By Phil Rosenbaum
Habits can be helpful or harmful. Good habits such as brushing your teeth, drinking lots of water, staying hygienic, eating healthy food, and exercising are very helpful and serve an important purpose. On the other hand, many people have bad habits that are very detrimental to their health and happiness. Some of these include late-night snacking, not drinking enough water, smoking, binge drinking, consuming too much caffeine, eating junk food, watching too much TV or sitting most of the time, drinking too much sugary pop, excessive texting or interacting with the media, and even nail biting. Many people do not realize it, but worry is also a habit that can damage your health.
Your daily routine is made up of many habits impacting your overall health. Negative habits affect your stress level, sleeping habits, and eating patterns. All of your habits play a role in your overall health.
Habits also play an important role in the life of college students. An article by the American Psychological Association lists some of the bad habits college students often have. They include cramming for exams, unhealthy eating, multitasking, lack of exercise, insufficient sleep, not taking breaks, a need for perfectionism, ineffective goal-setting, and generally poor study skills.
Habits affect many areas of one’s life, including mental and physical health, productivity, relationships, and self-esteem. Healthy habits can protect one from serious health problems such as diabetes and obesity. The advantage of habits is that less energy is required to get things done. They become automatic, and one doesn’t even have to think about them. The problem comes when habits interfere with our good health and happiness.
There is good news regarding habits. You may not have heard of the 21/90 rule, which states that it takes 21 days to create a habit and 90 days to establish it as a permanent lifestyle change. You can actually form a good habit in just three weeks. Imagine how much your life could improve if you eliminated some of your bad habits and replaced them with more positive ones.
Bad habits are difficult to eradicate. However, an effective method is to overwrite them with a new routine. For people who want to change the habit of drinking or eating too much or who want to get off of drugs, 12-step programs such as AA, OA, or NA are among the most effective.
Other good suggestions include starting with small habits to make a new habit much easier to attain. For example, start your exercise program with a short walk. Gradually increase it, and before too long, you will have developed the habit of regular exercise. If you start with something easy, it is more likely that you will stick with it.
Another very effective way to eliminate bad habits and create good habits is with the use of hypnosis. What is usually happening is that your conscious and subconscious minds are at odds with one another. The conscious mind wants to make a change, but the subconscious mind does not go along with that idea. The subconscious always wins whenever there is a conflict between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. This is why hypnotherapy can be so beneficial. Hypnosis deals with the subconscious mind. With hypnosis, you are able to get both the conscious mind and the subconscious mind in agreement with each other. Once that takes place, the change will occur.
If you want to learn more about hypnosis or experience a session, please call Phil Rosenbaum at 248-688-6469. Change your habits and see your life change.
