Throughout life, we adopt habits – whether good or bad. However, we’re going to be focusing on the development of healthy habits and the possible benefits that could come with doing so. Researchers have found that adopting good habits can result in better mental and physical health, financial stability, reduction in risk of diseases, sleeping well, and maintaining a proper social life.
When talking about health, we mainly think about physical well-being and not the mental and emotional aspects that come along with it. By developing certain habits, like exercising and meditation, we can improve physical and mental health simultaneously. Researchers have found that exercise can reduce issues such as anxiety and depression by improving self-esteem and certain cognitive functions. By participating in physical activity, your body produces chemicals called endorphins that can help to relieve stress and pain as well. Therefore, exercise seems like a better option than opioids. Of course, it also takes time to develop healthy habits so it’s okay to take things slowly. Building healthy habits is supposed to relieve you of stress and anxiety, not increase it.
It can also be difficult to keep habits after a period of time but there are ways to keep us motivated and driven. These steps include knowing your habits, setting reasonable goals, and organizing an appropriate schedule. Knowing your own habits could give you ideas about what habits you want to start changing and setting reasonable goals around them. When setting goals, it is best to be realistic and start off small. If you wake up at 10:00 am every day, you don’t want to try and start waking up at 6:00 am right away. It’s better to start off using certain time intervals – maybe set an alarm for 9:30 am instead and work your way towards your goal of 6:00 am. What if, for example, you want to continue to develop your habits, but you also want a break on the weekends? By organizing a schedule and following that schedule, it can motivate you more as you know that at the end of a long week, you can sleep in on the weekends. The sense of being rewarded also keeps you motivated.
For example, you can start a blog that counts towards your grades. This is an incentive motivation where you develop healthy habits each week and track them on a website for your peers to look over and review. And with that, welcome to my blog where I do exactly as I just described! =)
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