't distinguish between good and bad habits.
It only records "what is repeated".
That's why we keep reaching for our phone at the same time, drinking the same coffee, going round and round in the same thought patterns.
Because for the brain, repetition is safety.
But as Spinoza said, each repetition either strengthens or weakens us.
According to this neuroscientific framework, what we need to do to transform a habit is not to break the cycle, but to change its direction.
The trigger may remain the same, but if our response changes, the cycle takes a new form.
As Charles Duhigg points out in The Power of Habit, the secret to transformation is to rewrite the "routine". (6*)
So, for example, instead of trying to suppress the urge to smoke, understand the reward underlying that urge and choose a new behavior that will provide the same reward, such as a short walk, breathing exercise, or simply waiting with mindfulness.
This is where the invisible power of habits lies:
They don't rule us, we can shape them.
As long as we recognize the cycle. Because what is recognized is no longer automatic.
Brain Plasticity - Neural Traces of Repetition
Every time we repeat a behavior, an invisible trace is formed in our brain.
A small electrical current flows between neurons and this connection gets a little stronger each time.
Let's think of our brain as a white sheet of paper. Each repetition puts a scratch on that paper at the same spot each time. The more we repeat, the more those lines become dominant and visible, even indelible.
Neuroscience calls this neuroplasticity: the brain's capacity to reshape itself through experience. (7*)
This mechanism is the basis of learning and habits.
Donald Hebb's 1949 principle that "neurons that fire together, connect together" summarizes this clearly. (8*)
As we repeat a behavior, the neural pathways governing that behavior thicken. Just as a pathway becomes clearer with frequent use.
A action that we initially do with conscious effort (e.g. getting up early in the morning, eating a healthy diet, or hitting the right note on a musical instrument) becomes automatic after a while.
Because the brain wants to save energy.
If we do a task repeatedly, there is no need to relearn it.
But this convenience is also a trap; the brain tends to retain what it is "used to", so negative habits are reinforced.
Graybiel's work at MIT has shown that when a habit pattern is formed, the brain works with "start" and "finish" signals, especially in the basal ganglia. (9*)
The silence between these signals means that the behavior becomes automatic.
That is, we don't think in the moment, we just do.
In this sense, brain plasticity is like a two-edged sword:
Repeat can make us freer if we want to be, or more enslaved if we don't.
Because the mechanics of our brain are neutral. It does not choose between good or bad.
It only reinforces what is repeated.
This is why mindfulness is not just a spiritual practice; it is a neurobiological tool.
Every moment we notice is a small intervention in the brain's "automatic recall" circuit.
When attention is directed, neural connections are rewritten. New pathways are opened, old ones are weakened.
In other words, literally: Consciousness reshapes the brain.
And that is why becoming aware of habits is not just a change in behavior, but a change in brain architecture.
With each repetition, we lay a brick; which wall we build is entirely in our hands.
Dopamine Loop - The Sweet Deception of Expectation
When a habit persists, we often think "I do it because I like it".
But at the level of the brain things work a little differently.
What keeps the habit going is expectation, not pleasure. (10*)
Neuroscience research has shown that dopamine is not a "reward hormone" but an "anticipation hormone".
That is, dopamine rises when we expect a reward, not when we receive it.(11*)
This is why our hand reaches for the phone when we receive a text message notification;
when we smell coffee, we feel a sense of peace without even drinking it; or a tiny spark of satisfaction lights up inside us before we even see the result of a behavior.
Charles Duhigg summarizes this process:
Habit is nourished "not by the reward itself, but by the thrill of anticipation." (12*)
The brain encodes this anticipatory signal as a learning mechanism. "Repeat this behavior, because something good will happen soon."
But this mechanism is both fascinating and misleading.
Because when the reward itself arrives, dopamine drops precipitously.
So pleasure is a brief glimmer in the shadow of anticipation.
This is where addiction is born:
The brain is not addicted to the reward, but to the expectation.
From a philosophical point of view, this picture corresponds exactly to the inner nature of the human being.
The soul, just like the brain, seeks security. It clings to the familiar, the repetitive, what it knows.
The cycle that Nietzsche called "the eternal return" is perhaps the existential echo of this need for trust:
The soul seeks refuge in the warmth of familiarity rather than change.
But this is where freedom begins.
Because awareness opens a parenthesis to the dopamine cycle.
The moment we recognize expectation, the automatic chain is broken.
No longer do we just repeat the behavior; we see why we do it.
The brain can continue to respond to the smell of coffee in the same way;
but the mind can make a choice in that moment.
This difference is the threshold of the transition from neurobiology to ethics, and it is precisely here that the power to transform oneself is born.
