10 Toxic Habits To Quit Immediately For Better
While we always talk about habits to implement in our lives, it is equally important to look at our harmful toxic habits to quit to improve. Toxic habits are generally the ones that affect our lives directly or indirectly!
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How do I leave toxic habits?
We all have toxic habits that we grew up learning, but the good thing is
Once we realize those habits affecting our livelihood, we can quit them!
The best way to quit a toxic habit Is to be mindful and open to change! So many of us are quick to judge and tell others about our unhealthy habits, but we rarely look within!
It is important to note that we can never be perfect, and trying to change many habits in one go will only make us fail.
Hence, accepting ourselves and working towards things one by one is the key!
What are the top 10 bad habits?
1. Negative Self-Talk
One of the most affecting toxic habits to quit asap is negative self-talk! Something I have been guilty of doing for years!
I cannot stress this enough but negative self-talk only ruins our life more.
It stops us from loving ourselves, believing in ourselves, and moving ahead in life!
I have said it many times; many people are constantly criticizing and putting us down.
Also, as a matter of fact-nobody puts us down more than we do ourselves!
How can you eliminate negative self-talk?
The first thing is to realize and become mindful of our thoughts,
Start noticing how you talk to yourself daily and what words you use?
What do you call yourself in your head when you make a mistake? Do you say negative phrases like I am stupid, dumb or do you talk yourself out calmly?
It will be a little tricky in the beginning as since we were kids, we have always been addressed with these words at home or school whenever we made a mistake
We are told to feel bad and guilty
But now that we know it is incredibly unhealthy for our mental health, we can change it!
Practicing positive affirmations daily is a great way to reciprocate that
Some of the resources and practices I do to eliminate negative self-talk and implement positive ones are
- Practicing affirmation: as I mentioned above, I have been practicing positive affirmations daily. Here are a few tools I use: The five-minute journal is a mindful practicing journal to bring positivity! In this, you will find quotes and a section where you write 3 positives affirm to yourself every day.
- At the end of the day, you also write constructive feedback on how you can improve your tasks or life! Click here to check
- Second is a Mindful affirmation deck card that you can put around your home or office where you would like to see it often! This is a fantastic way to surround yourself with good words throughout the day! Click here to check
- Similar to the above, I use an app recommended to me by a friend called I am. This app sends positive messages throughout the day for you to read whenever you use your phone! Click here to download the app.
2. Eating too much junk food & drinks
I love eating junk food, but only in the past few years that I have been implementing healthy eating habits have I been able to stop overeating junk food or carbonated drinks!
Health is wealth. As said, we cannot neglect and eat anything mindlessly
You don’t have to stop eating junk food altogether, instead build a balanced lifestyle
HOW CAN I DO THAT?
The best way is to eat as much home-cooked food as possible! You can make anything you want, from pizza to noodles but make it home!
Once you make those dishes home, you will be mindful of the ingredients and their quantity!
For example- I LOVE COFFEE! AND I HAVE A SWEET TOOTH!
Hence I have always loved my coffee to be sweet! Whenever I would order coffee, it has too much sugar!
Did you know Starbucks’ drinks have more sugar than a can of Coca-Cola?
A Venti (extra large) white chocolate mocha with whipped cream — 73.8 grams of sugar (about 18 teaspoons)!– source
Once I started making coffee at home, I switched from artificial sugar to natural; I also reduced its quantity to only required! I got used to a bit of sweetness instead of the extra-sweet coffee with time.
I also reduced the quantity of coffee I would put in my glass! In cafés, I find the amount to be unnecessarily high.
Hence, by making these simple changes, I can enjoy my coffee daily without guilt or affecting it!
This is just one example of lifestyle changes you can make to your eating habits and have a balanced life together!
3. Quit Using the phone the first thing in the morning
Psychologically it has been said that using our phones as soon as we wake up is highly unhealthy for our brains.
When we wake up in the morning, our brain needs time to wake, and if you scroll through your phone or even newspaper, your brain is receiving information thousands of information in literally millie second
which is not healthy for us and also releases too much dopamine
Hence use your phone at least after 1 hour after waking up!
One of the toxic habits to quit that I have been trying to do so is, using my phone first thing in the morning!
In the past, I would never reach out to my phone as soon as I woke up, But since my work has gotten digital-based, I find myself wanting to see updates every now and then!
One of the things I tried to do was use a screen time lock!
I used to do this in the past, where I would give a family member-only access to the password of the screen time lock, and every time I felt the need to use it after my time had been up, I would have to open the app by typing in the password.
And since I do not have access to the password, I don’t have another option but to let it go!
I don’t do this anymore instead,
I have been simply deleting the apps I use the most!
- For example, when I find myself scrolling through reels on Instagram too much or wasting my time, I delete the app at night so I don’t use it when I wake up.
It is almost like taking social media detox, but only during the times, I find that my use of social media is getting unhealthy.
Once I am back in my zone, I download the app again!
It may seem like a hassle, but with this, I have built a healthy relationship by using social media! Highly recommend!
- Another great way to avoid using your phone as soon as you wake up is to keep it in another room at night so that when you wake up, you don’t touch it first.
