Online MBCT/MBSR Lesson 7

STOPP and Be Mindful

While it seems like it should be relatively simple to change our behaviour—instead of doing A, just do B—in reality we've all developed certain longstanding behavioural habits over the course of our lives, and habits are hard to break.

In order to break our habitual ways of behaving, we need to:

• Know in advance the behaviour we're trying to change (A)
 
• Know how we would like to behave instead (B), i.e. have a mindful action plan
 
• Be aware of and acknowledge whenever we start to do A out of habit
 
• Pause for a moment before we act
 
• Remind ourselves of our intention to do B instead
 
• Follow through on our intention and choose to do B rather than A
 

STOPP is a mindfulness practice we can use to help stop ourselves from acting on automatic pilot and out of habit, and instead to choose our actions more mindfully.