Habit Replacement Motivation in Health, Wellness and Longevity Coaching

To replace a habit for optimal wellness requires finding a way to retain the old habit cue that triggers the habit.  For your client, you will be changing their health habit by adding a new healthy routine to an old cue that leads to a healthier lifstyle routine.

A wellness, health and longevity focused habit is made up of the following 3 components:

• A cue or a trigger for an unconscious behaviour to start.
• The wellness routine or behaviour that is triggered by the cue.
• Some body / mind reward that helps the brain remember the pattern and create the "brain groove."

What would be cues? A cue is something that triggers an action.  The cue can be a specific time, a place, a person, an emotion or an activity. Here are a few examples of cues that triggers a habit:

• Phone ringing
• Coffee brewing
• Time of alarm - alarm noise

For each health related habit there must be a reward to the habit that has the same effect as the original reward.  For example,  if you replace an afternoon cup of coffee with a tea, the smell of a hot decaffeinated tea must be able to replace the caffeine coffee cue as the afternoon habit trigger.  

The cue, smelling a delicious hot tea, is similar to smelling a cup of coffee but the tea would not have caffeine.  The process of making the tea must incorporate smell. 

If your client find their body needs caffeine to stay awake during the afternoon,  more routines must be changed or replaced to resolve the afternoon sleepiness lull.

Changing a wellness routine for a client, such as changing an afternoon caffeine boost, requires communication between the coach and the client.  If the client is not able to go through the afternoon without having the caffeine boost, the client needs to communicate with the coach to let them know.

Each health coach has their coaching style based on their wellness training background and their wellness coaching focus. Helping clients achieve an optimal healthy lifestyle is the work focus and priority of health, wellness and longevity coaches.

Create a healthy habit by replacing an old habit using the same cue.

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