Behavior patterns
Behavior patterns are repetitive ways of reacting, choosing, and acting in specific situations.
Definition
Behavior patterns are created by learning, reinforcement, environment, relationships, emotions, and history of experience. They can be helpful when they automate good actions, or harmful when they perpetuate avoidance, conflict, overload, or self-sabotage. Changing a pattern requires recognizing the stimulus, response, and consequence.
Key ideas
- Repeatability
- Stimulus and response
- Consequences
Practice and life
For a week, observe one pattern: when it starts, what you do, and what happens after it. Don't change it right away, see the mechanism first.
Common misconceptions
It is a mistake to say "this is how I am" about every role model. It is also a mistake to try to change without recognizing the triggering situation.
> A pattern is a path that life has walked so many times that it has come to look like nature.
> — Guru Element
Questions for self-reflection
- In what situations do I repeat the same pattern?
- What strengthens it?
- What alternative response is the least likely and feasible?