Default behaviours, or habits, are the ones you get back to in moments of stress, exhaustion, anger or any kind of situation where, for some reason, you don’t think about your actions as deeply as you usually do.
Default behaviours can sabotage any kind of results, whether we talk about diet, fitness, business or even personal development.
Examples of default behaviours
Running technique – even if you know the correct running technique, when your body gets tired you go back to your old technique, or habits, running habit in this case.
Weight loss – upon your return from work, you are very hungry, tired and had a difficult day, and you’ve used your will power throughout the day, instead of having a fresh vegetable salad, it’s easier and more satisfying to have chocolate cake, crisps or a doughnut.
Fitness – when “life gets in the way”, or you are very busy you might say “I don’t have time”, but actually you are going back to your default behaviour(s).
And so you make some progress, then you go back to the start line. Then you make some progress again, only to go back. And so on so forth. Default behaviours can sabotage your results.
How to override default behaviours
What you speak
Every time you speak you unconsciously give a command to your brain. And you brain listens and learns but it doesn’t like interdictions.
Instead of saying “I am not allowed to have….ice cream” or “I shouldn’t have….”, say “I can have it but i choose not to have it now”.
Practice
The more and the longer you practice a behaviour it becomes more permanent. Every time you repeat it, it’s like hammering a nail in a board, it goes deeper in your system every time, until it’s firmly rooted.
Forget the 21 days, 44 days 66 days which, according to some research, makes habits stick. None of these numbers, not even doing the same habit for 365 days, will guarantee it will still be there 24 months later.
Practice (count the days if you want to) every day, or every week, depending on how you have set up your schedule.
Acknowledge it
Awareness of your default behaviours is half the battle won. Identify your default behaviours and then start working around them.
If you struggle
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She specialises in working with runners, beginners and advanced, who want to run faster, further, with less effort and fewer injuries. This is done through natural movement fitness and running technique and mechanics drawn from the many disciplines Alexandra has studies throughout the years, including long distance running.
Since 1995 she has explored how the body and mind works. She has done this through using many different sporting techniques and working with a wide variety of highly respected coaches. Throughout her Martial Arts career she has achieved 5th Dan Black Belt in Karate Shotokan, runs her own Karate club and is IJKA 2017 triple World Champion, 2016 WMO Martial Arts British National and European Champion. She still competes at an international level.
It is through these learnings, and drawing inspiration from respected natural movement names such as MovNat, IdoPortal and POSE Method of running among many others, that she has created The Merisoiu Technique and has established her own unique transformational programs that incorporate thousands of years of knowledge with Natural Human Movement.
Alexandra’s mission is to challenge the status quo of how to achieve the truly strong, fit and powerful body a runner needs to perform at their best level. This is done through building strong, lasting foundations in the natural outdoor environment; reducing the risk of injuries and educating people on the power of the fundamentals of natural human movement and running mechanics.