Viral New Year’s Reset Routine Is Helping People Adopt Healthier Habits

What if your New Year’s resolution could fit inside a handbag? Social media users are trying out the “analog stock market” trend, replacing phones with offline activities.

The trend is widely attributed to TikTok creator Sierra Campbell, who posted about her own analog tote (which contained a crossword puzzle book, portable watercolor set, Polaroid camera, planner, and knitting supplies) and encouraged her followers to make their own.

Her video prompted many others to share their own versions, with items such as magazines, decks of cards, paintings, embroidery and puzzle books.

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“I made a bag of non-digital activities to occupy my hands instead of the phone,” Campbell said, adding that the practice has significantly reduced her screen time and filled her life with “creative and community activities that don’t include doom-scrolling.”

“I created the analog bag after learning that the only way to change a habit is to replace it with another,” she told News Digital.

The science of healthier habits

Research on habit formation supports the analog stock idea, according to Dr. Daniel Amen, a California-based psychiatrist and founder of Amen Clinics.

“Your brain is a creature of habit,” Amen said during an interview with News Digital. “Neurons that fire together wire together, meaning that every time you repeat a behavior, whether good or bad, you strengthen the neural pathways that make it easier to do it again.”

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Studies show that habits are automatic responses to specific cues (such as boredom, stress or free time) that usually generate some type of reward, according to the doctor. When no alternative behavior is available, people tend to fall back on the same routine, often without realizing it.

Research suggests that replacing an old habit with a new one linked to the same cue is more effective than trying to suppress the behavior entirely.

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“[When] eliminating coffee: you need to have another drink to drink, not just quit cold turkey. “That’s how the pathways in our brain work,” Campbell said.

By replacing it with a different routine that still provides stimulation and engagement, people can gradually weaken the original habit and develop a new automatic response.

“Just stopping a behavior is very challenging,” Amen said. “Replacing a habit with something that’s better for the brain is much easier. That’s how lasting change happens, step by step.”

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If alternatives are close at hand, people will be more likely to use them, the doctor said. “Your brain does much better with small, simple actions than with big, vague intentions.”

Instead of saying, “I’ll stop scrolling today,” your doctor recommends choosing a small habit that you can do in a few moments in specific situations, like knitting 10 rows of a scarf on your commute or reading a few pages of a book while waiting at the doctor’s office.

Campbell shared her own examples of how to use an analog bag. At a coffee shop with friends, he said, he might pull out a crossword puzzle and ask others to help him with the answers when the conversation calms down.

Instead of taking dozens of photos with your phone, you use an instant camera, which limits shots and encourages more intentional moments.

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In casual outdoor settings, like a park or winery, bring a small set of watercolors for a quick creative outlet.

“It’s brought a lot of joy,” Campbell said of the analog handbag trend, “to see how it resonates with so many people.”