Many people struggle with daily habits that negatively impact their lives. Whether it’s stopping to pick up fast food on the way home, letting stress boil up until there is a breaking point, or comparing themselves to everyone else on social media, these negative lifestyle habits can be detrimental to one’s health over time. There are specific habits that you can implement into your everyday life that can drastically boost your health and happiness.
Goal Setting
According to research, less than 3% of Americans have ever written their goals out, yet this can be a habit that makes one of the most drastic improvements in someone’s everyday life. Goal setting gives you the ability to pave the direction that you want your life to go; it gives you a plan and something to work towards. Goal setting can provide short-term and long-term goals, and can be written out in bullet points or by journaling. Examples of goal setting can be “I will lose x amount of weight by 2020” or “I will work out 4 times a week.”
Scheduling or “Blocking”
So many people let the weeks, months, and years slip by without ever going to the gym, or resorting to fast food every day because they do not make time to grocery shop. The “I don’t have time” excuse takes over and negative lifestyle habits occur, resulting in weight gain or unhappiness.
The habit of scheduling and blocking out time in your schedule each week can drastically improve your life. Each day or week, schedule in times to work out, go to the grocery store, meal prep, and do whatever else that is positive that you would like to do. By planning these tasks into your schedule ahead time, you are more likely to complete them and be a more productive person.
Meditation
Nearly 40 million American adults struggle with anxiety each year, and the rate only seems to continue to increase over time. The amount of stress and anxiety that people deal with can result in other health issues, weight gain, and overall unhappiness. A tool and positive lifestyle habit that can be implemented to help reduce stress and anxiety among individuals is meditation. Meditation can be seen as a way to train the mind, much like working out is a way to train the body. I recommend starting out with implementing “guided meditation” a few times a week to trainyour mind. The app called “Headspace” has a great, free 10 day trial that you can try out.
Unplugging
It is the age of technology. People are comparing their lives to the highlight reel of friends and famous people on Instagram and Facebook. Social media seems to be an addiction to so many, and as a result, happiness levels are dropping and stress levels are increasing. One lifestyle habit that you can implement to increase productivity in your life, and also boost happiness levels, is unplugging from social media. “Unplugging” is a newer term referring to limiting or eliminating the use of social media. The average American spends nearly 2.5 hours a day on their phones scrolling through social media. By unplugging, even if only at least a couple times a week, you can free up a drastic amount of time to implement more productive, healthier habits, like going to the gym, taking up a yoga class, or cooking meals at home. Unplugging allows your mind a break away from comparing your life to everyone else’s, and actually allows you to make positive changes in your own life.
SCOTTSDALE HEALTH MAGAZINE FEATURE
This article was recently published in the August 2019 issue of Scottsdale Health Magazine!
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