Biohacking to the masses: how to get rid of bad habits with the help of science

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Biohacker Serge Fage - on how to take control of your life.

Sometimes we want something with incredible power - literally lust. These addictions are the result of programmed behavior. And the program always works according to the same algorithm.

I don’t want it to be that way. So I spent a lot of time observing and studying these programs and found ways to rewrite them.

I was able to overcome my addiction to social networks and poker, I stopped arguing with people on the Internet. A little more, and I will give up sweets, watching TV shows and video games.

Why "hack" yourself

There is a lot of talk about how social networks like Facebook or Instagram are “hacking” us, changing our behavior. This usually causes outrage or even denial, despite overwhelming evidence.

A more constructive approach is to accept reality as it is. And accept yourself as you are: a biorobot living according to customized programs.

Learn how these programs work and find ways to reprogram yourself. That is, engage in biohacking: "hack" yourself for the benefit of your own goals, as Instagram does it while you like someone's photos.

What do I mean by addiction

Things that I really want, although I know that they have a bad effect on me. Sometimes they become paramount, and it can be very difficult to refuse.

What I Desire

Now I want to eat sweets, watch TV shows and play video games. These desires only appear in the evenings, when specific triggers are triggered and willpower weakens.

Why do I want to get rid of it

Sugar is almost as harmful as cigarettes. TV shows and video games take up an hour or two of my time, which I would like to spend on more useful things: chatting with friends, meditation, reading, sleeping, listening to podcasts, going to the spa. If I can replace one with the other once and for all, it will be a great victory for me.

I love the prospect of personal growth. I want to reprogram myself and facilitate the process of internal change. Obviously, working on your habits is like working out in the gym: it's like the muscle you want to build. And every time I manage to cope with one addiction, it becomes much easier for me to work on myself further. This is very cool.

What Happens When The Addiction Program Is Running

It always works for me according to one algorithm:

1. The trigger starts the program

I'm having dinner, going to bed, or just coming home in the evening. I didn’t name the more obvious reasons, such as the unpalatable food, because situational triggers are much more difficult to eliminate.

2. Fantasy is born

I imagine going and ordering dessert or downloading the game. This seems to be the hallmark of any desire. When I meditate for a long time, I think about how I will get up and feel pain in my legs. After discussing my thoughts with the therapist, I realized that this is common.

The motor centers of the brain are turned on, and the body receives a signal to act out the situation at the physical level. I make excuses. For example:

• The restaurant has a Michelin star and I need to eat dessert from there.
• I trained for two hours, and Dr. Peter Attiya says that after that, sweet foods are less harmful, so I must eat them now.
• My genius co-founder plays video games. Fucking Elon Musk plays video games! I want to be like him, so I'll go and turn on the console.

It's funny how my mind tries to pass it off as rationalism.

3. I get discouraged when I realize that I will not get what I want

The very thought that after training I won't watch my favorite animated series upsets me. Only 20 minutes per episode! Although, of course, this is never limited to such a short time.

If I run the program today, it will repeat itself tomorrow. As a result, I get many days of relapses or try to resist again.

If I let my addictions take over for several days, they got stronger and won. Unless something more serious happened that made me give it up.

When I managed to resist, the craving for addictions weakened. But exactly until some external factor forced me to give up and return to them. As a result, weeks of relapse were followed by weeks of struggle.

What makes you rush from side to side

Things that pull me to the "dark side":

• Anything that weakens willpower. This is stress, jet lag, colds and the like.
• Powerful situational signals. For example, if I'm in a cool restaurant, it would be a crime not to taste the dessert. It is worth breaking at least once, as a relapse happens.

And here's what helps to get back on the path of struggle and resistance:

• Powerful situational signals. I went to visit my grandmother who has Alzheimer's disease. My doctor said that sugar is probably one of the causes of this disease. Or I read a study on the loss of willpower. It says that if you eat sweets today, you will continue to do so in the future. And this will affect the resilience of character and in other areas of your life, which I consider absolutely unacceptable.
• Meditation. Watching addictions for five minutes makes them disappear. Even if they are incredibly strong at this moment.

How to reprogram yourself and break your addictions

My most successful experience has been giving up Facebook. I was very dependent on the social network, but I removed it from my life: I edited the host files on my computer, changed passwords and passed them on to my friends, deleted the application, and so on. The first weeks it almost hurt me. I opened my browser and got annoyed because I couldn't get what I wanted. And I just didn't know what to do with the free time that I had.

But for a year now, I have not been on Facebook, and I do not want this anymore. In addition, I used the same techniques to stop arguing with people on the Internet and in the comments to my articles. And it just keeps getting easier and simpler. The same goes for the addiction to online poker that I had.

To get rid of addictions, observe yourself and pay attention to patterns in your behavior. They may be different from mine, but they are.

You are a biorobot. An evolutionary product that can be programmed. Accept reality and yourself. You have to hack yourself to get what you want.

Here's what works for my templates:

1. Remove all triggers that you can

My phone's home screen looks like this:

There are no triggers that contribute to relapse. These are instant messengers, Instagram and so on. But there is something that encourages useful things: books or podcasts. It is a pity that you cannot put such a filter on the outside world in order to stop craving sweets.

2. Learn to feel the moment at which there is a craving for something

This is a simple program that can be watched. Meditate for five minutes and the desire will disappear.

3. Set up barriers

Remove time-consuming apps, ask the hotel staff not to serve you dessert, let them ban you from the online casino.

4. Remember past situational signals so that they do not interfere in the future

Someone will say: "Yes, you just have to be more careful if you have a cold or just got into a different time zone, so as not to get frustrated!" Stupidity. You become a completely different person in a stressful situation. If you normally try to think about what to do at a critical moment, you will fail.

Do not deny the algorithms by which the brain runs programs while fantasizing about how to become an independent and strong-willed person.

5. Identify Signals That Lead to Resistance

And surround yourself with them. For example, this crazy idea: hang a poster with cancer cells on the wall and an article about the Warburg effect (which is about sugar feeding cancer cells). The main goal is to bring the triggers you need into your daily life.

6. Remember situations that lead to relapse

And prevent them. As I said, a Michelin-starred restaurant is my trigger. In front of all your friends, tell the waiter that you don't need to bring bread and ask them to replace dessert with nuts or something healthy. If you eat something from the forbidden list, everyone will know that you are weak and a hypocrite. This is usually motivating.

Find what works in the context of your life. Observe and repeat!