How to avoid always falling into impulsiveness?

Impulsivity is the predisposition to act quickly and without first thinking about the negative consequences of one's actions. In some contexts it is useful, because sometimes stopping to think about what decision to make is counterproductive; however, there are those who systematically always fall into impulsiveness, which is a problem.

Impulsive people have real problems behaving appropriately to the demands of a given social situation, which decisively affects their mental health. For this reason, psychology professionals have established a series of guidelines that are used in psychotherapy but that, in their simplified version, can be applied by impulsive people who want to improve their maladaptive habits.

• Related article: "Personal Development: 5 reasons for self-reflection"

How to avoid falling into impulsiveness over and over again?

Here are some general tips to avoid falling into impulsive behavior patterns over and over again.

1. Identify the origin

Identifying at all times the origin or trigger of our impulsiveness is essential to learn to control our behavior and to behave correctly in any social context in which we let's find.

This identification of situations, contexts, stimuli or moments in which we are more prone to act compulsively will allow us to know ourselves better and It will help us to solve our impulsiveness in its most initial stage.

This identification can be done in many ways, the most common is to point out all the triggers that cause us impulsiveness on paper, and will allow us to avoid any critical situation or work to overcome said issue.

• You may be interested: "Self-knowledge: definition and 8 tips to improve it"

2. Learn relaxation mechanisms

If you are one of the people who has impulsivity problems, another of the strategies that can serve to improve your problem is training and learning in various techniques of relaxation.

Some of the most common relaxation mechanisms that we can learn are Mindfulness or full attention technique, yoga or progressive muscle relaxation.

• Related article: "6 easy relaxation techniques to combat stress"

3. Take deep breaths

Learning to take deep, conscious breaths at specific times is one of the best ways to relax and take control of the situation at almost any time.

The deep breathing typical of Mindfulness helps us reduce our heart rate and stay calm enough to react adaptively to any situation.

4. Create action guidelines

Establish clear and structured behavior guidelines in advance to carry out in stressful situations that can precipitate us towards impulsivity is a very good way to train ourselves at a behavioral level to overcome impulsivity in the long term.

These guidelines are a set of actions that we must memorize and put into practice in case of going through an episode of impulsiveness; so we will know at all times what to do if this happens and over time we internalize each of these actions until they become a natural response.

5. Practice healthy lifestyle habits

Healthy lifestyle habits put into practice daily will help us have a more relaxed life and controlled, with which we can more safely avoid any type of impulsiveness on a daily basis. day. This is because the better we are physically, the less vulnerable we are to stress and anxiety.

These life habits are very diverse and include sleeping an adequate number of hours to rest properly, getting up and going to bed at the same time every day, eating a balanced diet and being physically active frequently.

• You may be interested: "10 psychologically healthy daily habits, and how to apply them to your life"

6. Avoid unnecessary stressful situations

Once we know what situations make us lose control and what are the main triggers of our impulsiveness, we must daily avoid all those situations that make us feel stress.

This can also be achieved by maintaining an organized daily or weekly task schedule that allows us to successfully complete all our obligations slowly but surely, and without giving in to very short-term goals that would overshadow medium- and long-term goals.

7. keep an emotional diary

As indicated, daily note the situations or triggers that push us to be impulsive behavior can be a good way to get to know ourselves and begin to overcome our issue.

This strategy is known asemotional diary” and consists of detail in writing the negative and positive feelings that we can feel during emotionally intense periods, to recognize them and learn to understand and/or overcome them.

Are you looking for professional psychological support?

If you want to have psychological assistance services, contact me.

My name is Thomas Saint Cecilia and attend in person and online.