Habituation is a psychological phenomenon whereby our response is decreased to any stimulus after having been exposed to it repeatedly. As a practical example, I don’t even hear that construction going on next door to me in NYC, whereas you might find the sound overwhelming. 😉  Basically, habituation as a learned behavior that results in our ability to tune out inessential stimuli to focus instead on all that really requires our attention.

Habituation results from exposure to everyday stuff that almost becomes blasé, so we stop noticing it. We become habituated because we’ve been exposed to something frequently and over a long period of time. Likewise, it’s usually not something that we found intense—like deafening construction or a car alarm, which we’d never really be able to ignore. 

Habituation deserves examination because it’s more likely associated with “what we get used to” in life versus what we might really want. Sometimes we habituate—but our low-level satisfaction or acceptance with the situation changes over time. This might be at the root of boredom in relationships or life. 

If there’s something in your life you are resisting, perhaps it might be worth thinking about how habituation may be having an impact. For example, if you’re feeling bored with your significant other, perhaps it’s time to notice that they’re not the same as background noise. Bored with life? Maybe it’s time to shift your attention to what’s happening now and what could be happening if you made some different choices. 

While we might think life is always the same old stuff, it’s not and doesn’t have to be. Likewise, if we’re habitually lingering over some social blunder we made who-knows-when, maybe it’s time to realize that it’s only ourselves stuck in that habituation, and most likely others have moved on. 

By examining habituation, we might be reassessing what we’re taking for granted. 

I’m @DianGriesel a perception analyst & strategist; attitude disrupter & adjuster; author of many books and the creative blogger known as @SilverDisobedience  More info on my websites. Silver Disobedience® is a Registered Trademark.