10 Ways To Help You Break Hard Habits

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We are the sum of our habits. Everything that we do or think is born out of routines and lessons we have been taught our whole lives. When you allow the habits that you have developed to become bad ones, life becomes a little less fun and a little more difficult. 

The problem is that it is exceptionally easy for bad habits to creep into your life. One minute you’re socially smoking with your friends when you have a glass of wine, and the next you’ve managed to develop a thirty-a-day habit. They’re insidious: they happen when you’re not looking or paying attention. To break bad habits you need a lot of self-control. It takes work to be able to notice that you are doing something unhealthy - whether that’s unhealthy for you or for those around you. The thing is, breaking your bad habits is worth the effort. If you can put your mind to it, you can do it, and it’s as simple as that. Not only do you manage to change your unhealthy habits into good ones, you are able to develop a strong work ethic and better productivity in your everyday life. Hashtag science, yo.

So, with that in mind, here are ten things that you should stop doing and start changing today.

  • Stop Using Technology In Bed

The bed is the best place in your house, bar none. Most people don't realize that climbing into their comfortable beds and scrolling through Facebook is unhealthy. Before you know it, you’ve got into bed at 9pm, and it’s now 3am and you are knees-deep in YouTube conspiracy theories with a subscription to TinFoilHat.com. The bed is the one place you don’t need technology. You do not need to bring it to bed and make your brain stay awake long after your eyes want to sleep. Start leaving your device on a table outside the bedroom or across the room - that way, it’s there for emergencies but not close enough that you’ll sleep badly.

  • Stop Smoking

One of the worst habits to have is smoking. Why? Because this habit doesn't just affect you. When you smoke, you affect everyone else in the vicinity. We get it, it’s a hard habit to break because smoking is addictive. You’ll have noticed that most smokers turn to places like lightfirevapor.com to change their smoking habit into one where they still get the sensation of smoking but they’re using flavor instead. Smoking makes your clothes, hair and skin smell, and it’s something that you want to avoid along with the blackened lungs. Start working to get rid of this habit as soon as you can.

  • Impulsive Internet Searching

How easy is it to spend money online today? Well, Amazon has installed a handy “Buy Now” button to make it easier than ever. Before you mindlessly search online for nothing that will still cost you, stay productive by giving yourself 15 minutes to choose whether you really need what you went looking for.

  • Stop Looking At Your Phone - Mid-Conversation

How rude is it when you’re getting someone’s attention and while you’re doing it, they pick up their phone for a quick scroll? Very, that’s how rude it is. The thing is, you may be doing it yourself without knowing. Keep your phone away from your hands when you’re talking to someone and leave it in your pocket. You want to be engaged and paying attention properly. Don’t be that person.

  • Stop The Notifications

Oh, notifications are the productivity killer! When you’re at work or trying to be present with your family, your phone is going to ping off all over the place. Let’s turn those notifications off so that they can stop being a distraction and you can continue to be present in the moment.

  • Stop Saying YES

Okay, we don't normally advocate for saying no, especially when you should say yes to adventures and to good things. The thing is, saying “yes” to everything in life is not actually a good idea, as you become that person everyone turns to purely because you don't know how to say no. It’s a good way to get used to it and you shouldn't allow it anymore.

  • Stop Being Around Toxic People

Toxic people have a hold on us and it’s because of the toxicity. They know how to get under our skin with gaslighting and manipulation, and so we stay around the toxicity and believe that they love us really. They don't. Make it the thing that you do right now to say no and walk away from those who no longer deserve your attention.

  • Stop Multitasking When You Don’t Have To

In the workplace you need to be buzzing from place to place and doing multiple things. Life has you spinning many plates, but you don't have to do that throughout a meeting, so stop doing it! You don't have to turn yourself in knots for everyone else, so don’t do it anymore.

  • Stop Gossiping

It is so easy to get sucked into gossip. Gossip is salacious, it’s sexy and it’s devastating to the subject of the gossip. How would you feel if people were gossiping about you? We wouldn't like it, either. Gossip is a bad habit and it doesn't do you any good to gain anything from the misfortune of others. Morality check yourself whenever you can.

  • Stop Comparing Yourself

Every single butterfly in the world is unique and beautiful, and you are indeed a butterfly. There is no joy that comes from comparing yourself to other people. All you’re going to do is focus on what THEY are doing with life and less on what YOU are doing. And hunty, you are the focus of your own life - you have to play the starring role. Stop with the comparison, whether on social media or in real life - all you will do is ensure that you put yourself second. And that will never do.

