Dog training

Following on from my blog on dog walking yesterday, I’ve been thinking about dog training and in particular Pavlov’s dog experiments. Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who studied conditioning and involuntary reflex actions. He is most famous for his study of dogs in which he discovered could get dog’s to salivate on the sound of a bell by associating that sound with eating food. He’d ring the bell everytime they were given food creating a conditioned reflex in the dogs which meant they would start salivating whenever he rang the bell even in the total absence of any food.

I’m not for one second suggesting that any of you are dogs! But Pavlov’s research applies to humans also and the same tricks can be used to get yourself into some healthy habits that you’ll do without even thinking.

The trick is to associate something that you do every day automatically, with a healthy habit that you want to form. If you make yourself do the healthy habit everytime you do your everyday task it won’t be more than a couple of weeks before you start doing the two together automatically without even thinking about it or having to motivate yourself.

Here are some easy suggestions to start with but I’m sure you can come up with some better ones yourself – just think about the healthy habits you want to become automatic and then think which regular tasks you can associate them with.

NITC’s Pavlov training:

Drink a glass of water before you eat your dinner

Always have a green salad with your dinner

Take a multivitamin with your breakfast juice every morning

Eat a raw carrot whilst you cook your dinner

Take an essential fat supplement with your dinner

Have a stretch or hold a yoga posture for ten breaths before you get into bed

Every time you unlock or logon to your pc at work take three deep full breaths to reduce stress and improve your oxygen levels and energy

When you’re moisturizing after you’ve taken a shower use your fists to massage the back and sides of your neck to clear your lymph glands