4. Toxic habits to quit -Not planning your day
If you procrastinate or feel that most of your days are unproductive, not planning your day is the main reason!
When I wouldn’t plan my day, I would find myself just asking for time doing things I should not or confused about what I should do and where to even begin!
It’s essential to start planning your day, work, and life to beat procrastination and see effective results!
How to plan your day effectively?
I like to plan my day and work, and for that, I use the notion
The notion is an app you can use to plan and organize your work and life!
I mostly use it for work (my blog) and the notes app on my phone to plan the day
Once I know what job I need to do and my deadlines, I can write down what to do first,
This helps me feel confident when going about my day!
Another important tip: I like to write 3 important task that needs to be done for that particular day
For example –
- 1. Workout for 30 mins
- Completing a blogpost
- Read a book for at least 10 mins
By noting down that these three are my main task that has to be done, my focus stays clear. Hence I don’t waste time on others.
Effective planning keeps your life simplified and organized!
5. Quit Comparing yourself to other
Comparing ourselves to others is a natural human tendency, especially since we have always been brought up being compared to our siblings or friends.
But it can be extremely unhealthy for our mental well being
Comparison sometimes can be favorable that help us push further, but most of the time, it makes us feel wrong about ourself
Whenever I compare myself to someone, I find myself being extremely harmful and self-critique, which leads me to constantly have negative emotions, leading to no progress.
A few years back, when I was dealing with self -insecurities, I found many negative thoughts and emotions came from comparing myself to certain people I wasn’t even aware I was doing.
People on social media, celebrities with perfect looks, and so on
Once I became aware of that, I started to pay attention to how being and looking at certain people made me feel
What kind of emotions or thoughts do I get when I look at anyone on social media?
I feel inspired and have the urge to push and achieve those things; with some, I feel low about myself and question myself a lot.
And since then, I would take action and unfollowed them from my life
The same goes for people around you
After I took this step, I found so much difference in my mental health and overall life!
It was shocking to me how subconsciously it affects our life!
6. Quit the Toxic habits of Forcing others to change
Forcing others to change or do as you say is pretty toxic!
I have been on the other side where I have people who constantly push and force me to do as they want! It gets me angry.
Firstly, each person is an individual who has their or own life, it may be your family member, your partner, or your child, but still, they are their individual who needs to live their life as per they want
Trying to push personal boundaries so they can do things according to you will harm them.
You may think you are saying correctly and doing your BEST, but it still comes down to giving the other person time and space.
You cannot change anyone in this world, and forcing others to change will waste your time and effort and disrespect others’ boundaries.
Hence, quit forcing others to change and keep the focus on you; you will find your life to be a lot lighter and better
7. Not drinking enough water
Our bodies are made up of 80% water, and almost three-quarters of our brain is water, yet how much is giving it?
Not gonna lie, I struggle with it myself, and I am outing this point as a reminder to drink more water and not coffee!
I have always kept a water bottle with me to stay hydrated!
The most critical time to fill yourself with water is morning! When we sleep, our bodies do a hell lot of work for us to function and heal!
This is why you may find yourself very thirsty in the morning!
Make sure to hydrate yourself after you wake up and drink slowly, do not gulp!
8. Not believing in yourself
Something I have been guilty of doing in the past was not believing in myself at all!
As I mentioned above, when I was dealing with self-insecurities, self-doubts was only natural!
I always looked at myself in other people’s eyes and what do they think I can do?
This kept me from never doing things I loved or dreamt of!
I wasted so many opportunities and times just because I thought I could not!
Last year was an eye-opening year for me when it comes to this
I regrated that I had wasted and missed on so many things because I didn’t believe in myself enough
I let “what others will say” take over me and never went after my dreams
Due to this, I had to face the consequences of going to a job I did not enjoy and living a life that I did not want
After these realizations hit me, I promised to never doubt myself and take action!
The worst that can happen is I will fail and learn from it!
9. Waiting too much or not taking actions
This is in continuation to what I said above because I didn’t believe in myself enough, I never took the action and kept waiting that -‘one day” I will…
Even when I would get to planning…the action would never be taken because I spend way too much time trying to PLAN
The time between your plan and action should be very minimal! The longer you take, the farther you will be from achieving it
Even if it means taking just one little step every day!
10. Buying things you don’t need
Lastly, one of the toxic habits to quit is being an impulse buyer or buying things you do not need,
It will help keep your life less cluttered and become more intentional!
So many times we end up buying things just because they feel trendy! I have a friend who keeps buying makeup products and never uses them
It not only makes her vanity more clustered which she complains but also leads to wastage of product and money! Instead just using it or buying it when needed will make so much difference
This was just a small example, but if you notice around, you will find so many things that are just sitting at home and never touched!
End Note:
It can be a little tough to leave habits but once you do, you will find how much better your life has gotten!
These were the ten toxic habits to quit that you can try to get rid of to simplify your life
Make sure to go one habit at a time and not overload!
Hope you found these helpful and could relate to any!
This Post was all about Toxic Habits to Quit
Good luck!
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