These are all hard habits to break. Have you got what it takes?

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Making The Positive Changes You Need

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Changing bad habits is a plan that is easier said than done, but thanks to new products, an understanding of mental health and changing attitudes to what makes us happy the opportunity to grow out of habits and into the person you want to be, are more attainable now than ever before.

In recent years there have been new trends that have encouraged the average person to start looking beyond their familiars and using advances in technology to help them become the person they want to be. Number one of addictions according to the Dawn Rehab is tobacco and for that habit, an alternative that provides fewer health risks than its counterpart has grown sharply in the past few years. Vaping continues to develop into a mainstream product offering vape deals demonstrate a demand for this product which could soon outgrow that of the cigarette or other traditional smoking methods.


But, healthier lifestyles are not just connected to what we put inside our bodies but also what we expect our minds to be able to do. Work-life balance is causing untold amounts of mental health problems connected to lack of sleep and unmanageable levels of stress. The response to studies that find that work is affecting health is often to suggest leaving your work at the office but that isn’t always the easiest thing to do and so comes the growth of alternative solutions which should help give you some respite from the daily grind.

Studies into the positive effects of physical exercise have become more and more publicized due to the demand for help from the stress of modern life. Alternatives to therapies that can be expensive are also sought with mindfulness and well-being experiencing high demand from all walks of life as society starts to look towards creating positive habits in an attempt to alleviate pressure and to extend our lives through healthy practices.

The never-before-seen access to information and knowledge that is provided by the internet has allowed society to start looking away from the advertising tropes that encouraged all sorts of bad habits in life. Your body isn’t just a temple, it’s the only one you will have. That isn’t to say you have to avoid the food you like or socializing in bars, but it does mean that there is a demand out there now to provide you with an alternative.

Your mental health is connected to so many other factors in life and thanks to new research and a willingness to listen to those studies, you are now being afforded the opportunity to tackle the difficult moments in life. So don’t be afraid of a little change in your life because you might just look back and wonder what stopped you from accepting that progress earlier.

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Squashing The Addictions Once And For All

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I get it, we can all find ourselves getting into bad habits when it comes to general things in life. Our lifestyle can change from one day to the next and there can be a lot of deciding factors in it. We now live in a world where technology and answers are at our fingertips, where things are more readily available to us than ever before, and with advancements in all sorts of ways, bad habits can develop. But these addictions don’t need to take over our lives.

I wanted to share with you some of the common addictions we can all face at some point,  and hopefully give you some comfort and direction on how to overcome them once and for all.

Are you addicted to drinking alcohol?

Alcohol can be the biggest issue some of us face, and it is because the addiction to it can vary so much. You have those people who just need that glass of wine at the end of each day. You have the people that can’t be out socially without a drink, and then you have the people that can’t get out of bed without a drink. All different version of addiction, but each one of them need to be handled, albeit differently. Often alcohol can be the answer after a tough day or when you are going through a tough time. But it is also known as a depressive and it can make things worse in your mind, not better. If you do think you have an issue, speak to someone regarding it.

Do you smoke more frequently?

Smoking is a bad habit that can really affect our health. It doesn't matter whether you smoke one cigarette a day or fifty, the chance of getting cancer is high because of it. Many people looking to kick the habit have switched over to vaping. Websites like License to Vape reviews different options for you, so it might be worth doing some research. You could also speak to health professionals about other methods available to you, but often just deciding to stop is the biggest change you can make.

Do you work too hard?

Would you believe me if I said there was an addiction to work and you could be struggling with it? Workaholism is a real thing, believe it or not. People are working harder than ever, chasing the big pay brackets and the difference in lifestyle it can make. But it can also be detrimental to your health if you don’t get enough rest. Try and ensure that you take time away from work every now and again. Enjoy annual leave and don’t overdo it when you don’t need to. Life's too short.

Are you endlessly scrolling your phone?

Finally, do you find that you are on your smartphone more than you should be? There is a real addiction to your phone and the endless scrolling you can do on social media. Perhaps not even taking in what your eyes are viewing. If you think you spend more time on Instagram than you do with your family, it is time to put the phone down and enjoy the art of conversation.

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A Foolproof Guide To Developing Healthy Habits

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When it comes to healthy habits, you probably know what you should be doing.