Real Problem and Solution Suggestions
Problem
Living Automatically
We all have troubles in our lives, can be troublesome. The hustle and bustle of life on the one hand, professional life on the other, human relationships, the traumas of the past, the anxieties of the future on the other, we start to put most things, life in a sense, on automatic to avoid these realizations.
This may seem normal to us, because there is evil all around us, but we are trying to stay good, and evil can sometimes affect our lives, so we feel victimized.
We make this feeling of victimization a habit, we try to escape from the harsh realities of life, but another harsh reality smacks us in the face!
We also have to put it on autopilot, after all, the brain needs it to use energy efficiently.
We think it relaxes when we put it on autopilot, but what we miss without realizing it is life itself.
Our freedom is restricted, instead of being the self we want to be, we become automated selves that work out of our control.
We imprison ourselves in dungeons when we could be building paradises for ourselves.
Whether we realize it or not, we say similar sentences every day, exhibit similar behaviors and create universes for ourselves that seem compatible with this order. We say we'll start tomorrow, we say we've always been like this, but when we don't realize it, it costs us dearly.
For example, we can create emotional addictions. We may experience constant anxiety or guilt, our life goes by because we are not aware of it, we put that burden in the middle of our life, we try to live like that.
When we think about it like this...
Do we really decide, or do our habits rule us?
Solution Suggestions
Seeing and Transforming the Cycle
Science is knowing knowledge, Yunus Emre said that knowledge is knowing oneself, and knowing oneself is the first step in seeing and transforming this cycle.
The best method for this is that we normally observe whatever is happening.
For example, a person may behave badly, or there may be a situation that we don't want to happen, we may be thirsty or hungry, or there may be something we like very positively.
We usually observe this situation and react to it. These reactions are similar to the reactions we have when we are embarrassed, happy, sad or angry.
What we need to do is to look not only at the events but also at our reactions to the events from an outside perspective. Every habit is actually a form of reaction. If we recognize the reaction, we can transform it. If we are satisfied with that reaction and the results it brings, we continue, if not, we don't.
This makes us more responsible and peaceful individuals.
If we think of habits as chains, what we are doing is breaking the chain. After all, what have we got to lose but our chains?
Reframing the Habit
Bastırmak Değil, Transforming
Many people, when they want to change a bad habit, start by saying "I will not do this anymore".
But the brain does not understand such commands.
Because neurobiologically the brain does not erase a habit, it simply overwrites it with a new one. (13*)
Therefore it is not possible to "eradicate" a behavior. It is only possible to "transform" it.
Ann Graybiel's experiments at MIT have shown that once a habit has been learned, the neural pathways associated with that behavior are never completely erased, they just "go to sleep". (14*)
In other words, the brain keeps the old habit in the archive; it can revive it when the right trigger comes along.
This is why someone who quits smoking may pick up a cigarette years later in a moment of stress.
But here's the promising part:
The brain can rewrite the same cycle with a different ending.
In the words of Charles Duhigg, the solution is not to change the trigger, but to change the response. (15*)
Take a deep breath instead of a cigarette in times of stress, or take a short walk instead of eating junk food in times of anxiety.
The trigger remains the same, but the outcome changes. Thus the cycle takes on a new form.
The important thing in this process is not "willpower" but conscious reframing.
Because willpower is fleeting, but meaning is permanent.
To transform a habit is not to suppress the behavior, but to give it a new meaning.
On a philosophical level, this is an intervention into one's own nature.
As in Spinoza's concept of conatus, the impulse of life's self-perpetuation sometimes pushes us towards automaticity. But consciousness is the power to direct this automaticity.
In other words, one can and should be an architect, not a slave to one's habits.
We can think of it as a kind of mental reprogramming:
Every trigger we notice is like an "if condition", and every reaction we have to it is like "what happens" as a result of that condition.
And we can change that code with awareness.
Let's say our trigger is feeling stressed. If we smoke every time we feel stressed, when we change this habit to relaxing by taking deep breaths, after a few repetitions it will gradually become a habit and the previous habit will be overwritten. In this way we can reorganize our habit cycle from an old and bad habit of smoking to a new and healthy habit of breathing exercise.
The reason why we smoke when we are stressed may be because we are taking a deep breath, the reason why I think this is so is that when we take a deep breath the vagus nerve is activated and helps us to calm down. But every once in a while we take poison as if it is very necessary. However, when we replace it with breathing, we get the same feeling.
It seems so simple, but this rewriting activates the brain's plasticity.
New synaptic pathways are established, old pathways are weakened and after a while the brain starts to consider the new behavior as "natural".
So the transformation is not a "battle of wills", it is a work of neural architecture. And every small moment of awareness is like a line in the software of the brain.
Daily Practice - "Awareness Diary"
The theory is good, But if mindfulness remains only in thought, old habits take the wheel again.
