Note: this is part one of an at-least-two-part series on habit formation or change and our criteria for success (e.g. “it’s as regular or effortless as brushing our teeth”).
Dear FIFI readers, I have the great pleasure to announce that February is here. This means, among other things, that January challenges are over.
However, like others who started down the New Year’s challenge path, I’ve still got a long way to go if I want to change some of the 167-odd habits I targeted in this year’s challenges. Laying down tracks of behavior change takes time and persistence, and we have to integrate them so they fit comfortably and work feasibly within our lives.
We hear this all the time from health and fitness and nutrition coaches, writers and practitioners: in order to make a habit stick, you need to treat it like brushing your teeth. You’re not going to forget to brush your teeth, are you?
According to this Harvard health information site, toothbrushing:
may be the most ingrained of all health habits. We take a toothbrush with us when we travel. Most people can’t imagine getting through a day without brushing at least once and probably twice.
There are, of course, plenty of stats available on the prevalence of toothbrushing. According to this Canadian study,
when asked about the personal care of their teeth, 78.3% of Canadians aged 12 and older reported brushing their teeth at least two times per day, while less than half (43.0%) reported flossing their teeth at least once per day.
For US usage, see this handy graph:
This is pretty good compliance on the dental health front (flossing is less ingrained, but hey, one habit at a time…) How is this possible? I mean, brushing teeth is super-fun, especially with friends and family, right?
Yeah, well, maybe not (these happy pictured folks notwithstanding). So, how to account for the high percentage of toothbrushing? I wonder if anyone has thought about studying this…
Turns out (unsurprisingly), yes– people have done loads of studies on the ways toothbrushing is habitual. This 2021 study, a series of 29 semi-structured interviews done in northwest England, shows the many ways people have integrated toothbrushing as part of morning and evening ritualized behaviors. I found it fascinating. Here are some themes that emerged:
Participants referred to toothbrushing as a habit, with:
- absence of deliberation,
- absence of awareness,
- absence of mental effort,
- absence of conscious control.
The participants said they didn’t think or decide, they just did it, without noticing much about what they were doing. This was true both in the morning and the evening, although evening rituals varied more than morning ones. The researchers found that some participants considered evening toothbrushing right after work to be a part of both physical and psychological “cleansing”, particularly after a hard day of labor.
I really like this notion of psychological cleansing as an after-work ritual. I don’t have a job involving physical labor (and I’m very grateful); but I often feel burdened and weighed down by the cares of the work day and wish for some good ways to discharge them. Even though brushing teeth isn’t as simple as it may sound, I wish that devising and settling on and maintaining an after-work-cleansing ritual were as easy as grabbing a toothbrush and toothpaste.
For years, I would cycle or walk or go to yoga class after work, and felt that refreshing, cleansing (if sweaty) feeling. Over time, however, that habit dissipated. My recent attempts at reinstituting it have had spotty success at best.
One habit I’ve managed to develop and settle and maintain over the past 3.5 years has been almost-daily meditation. My Ten Percent Happier app keeps track of all sessions and all days, down to the number of minutes I’ve been mindful. I’ve found it pretty easy to sit 25–35 days in a row, but then something invariably comes up and I miss one day. I go “Grrr!” or “sigh” and then restart.
Recently, though, I decided I was going to meditate every day. Like. every. day. As of today, I’m up to 93 days in a row. And I’m wondering, how am I doing this? Meditation isn’t like brushing your teeth. Yes, morning is a reminder to me to take some time to sit, but morning is a reminder for many many things I don’t automatically do. What’s different in this case? And what can I leverage from this pattern I’ve developed, so to apply it to other desired habits? These, dear readers, are the questions I’ll be thinking and writing more about.
Are there any ritualized habits that you have that are “like brushing your teeth”? I’d love love love to hear from you. And you’ll be hearing more from me on Sunday.