6 Habits You Need to Cut From Your Life Right Now
Success and happiness are goals all people wish to attain. Many times, these goals are not reached because of negative habits that affect the health, mental well-being, or productivity of an individual. The following article takes a quick peek at six negative habits to eliminate from your life immediately.
Alcohol
Everyone understands that alcohol is bad for the human body in large quantities. However, not many people understand the extent to which alcohol use can damage both the mind and body, as Timberline Knolls explains. The damage caused by even slight overindulgence in alcoholic beverages has been well-chronicled:
- Brain Deficiencies: Alcohol is disruptive to communication pathways in the brain. The disruption clouds thinking patterns and causes problems with coordination.
- Heart Disease: Cardiomyopathy and cardiac arrhythmia are two complications caused by heavy drinking.
- Liver Problems: Fibrosis, fatty liver syndrome, and cirrhosis are common for abusers of alcohol.
- Cancer: Drinking increases the risk for cancers of the liver, throat, esophagus, mouth, and breast.
Marijuana
The use of marijuana is extremely popular in American culture. However, this is not necessarily a good thing for everyone who smokes a little weed from time to time. Regular weed smokers experienced stifled emotions, fogginess of the mind, and are often denied job opportunities that are available to people who are not pot smokers. There are many benefits to the marijuana smoker who is interested in knowing how to quit smoking weed forever. If the smoker is using marijuana for medicinal purposes but still wishes to cut back on the use due to the above side effects, they should look into the use of cbd oils as an alternative treatment since it should provide the same medical effects but doesn’t make them high.
Most tough-minded people would say that quitting cold turkey is the best route when seeking to eliminate any bad habit. However, this route will be difficult for many weed smokers to travel. In their cases, it may be best to taper off the use of the drug in a slow and continuous manner until it is no longer needed. Positive activities should be used to replace the time previously spent smoking weed.
Stress Eating
People that turn to food for relief from emotions like disappointment, nervousness, unhappiness, or just plain old boredom are doing themselves a great disservice. The temporary relief gained from stress eating will be short-lived and the negative emotions will return soon thereafter. To make matters worse, a stress eater may have the added anger directed at themselves caused by their overeating.
Stress eating can also lead to obesity and the corresponding health conditions that are suffered by obese individuals.
Spending Time With Naysayers
Everyone has spent time around a person who can explain in great detail why no goal can be accomplished. Most people criticize themselves enough already and do not need any additional critics.
The time spent with people who are always negative to the dreams and ideas expressed by others should be minimized. Replace these friends and acquaintances with individuals who are genuinely supportive of your goals. You will be happier and more productive.
Clutter
As they say, an organized home reflects an organized mind. When you allow your surroundings to become messy, cluttered, and untidy, you are allowing unnecessary stress to seep into your life and cloud your mind. This can lead to increased feelings of stress, depression, and anxiety. Take some time to get your house in order. If you’re not sure where to start, use an organizational philosophy like 5S to get started. Once your home has been decluttered, make time each week to clean up and prevent the clutter from taking over again.
Distracted Driving
Distracted driving is one of the #1 reasons behind car accidents. And it’s not just texting, either. Talking on the phone, looking at a GPS, and even changing what song you’re listening to can all distract you enough to cause an accident. When you’re not driving safely, it’s not just your own safety on the line — it’s the safety of those driving around you, too.
A Negative Attitude
There are always two distinct ways to view every situation that affects your life. You can allow yourself to think of the negative impact of the situation and wish for a different set of circumstances than truly exists. Dwelling on the negatives of situations has been found to be detrimental over time as it can cause your mind to entirely block out positive thinking patterns, and trap you in a negative thinking spiral.
Negative thoughts can also make it harder for you to reach your goals. The ability to achieve difficult things often comes down to your ability to persevere. As Real Estate Elevated explains, persistence will give you motivation to keep going when struggles happen. From starting a new business to forming a new habit, persistence will help you reach difficult goals. When feeling negative thoughts, a better course of action is to focus your thoughts on the portion of the situation that is going well and how to make things better.
Most people understand the benefit of seeing the positive in a situation. Despite this fact, many find it hard to do so when they are directly affected by negative circumstances. The choice to be critical or focus on negative issues is a simple one to make but does nothing to empower the individual making the choice.
Every individual has a list of dreams and goals they wish to achieve in their lifetime. Many of these goals will become much easier to accomplish when their own negative behavior is not allowed to get in the way. The six bad habits above should be curtailed by anyone who seeks a higher level of success in their lives.