3 Common Bad Habits (And How to Fix Them)
Putting yourself down because you've fallen victim to bad habits isn't a good thing to do. Everyone in their life falls prey to such habits. Nevertheless, the person who is able to accept their mistake(s) and break free from bad habits emerges as the true winner in life.
When you take a look at your lifestyle, you discover how easy it is to fall victim to a number of bad habits. The tricky part is breaking those bad habits and breaking yourself free again.
Playing with your hair or biting your nails might sound unobjectionable at first; however, these habits become tough to break in the long run. Moreover, some bad habits are detrimental to your health, such as drinking and smoking.
These two habits can lead to lung disease and even cancer. The best resort in such situations is to break these bad habits by practicing a good routine in life. In this blog, we explore the three most common bad habits and their fixes.
The Premise: What Are Bad Habits?
A bad habit is a repetitive and frequent behavior pattern that can have a negative effect on your life. Bad habits tend to be performed repeatedly and are differentiated from a mental illness or addiction by their relationship to willpower.
The general rule of thumb is that if you're able to use your willpower to break a bad habit, it is just that. However, if you cannot use your willpower to overcome a bad habit, you're likely experiencing some kind of addiction or undergoing a particular degree of mental illness.
While there are several activities that are typically agreed upon as bad habits, such as excessive drinking, smoking, and procrastinating, what you consider a bad habit might be deemed a completely reasonable activity by someone else, and the other way round.
For instance, you might consider "watching too much TV" to be a bad habit that you would want to break; however, for someone who’s just getting started in a TV writing course, watching a lot of it comes with the territory. In the same way, you might wish to "spend less time on your phone," but for someone who operates their business on their smartphone; whether they are sending text messages and emails all day or updating their social media brand accounts, this is the opposite of what they wish to be doing.
3 Common Bad Habits and their Fixes
We all have one (or perhaps more) bad habit that's hard to eliminate from our life. In certain cases, we might not even know how bad it is until it starts negatively impacting us. However, acknowledging a bad habit is the first step in breaking it. The top 3 common bad habits people have include:
● Smoking
● Not getting sufficient exercise.
● Not getting adequate sleep.
Continue reading to find out more about these habits and how you can fix them.
1. Smoking
This might be the most common bad habit amongst people. Smoking, even one cigarette a day, can be harmful to health. Apart from the damage caused to the lungs, it can cause strokes, heart attacks, and several forms of cancer.
On average, people who smoke live ten years less than people who don’t smoke. Smoking tobacco is the largest avoidable cause of death. Moreover, smoking causes premature aging of the skin and increases the risk of infertility and impotence.
Many people feel that it takes many years to get the benefits of quitting smoking. The truth is that the health benefits of quitting smoking start within 20 minutes after your last cigarette.
How to Break the Habit of Smoking
Even though there are multiple ways to stop smoking, you should first decide if you're going to quit cold turkey or gradually. Research that compared quitting cold turkey with reducing smoking found that neither produced better quit rates than the other, so pick the technique that suits you best.
You can also consider getting nicotine replacement therapy. Keep in mind that nicotine withdrawal might give you headaches, impact your mood, or sap your energy when you stop smoking. The craving for just one more drag will be tough to overcome. In such cases, nicotine replacement therapy can help you curb these urges.
Another way to break the habit of smoking is to seek behavioral support. The physical and emotional dependence you have on smoking makes it challenging to stay away from nicotine after you quit. Therefore, you can try counseling services, support services, and self-help materials to help you get through this time. As your physical symptoms start to improve, so will your emotional ones.
2. Not Exercising Enough
These days, a lot of us are stuck to our desks all day long. However, you cannot get away with not exercising too long before you face the consequences.
Studies have revealed that lack of exercise can lead to numerous health issues. For instance, not getting sufficient physical activity can lead to heart disease – even for people who don't have any other risk factors. It can even increase the likelihood of developing other heart disease risk factors, including high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.
How to Incorporate Exercise into Your Day
The American Health Association suggests half an hour of moderate physical movement to keep your cardiovascular health in good shape. If you're too busy to hit the gym, you can exercise for short periods. For instance, you can exercise 15 minutes after waking up, 15 minutes after lunch, and 15 minutes after you’re done with work. This way, you can get the same health benefits as a long 45-minute workout.
You've also probably heard this before but taking the stairs is an excellent way to incorporate movement into your day and increase your heart rate. Plus, if you continue to take the stairs instead of the elevator, you will be able to see the results of your body becoming active when you get to the highest level without going out of breath.
Thanks to technology, you can now easily keep track of your steps. In fact, even if you don't own a fitness tracker, you can use your phone to track the number of steps you're taking. Watching the number of steps you take increase as you move through the day is fun, and it's always a lovely feeling to see that you've achieved your goal.
You can even add movement to housework. Focus on your posture and the various muscle groups you are using while performing chores like washing the dishes or vacuuming. For additional exercise, play some music while doing housework – dancing is going to add some kind of activity to your day and some fun to your otherwise boring chores.
3. Not Getting Enough Sleep
Don't feed into the belief that sleeping for less than six hours is a recipe for success and productivity. The truth is chronic sleep deprivation can result in severe health conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, heart attack, and even stroke. Other possible problems include depression, a reduced sex drive, obesity, and compromised immune system function.
Chronic sleep deprivation can also impact your appearance. Ultimately, it can lead to dark circles and premature wrinkling under your eyes. There's also a link between lack of sleep and an increase in the level of the stress hormone cortisol in your body. Cortisol is the ability to break down collagen, the protein that keeps your skin smooth. In simple words, lack of sleep leads to deeper wrinkles.
How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Make sure to set aside seven to eight hours of sleep. The ideal amount of sleep for an adult is at least seven hours. Most people don't require more than eight hours of sleep to feel well-rested. The best thing you can do to get a good night's sleep is to wake up and sleep at the same time each day. Consistency makes your body's sleep-wake cycle stronger.
Also, pay attention to what you drink or eat. Particularly, avoid large or heavy meals within a few hours of bedtime. Caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine deserve caution as well. The stimulating effects of caffeine and nicotine take many hours to subside and can interfere with your sleep. Remember that even though alcohol might initially make you sleepy, it can disrupt your sleep later at night.
Last Few Words
Breaking bad habits requires effort, time, and most of all, it requires perseverance. A lot of people who end up breaking their unhealthy habits try and fail several times before becoming successful. You might not be successful the very first time, however, that does not mean you cannot have it all.
It even helps to lower stress and address that feeling of failure to know that the objective isn't to make your old habits disappear entirely because they won't. Your goal should be to fortify your new routine, so ultimately, it takes over, and you don't even get a chance to think about your old habit. Nevertheless, it's a continuous process that’s made easier with self-compassion because there is no way to prepare yourself for each situation or foresee where and when a trigger may occur.