This, in effect, is a hopeless cause, other than having it extinguish itself through neglect over time, as such things require energy to be maintained. When that is not applied, there will be a degradation and this will result in the fade, so the habit is less and less triggered and eventually will be eliminated through a reworking of the energies locally within the makeup of the cellular consciousness repository itself. It is much like the physical aspect, that disuse and indolence will result in a weakening and the waning of strength that eventually can cause a breakdown. And this is why a regular activity is essential for keeping oneself in trim to have a vibrant and resilient body. The same is true of workings of the mind. The long-term memory is reliable, but even that has its limits as there must be some purpose for the stored material to be retained. The way things are organized into categories creates a kind of hierarchy that will determine for how long memories will be vibrant and detailed over time. If not accessed, there will begin to be loss of fidelity and vividness and therefore, reliability, and effectiveness of the stored information will degrade.
This simply reflects the impermanence of the physical human. You are not designed to last forever in physical form. So what you have to work with relies on local conditions to a large degree, but to go in and selectively expunge a memory is not possible, other than through some kind of manipulation or dodge, to retrain the cellular consciousness to prefer something else, such as using aversion therapy or desensitization strategies to create a kind of disincentive. But those are crude techniques and have built-in disadvantages, as well as varying effectiveness. This is why the tried-and-true method remains using conscious will to resist the impulse to act on a habitual impulse, and eventually, the mind will get the message that the habit is no longer needed and eventually, it will fade.
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