That's why at the end of this article I invite us all to a small but powerful exercise:
Three-Day Mindfulness Journal.
What we need to do is very simple, but the effect will be astonishing.
For three days, let's observe and note the behaviors we do automatically.
And let's do this when we are feeling unpleasant, stressed, depressed or hungry, deprived of something.
Did we unconsciously put our hand in our pocket, open social media, brew the same coffee, or light a cigarette?
Or did we involuntarily become defensive when someone said something to us?
Write it all down.
Then let's ask ourselves the question:
"Am I really choosing this?"
Let's add this question and each answer we give next to each note.
We don't have to find the answer, we just have to notice it.
Because what is noticed is no longer automatic.
Once the light of consciousness falls, that behavior can no longer be hidden.
The brain goes out of "automatic mode" at that moment; the prefrontal cortex kicks in. (16*)
In other words, we are no longer slaves to that behavior, but witnesses to it.
This practice is not just journaling, it is actually a form of "self-witnessing."
In a sense, we are monitoring our mental updates.
Small realizations are the quiet beginnings of big transformations.
We can read our notes at the end of the third day and simply ask the question:
"Are these behaviors serving us, or are we serving them?"
Perhaps if we do this, a link in the chain will unravel.
Beginning with a small observation, awareness changes the neurological course of habit.
Because when one begins to bear witness to oneself, one rewrites oneself.
Conclusion and Message to the Reader
Maybe we don't revolve around each other like the planets, but this circularity that we see at every point in the universe has infected us. Whether we want to or not, whether we realize it or not, these habits will always be there, there is no escape from it.
But it is a fact that there are habits that make us feel good, that contribute to us, that make us healthy and happy, as well as habits that affect us badly, that make us unhappy, that annoy us, that spoil our health.
My personal opinion is that every person who manages his/her habits the most and the right way is a candidate to be the most physically healthy, the most mentally balanced and peaceful, and the most successful person in human relations as well as in his/her work.
It is a fact that our habits make us who we are. We become what we do over and over again. But we can make them clean by separating them into the dirty and the clean, by keeping the clean and transforming the dirty.
Our habits make us who we are, but we can also remake them.
"And perhaps freedom is not in doing new things, but in doing old things with a new consciousness."
In the next post, we will go beyond habits of mind and talk about our "thought patterns", the origins of our inner dialog.
Till then, stay loving and mindful.
Source
(1*) Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics (Ethika Nikomakheia), Book II, 1103a17-b25. - "Virtue is formed in man by doing the acts which we wish to form in him."
(2*) Nietzsche, Friedrich. Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra), chapter "Von der Erlösung" - the basis for the idea of eternal return.
(3*) Spinoza, Baruch. Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata (Ethics), Part III, Propositions 6-7 - Conatus concept: "Each thing, as far as it can by its own power, strives to persevere in its being."
(4*) Graybiel, Ann M. (1998). "The Basal Ganglia and Chunking of Action Repertoires." Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 70(1-2), 119-136.
(5*) Schultz, Wolfram, Dayan, Peter & Montague, Read (1997). "A Neural Substrate of Prediction and Reward." Science, 275(5306), 1593-1599.
(6*) Duhigg, Charles. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. New York: Random House, 2012.
(7*) Pascual-Leone, Alvaro et al. (2005). "The Plastic Human Brain Cortex." Annual Review of Neuroscience, 28, 377-401.
(8*) Hebb, Donald O. (1949). The Organization of Behavior: A Neuropsychological Theory. New York: Wiley.
(9*) Graybiel, Ann M. (2008). "Habits, Rituals, and the Evaluative Brain." Annual Review of Neuroscience, 31, 359-387.
(10*) Berridge, Kent C. (2007). "The Debate over Dopamine's Role in Reward: The Case for Incentive Salience." Psychopharmacology, 191(3), 391-431.
(11*) Schultz, Wolfram. (2015). "Neuronal Reward and Decision Signals: From Theories to Data." Physiological Reviews, 95(3), 853-951.
(12*) Duhigg, Charles. The Power of Habit, Chapter 2 - "Craving Brains: How to Create New Habits."
(13*) Wood, Wendy & Neal, David T. (2007). "A New Look at Habits and the Habit-Goal Interface." Psychological Review, 114(4), 843-863.
(14*) Graybiel, Ann M. (2000). "The Basal Ganglia." Current Biology, 10(14), R509-R511.
(15*) Duhigg, Charles. The Power of Habit, Chapter 3 - "The Golden Rule of Habit Change."
(16*) Miller, Earl K. & Cohen, Jonathan D. (2001). "An Integrative Theory of Prefrontal Cortex Function." Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24, 167-202.
