How a Habit is Formed

At its core, habit formation is rooted in a simple reward-based learning loop that reinforces the habit - a cycle that connects what you experience, what you do, and what you get from it.

Example: You feel stressed (stimulus) → You eat junk food (behavior) → You experience temporary relief (reward)

The "habit loop" is driven by regions of the brain that help us adapt quickly and form habits with minimal effort. These brain regions are great at picking up patterns, co…

Victoria Fontana

Certified MBSR Instructor & MBCT instructor
Certified Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT) instructor
Adjunct professor with the IE University Center for Health, Wellbeing & Happiness

What course do you teach at Mindfulness and Health Institute?

• A Mindful Approach to Depression and Anxiety (MBCT)

What drew you to mindfulness?

I, like many, was searching for something to make my life better. I knew that I was suffering a lot and always felt like that was a huge mystery to solve, …

Mary Beth Stern

Certified MBSR Instructor
Certified addictions counselor & mindfulness-based relapse prevention training
Qualified behavior change community facilitator

What course do you teach at Mindfulness and Health Institute?

• Science and Practice of Habit Change

What drew you to mindfulness?

I think of my adult life in chapters:

1. I worked in finance on a trading desk with the noise, the chaos and the stress and all the substances that made that life bearable… and at times even fun.

2. The market crashed…

Makeda McKenzie

Qualified MBSR Instructor
Founder and principal consultant of the Caribbean Mindfulness Institute
Teacher-Trainer for Mindfulness for Life, Mindfulness Teaching in the Workplace, and Introducing Mindfulness

What courses do you teach at Mindfulness and Health Institute?

• Mindfulness for Life

• Train to Teach “Introducing Mindfulness”

• For Trained MBSR & MBCT Teachers: Train to Teach “Mindfulness for Life”

• Multi-course Mindfulness Teacher Training: A One Year Intensive

What drew you to mindfuln…

Over the past nine weeks, our Mindful Monday email series has offered a space to slow down and explore the foundational attitudes of mindfulness, one gentle reminder at a time. Each week, we turned our attention to a particular quality that supports mindfulness practice, not as a skill to master but as a way of relating more kindly and curiously to our experience. Whether you read them first thing in the morning or returned to them later in the week, these reflections were meant to offer a stead…