By K J Foxhall 
This topic was inspired by a conversation with my daughter, who faces challenges around eating due to sensory processing issues, especially with smells and tastes. To help herself, she began watching the YouTube channel ‘Beard Meets Food,’ which features food challenges. This seems to have helped her re-frame her relationship with food. Although I dislike the term ‘disorder,’ she does have sensitivities, particularly involving her sense of smell, which can trigger strong reactions, even to the point of vomiting if a smell or taste is overwhelming.
Recently, she also told me she fell asleep in class after a story was read, reasoning that bedtime stories at home are meant to make you sleepy, so of course her brain responded that way at school. I thought this was a clever explanation and it led me to reflect on how habits form in both children and adults. As parents, we often build routines around relaxing activities like bedtime stories, which create associations and habits in our children.
Humans are naturally drawn to patterns, cycles, and habits, this is a cornerstone of behavioural psychology. Neuroplasticity, or the brain’s ability to reorganise and rewire itself, underlies our capacity to form new habits and learn new skills. Whether it’s playing an instrument or recovering from an injury, our brains adapt through both functional and structural changes. For my daughter, this means adapting to sensory experiences. For others, it could mean recovering abilities after a stroke or brain injury.
I’ve personally tested my brain’s capacity by taking on multiple diplomas in a year, balancing work, parenting, and other responsibilities. While I enjoy challenging myself, I recognise the need for balance.
Neuroplasticity isn’t about brain surgery it’s about creating new neural pathways, allowing us to learn and adapt. I plan to explore this topic in more depth in a future episode, looking at improvements in cognition, learning, and recovery.
Turning back to habits, the concept of the ‘habit loop’ is central, it involves a cue (trigger), a routine (behaviour), and a reward. For example, seeing your running shoes by the door (cue) prompts you to go for a run (routine), resulting in an energised feeling (reward). Understanding this loop is crucial for both forming and breaking habits.
Repetition strengthens the connection between cue and routine, making behaviours more automatic. However, not all repetition is positive; as a former competitive swimmer, I know that habits can be hard to break once established. Identifying and altering cues and rewards is key to changing unwanted habits.
Behavioural psychology also explores conditioning, both classical (associating a neutral stimulus with a response) and operant (reinforcing or punishing behaviours). Famous experiments like Pavlov’s dogs and Skinner’s rats illustrate how reinforcement shapes habits. Positive reinforcement adds a desirable outcome, while negative reinforcement removes an unpleasant one, both strengthening behaviours.
In summary, humans quickly develop habits, sometimes desired, sometimes not. Whether it’s exercise, eating, or routines like morning swimming, the cue-routine-reward cycle underpins our actions, recognising and understanding these patterns can help us build better habits or break unwanted ones.
Image by Derek Robinson from Pixabay