It would be difficult not to, in truth. The realities of the health decisions we make are made clear every single day. It’s fair to assume that most people will - at least in abstract - know the following things they should or shouldn’t do regarding their health:

  • Eat a healthy, balanced diet that is low in sugar and refined fats.

  • Eat a good amount of oily fish for optimal health.

  • Be neither over or underweight, instead finding a “just right” zone for yourself.

  • Exercise regularly, at least three times a week though preferably more.

  • Drink plenty of water, ideally around two liters per day.

  • Don’t binge drink alcohol or exceed your weekly recommended intake limit.

  • Don’t smoke cigarettes, period.

The above are pretty much the established things we all know we should do, but… don’t.

Life has a tendency to get in the way. You want to eat a healthy diet with meals at regular intervals, but then you have to work through lunch on a tough office project. You want to work out three times a week, but then you have a clash of social engagements and work-related events and you just don’t have the time. You know you shouldn’t drink excessively, but you’ve had a hard week, what’s an extra glass of wine going to do? And so on and so forth.

It’s fair to say that knowledge is not the problem when it comes to healthy habits. We all know them; they’re all repeated to us often enough. Just because we know something doesn’t mean we can do it; it’s the implementation that’s the problem. We’re busy; we get distracted; we forget just how important these things can be.

So how can you learn healthy habits - and keep them established?

 

#1 - Repetition

It takes 30 days to make a habit, or so the conventional wisdom goes. That means that to truly establish a good habit, you’re going to have to commit to it, every day, for 30 days.

So let’s take an example, an easy one to begin with: quitting smoking. If you go cold turkey when you quit smoking, the chances of success aren’t good. You’re far better off with nicotine replacement therapy or - most commonly - switching to vaping, which is generally considered to be a far safer alternative to tobacco. If you’re interested in using vaping to quit cigarettes then you can learn more at www.vaporescence.com/pages/aspire; for NRT ideas, or contact your doctor.

So on day one, you don’t smoke - and you don’t change that at all for 30 days. Try and see this as a 30 day stretch; ignore the fact that after 30 days, you still won’t smoke. Just focus on those thirty days; run a countdown; do anything you can to keep yourself on track for that period.

By the time the 30 days are up, you won’t even want to return to your bad habit. The new, better habit will have become the normal. It’s a psychological trick on yourself, but it’s incredibly effective if you get yourself to see through those 30 days.

#2 - Start Early

So let’s think about an exercise regime; perhaps you want to do yoga, thanks to the myriad of benefits it has to offer its practitioners.

If you plan to go to a yoga class at the end of the day - when you have already gone through an entire eight hours of work - then you’re not making it easy on yourself. You’re relying on the idea that you will have the time, effort, and inclination after a day that is already long enough. For the first few times you’re meant to do it, your newfound optimism and determination will be enough to get you into the studio - but it’s incredibly unlikely that's a routine you’re going to be able to continue.

So rather than tagging your new yoga routine at the end of the day, start with your new plan. Get up 20 minutes earlier and do yoga in front of the TV, while you wait for coffee to brew and your breakfast to cook. At this point in the day, you’ll be more open and receptive to the idea, because you’ve yet to tire yourself out with the stresses of a normal working day. If you need some advice on getting up earlier, then www.goinswriter.com/wake-up-early has got you covered.

This also means you can bask in the fact you’ve ticked off your new routine before most people have got out of bed. Allow yourself a little smugness - you’ve earned it!

#3 - Try Hypnotism

Sometimes, the best thing you can do to establish healthy habits is to make your existing habits distasteful to you. In comparison, the healthier way of doing things naturally becomes preferable.

But how do you make yourself dislike food that’s bad for you? We don’t eat junk food, sugar, and processed meals because we dislike them - we do it because they taste good. They are specifically designed to not only taste good, but make us want to come back for more and more. How can you possibly convince yourself they’re actually terrible, when your entire body is craving them?

Hypnotism might be the answer you’re looking for. Under clinical settings, a hypnotist can attempt to “rewire” the way you think about certain foods. Rather than seeing them as delicious, your brain can be awakened to associating them with ill health and feeling uncomfortable. The success of this depends on how susceptible you are to hypnotism in general, but you won’t know unless you find out.

 

Establishing healthy habits is difficult, especially if you’re trying to do everything at once. Nevertheless, it is possible to change the way your mind works and establish a reliable pattern that allows you to move forward in healthier, more beneficial ways. Repeat; trick; and even hypnotize yourself into seeing the light - you’ll be better off for it in every possible way.

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