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Question: James (1899) suggests that our thoughts are also another example of habits that we routinely have. Many children/adolescents have thought for so long so many negative thoughts about school, so how do we as educators change those thoughts that have become so routine for those students, especially when the students do not have a desire to change?
Passage: James (1899) stated that, “But our thinking and feeling processes are also largely subject to the law of habit, and one result of this is a phenomenon which you all know under the name of the association of ideas” (pg. 40).

When James (1899) speaks about habits that a person aspires to gain, it reminds me of my journey to being a runner that began three years ago. At first, I was so hesitant to run since I had such a negative view of running from my high school basketball days. It was an association with punishment, and something that I never could imagine enjoying. I however knew that in order to lose weight and to feel better about myself, I needed to start running. The first two days I ran, I hated it. The next few days I did not run, since I continued to have such a hate for this activity. I realized these negative thoughts were preventing me from enjoying this activity. I actually physically enjoyed the feeling of running, but I still had these negative attitudes toward it. Like many life changes I had made, I needed to change the way that I viewed running. To try and do this, I would self-monitor how I felt after my runs, in addition to self monitoring my mileage. In addition to this, I also did a lot of self talk during my runs. I told myself things like, “Fatigue is mental” and that my body could go beyond what I thought it could. After the first week, I still did not enjoy running. By reading over my self-monitored notes, I observed that I actually felt really good after running. Although I still hated the feelings of nervousness before the run, the feelings of accomplishment and relief I felt afterward were actually quite amazing. After about 3 weeks of running, I broke the habit of the negative thoughts I had toward running. Although it was a struggle at first, I am so glad that I did. By thinking about the way that I feel after running, I have completely changed my view of running. It is now something that I have not gone more than 4 days without doing in the past three years.

James (1899) speaks about how thoughts become a habit, which emphasized to me the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy is founded by the belief that we can ultimately change our behaviors, by first changing our cognitions (Shinn, Walker, & Stoner, 2002). The weight-loss camp I worked at incorporated this therapy technique as their intervention. So many of the children/adolescents I worked with had such a skewed idea of unhealthy food and that it made them happy. They had so many false beliefs that became a habit to them. The goal of our camp was to change these thoughts that become a habit, by replacing them with different ones. Like any habit, it is tough to break, but if you stick with it your thoughts are able to change.
The reason that I asked the question above was because in my personal case and the case about cognitive behavioral therapy, those people wanted to change. How do you change the habit of thoughts, when there is a resistance to do so?
References
James, W. (1899). Talks to teachers on psychology: And to Students on some of life’s
ideals. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc.
Shinn, M. A., Walker, H. A., Stoner, G. (2002). Interventions for academic and
behavior problems II: Preventive and remedial approaches. Bethesda, MA:
National Association of School Psychologists.