The beginning of the year is a great time to set goals and strive for healthy habits that support a happy life. So, how do you get started?
In this article, we’re taking a closer look at how to develop healthy habits.
How to Develop Healthy Habits
Reports show seven out of ten people in America have a bad habit that can lead to poor health and may even shorten the lifespan. These results were found in a study conducted by the United Health Foundation.
Other alarming statistics found in this report were that more than 25 million adults have three or more unhealthy habits. The most common bad habits studied included smoking, obesity, excessive drinking, poor sleep, and lack of physical activity.
Here’s how to develop healthy habits
Forming Bad Habits
It seems like bad habits are so easy to develop. You probably ask yourself why it can’t be just as easy to break a bad habit. The answer may lie in the fact there is a psychological component. When you do something new, like smoke a cigarette, more than a few times, your brain turns the new behavior into a routine behavior.
When this happens, your brain no longer must stop and think about whether this new action is good or bad. It just turns on autopilot and repeats the behavior. This soon becomes a habit. In fact, 40% of our actions are done because they are habits, not because we consciously make the decision to do them.
Furthermore, researchers suggest there are only three small steps to creating a bad habit: first, the cue or trigger that tells your brain which habit to use; second, the routine or action you take; and third, the reward that tells your brain if that action was worth it.
Let’s put this into perspective. You are sitting on the couch watching television feeling bored. Boredom is your cue. You start eating a lot of junk food to eliminate the feeling of boredom. This is the routine.
Because food can spike the dopamine levels in your brain and make you feel good temporarily, your brain decides this action is a good one to keep. Just like that, overeating when you are bored becomes a habit.
It is not all bad, however. Because the brain is smart enough to establish bad habits, it is also smart enough to develop positive, healthy habits.
Quit trying to break bad habits and instead, focus on replacing them with healthy habits.
Below are some useful tips to help you do this.
Replace the Bad Behavior
Replacing bad behaviors with positive ones can help you develop healthy habits quickly. For instance, carry sugar-free gum with you and make it easily accessible. Pay attention to your habits and when you start to feel a negative emotion, and find yourself craving a cigarette or junk food, chew a piece of gum instead.
Make sure you don’t replace the negative habit with another negative habit.
Understand Why You Want to Develop Healthy Habits
If you don’t understand the reason behind an action, it will be harder to complete the action. If you don’t understand that smoking cigarettes can kill you, then you won’t see the importance of replacing smoking with a more positive action.
When listing the bad habits you want to replace, list “the why” behind replacing it too.
Reward Yourself Along the Way
Each time you accomplish a goal of developing healthy habits, reward yourself with something positive. Treat yourself to a spa day or new shoes or to a movie you’ve been wanting to see.
Do not reward yourself with negative behaviors. Like, don’t go the bar and get intoxicared to celebrate not smoking a cigarette in a week. Instead, treat yourself to a gym membership to continue developing healthy habits.
Plan for the rewards you will give yourself at the time you achieve positive goals. The rewards you choose can give you incentive and motivation to stay on track and maintain focus.
Hang with Healthy People
If you are trying to quit smoking but continue to surround yourself with heavy chain smokers, you are setting yourself up for failure. To develop healthy habits, the people you hang out with can either help you or hurt you in your journey.
Healthy people have healthy habits. They can offer a positive influence on you, especially during the times when you find yourself struggling to return to negative habits.
Hang around people who encourage you to develop healthy habits and work with you, inspiring you and offering support until you reach success.
Seek Individual Counseling
One of the best parts of developing health habits is that you don’t have to do it alone. Working with individual counselors can give you the professional support you need to support the personal support you are receiving from friends and family.
Individual counselors can offer you tools and techniques you can implement daily to help you stay focused on achieving positive habits.
Change Your Environment
To help you develop healthy habits, the environment in which you live should be free of triggers for negative habits. If you struggle with overeating, make sure there is no junk food in your home. If you are creating a healthy habit of eliminating drinking alcohol, make sure there is no alcohol in your home.
Developing healthy habits also means setting up your environment for success. Buy the right shoes for exercising, get rid of your television, open the curtains and let sunshine in, stock up on healthy foods, and place positive, encouraging messages throughout your house.
Believe the positive messages.
Conclusion
In conclusion, don’t try to do everything at once. If you were to try and replace all negative habits with positive ones at the same time, you may feel overwhelmed and give up. Instead, be patient and focus on developing healthy habits at a pace that is best for you.
You may only be able to develop one healthy habit a month, or two months. That’s okay. If you are showing progress toward your goal, you can feel proud of the changes you are making.
It is much better to take extra time and be able to sustain your healthy habits rather than rush the process and risk reverting to negative behaviors.
Why not begin now on your journey of developing healthy habits?