Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCPPresident at Five Journeys, Functional Medicine & Wellness Provider, Best Selling Author, Passionate Champion for Health

How to Get Back to a Habit Faster When Life Happens

12 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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1:26

In this brief dialogue, the speakers discuss why habits—rooted in emotional neural pathways—can be disrupted by stressful life events such as loss or job changes, causing people to revert to default behaviors. They use a ski‑slope metaphor to illustrate that old habit pathways remain beneath the surface, ready to be re‑engaged. The conversation emphasizes reframing setbacks as planned learning moments, recalling strategies that previously succeeded, and recognizing that acquiring a new habit is a different skill set from maintaining one. The overall message is that habit disruption isn’t a failure but an opportunity to apply proven tactics and strengthen maintenance skills.

Chapters

So habits are amazing and we all need them. And then something happens. We get stressed out. We lose the loved one, whatever it is, lose our jobs. For most of us, we then revert back to our default. Is there anything we can do to either get back faster or not have to go back to the default?
There are going to be some of those that we do have a default. It is well worn. And usually the more emotionally we're tied to a habit, the more likely something could throw us off and revert back because those neural pathways, they're still there. We, we can cover over them and they can get outgrown. You have to think of like a ski slope, you know, it will get filled in, but they are still there. So the first way to not get too down about having to start over is looking at— you're not starting over— and looking how that first time that you get knocked off of a habit that you were able to make and attain, that first time you get knocked off, oh, this is— it really is part of the plan. You know, it really is looking at it as not a setback, but a chance to learn something to keep going. And what worked the first time is likely to work again. So we can pull out the strategies that worked. We could start looking at those and recognize that to attain a new habit, is a different skill than to maintain it.