What makes us change? Why is it so difficult to change our minds about things? And what is it that makes us take action and change our behavior? Medical News Today tries to answer these questions while sharing three podcasts that inspired concrete changes in their lives.
It’s not often that something we read, listen to, or see has a real lasting impact on our behavior. In fact, sparking such a fundamental change in habits—owing to the nature of the way the human brain operates—is a lot more complex than thought.
According to behavioral change models, getting a human to purposefully change their habits or behavior requires the following driving forces:
- whether we think the behavior will be enjoyable and beneficial,
- whether we have social support,
- and whether or not we believe we can do it.
So, not only do we need the inspiration to change our minds or behavior, but we also need the motivation and renewed commitment to turn it into action and stick with it.
On that note, this month, Dr. Hilary Guite, Medical News Today’s Features Editor Maria Cohut, and Global News Editor Yasemin Nicola Sakay sat down to discuss the impact previous In Conversation podcast episodes had on them— specifically, the ones that got them to change their behavior, leading them to adopt new habits in their daily lives.
If you’d like to hear snippets from our daily lives and listen to our discussion on how these episodes helped spark changes in our lives and how we embraced change, listen to our podcast on your preferred streaming platform down below:
Dr. Guite chose January 2022’s blood donation special episode, for which we collaborated with the American Red Cross to encourage more people to donate blood and plasma products amid a winter marred by a blood shortage crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. For Dr. Guite, the episode and the frank discussions we had helped her get over that initial fear of donating blood and prompted her to become a donor again after a 20–30-year break.
She…
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