Let’s play a little game. Clear your mind. Go ahead, clear it.

O.K., now, as soon as you finish reading this sentence, try not to picture a white bear.

D’oh!

O.K., let’s try again. On the count of three. One … two …

White bear! Dang it!

If you’re having trouble with this, don’t worry. You’re not alone. The harder people try not to think of something, the more they end up thinking about it. Ironic, no?

It turns out this experience has a name. It’s called the ironic process theory, and it almost guarantees that your efforts to change bad habits by resisting those habits will fail. Research shows that “thought suppression has counterproductive effects on behaviors.” If you’ve ever desperately told yourself not to scratch that mosquito bite or buy another cactus on Amazon, I’m sure this comes as no surprise.

This inconvenient little bit of neuroscience has bothered me ever since I came across a famous Carl Jung quote: “What you resist not only persists but will grow in size.” If resisting a behavior I want to change is not only ineffective but harmful, then what should I do instead?