Welcome back to another episode on the Contemplative Tribal Podcast. Few episodes back, I did a rough amateur take on the topic of habits and the impact that habits have on our lives—most of which were derived from popular level of pop psychology and self-help books. In this episode, I chat with someone who actually knows the topic professionally. David Blah is the Assistant Professor of Counselling Psychology at the Martin Luther Christian University in Shillong, Northeast India.

Put on your seatbelt, because today's talk covers a lot of grounds. We ended up splitting our talk into three episodes because there was just too much to talk about! This first one helps us to understand what habits really are, how they are different from other behaviours, and how a peak into our brains—also known as neuroscience—might help us in planning and incorporating healthy rhythms in our lives.

Did you know that 40-45% of your life are habitual (this one blew my mind)? Have you ever wondered why you are a better person when you are healthy and well, but you seem to struggle more when you are stressed or are tired after a long day? Can we change habits? If you have a bad habit, are you stuck to it? Is there scientific evidence that we can change?

Get your thinking caps on, because we will be exploring some of these topics in the next few minutes.