10 Daily habits that will change your life
We are surrounded by so many different pieces of advice about how we should live our lives so we are healthier. There are all the obvious do’s and don’ts, do not smoke, avoid soda/ soft drinks, exercise more, eat better. The list is endless. Here are 10 easy to implement daily habits to create a healthier you, that are tried and tested by me, and they have all changed my life for the better. I feel healthier and happier by doing these 7 daily habits each day.
As with all habits, we need to stick to it for at least 28 days before it becomes habitual, with patience and persistence you will see the benefits. A handy hint when it comes to habits, I have ordered these in a way that they can run in succession in your day. Daily habits are easiest to maintain when they have a trigger, so use the habit prior as a trigger for the next one.
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1: Drink Lemon Water
First thing in the morning, it is important to hydrate your body. Do yourself a favor and invest in a cheap lemon squeezer, like this one, and squeeze one full lemon into a tall glass of warm or room temperature water. Do this first thing in your day, before your coffee, before food.
Lemon water helps to cleanse your liver, kick starts your digestive system, reduces inflammation in the body, is full of beneficial vitamins and can even help you lose weight.
Water energises us, keeps our skin looking youthful, aids our digestive system and assists our kidneys. Our bodies are at least 60% water, it is vital we maintain our water levels
I added this habit to my life a few years ago and I cannot start my day without it! It gives me an energy boost and has assisted me in maintaining my weight and controlling my IBS. This one addition to my morning routine has changed my life drastically, if you choose only one on this list, pick this one!
2: Meditate
Meditation is a practice where we learn to become aware of our thoughts. The idea is that if we can learn to recognize that we are thinking, we can choose what thoughts we have. In this way we can select more positive and productive thoughts and avoid negative spirals.
There are a lot of Apps on the iTunes store that can help you begin your meditation practice. I use the App ‘Calm’ every morning, it helps prepare my mind for my day.
If you do not want to use a device to assist your meditation practice, you can begin by sitting in a comfortable seated position and spend ten minutes focusing on your breath. It is important to notice when the mind wanders away from the breath on a thought journey. Then to return to focusing the mind on the breath. With practice, the thought journeys will get shorter and shorter as you become more aware of your thoughts.
I recommend meditating first thing in the morning before you start your day to help the mind find clarity. Begin with just a few minutes a day working up to 10 – 20 minutes as part of a daily morning routine.
Meditation is relatively new to me, I have been practicing for about a year and I love it. It helps calm me and most definitely helps me control negative thought patterns.
3: Social Media Detox
Have you ever found yourself scrolling endlessly through Facebook or Instagram? Not really seeing or double tapping over and over, then looking at the time and noticing you have lost hours of your life?
This negative habit used to make me feel quite anxious and in a low mood. I felt like I had not only wasted that time in my life, but I also felt irrationally jealous of other peoples lives. We are all aware that people tend to post the best parts of their lives on Social Media. We don’t really know what’s going on behind the scenes. But, that doesn’t usually make me feel any better.
What did make me feel better was implementing the habit of Intentional Social Media time. The rest of the day would then be a Social Media Detox and let me tell you, it feels good!
I set a side a maximum of twice a day to check into my Social Media accounts to check notifications. Not scroll! Just to check if anyone has been in touch or posted something I don’t want to miss.
Yes sometimes I miss Instagram stories. However, if that person truly wants to share that with me, then they can send it to me in a way that won’t disappear.
Having a hard time when it comes to scrolling? There are a few great Instagram accounts that post to STOP SCROLLING, including mine: @_mindbodylife. Follow me to get reminders in your feed to pause and get back to the real world!
Another tool to help implement a social media detox habit, is to firstly turn off notifications. Then to set a timer or alarm on your phone to limit how long you are allowing yourself to be online each day.
4: Supplement Vitamin D
Vitamin D is called the sunshine vitamin. Imagine your body as a flower, without sunlight and water the flower will wither and die. As a society we are all very conscious of the sun, UV rays and links to skin cancer so we have a tendency to avoid it. The best option here is to invest in a Vitamin D supplement. They are available in pharmacies and health food stores, or get this affordable one.
If you are feeling anxious or depressed then this is a MUST for you! Vitamin D is essential for regulating our mood. Imagine this vitamin as happiness in a pill. I am sure you have heard of seasonal depression in the Winter months. This is caused by lack of daylight and an easy solution is to take a supplement.
I moved to the UK 3 years ago and found that after spending many years in much warmer, sunnier climates, I struggled with the lack of daylight. Even in the Summer time, how much time do we really spend outside in sunlight? Vitamin D tablets helped me get my mood back on track.
Feed your flower, include this as one of your daily habits and invest in this necessary supplement.
5: Take a Probiotic
Our overall health is governed by our gut, which is full of bacteria. Each day we consume things that kill off the good bacteria in our gut such as antibiotics, caffeine, unhealthy foods and alcohol. These things leaves our poor gut inflamed and irritated. We often think of bacteria as something that causes disease, but our bodies are full of bacteria, both good and bad. Probiotics are pills, (there are food forms too), that contain microorganisms such as bacteria to help replenish our stores. They are referred to as the ‘helpful’ bacteria. They help improve our digestive system that in turn assists our immune system.
I struggled with IBS for many years before discovering probiotics, they have changed my life. I have never been healthier, and maintained my weight so well. Probiotics are available in most pharmacies and health stores or check out this great value one.
6: Take a Break
Though it may seem counter intuitive, taking a regular breaks from your work can actually make you more productive. Train yourself to step away from what you are doing and go make a coffee, or go for a 10 minute walk.
If you find something is overwhelming and you can’t think through it, take a 10 minute break and allow your mind to rest. Your brain can only do so much! Just like your body, it needs time to recuperate during the day.
To help implement this habit into your day, you could try the Pomodoro technique. This is where you set a timer, traditionally for every 25 minutes then take a 3-5 minute break and do it again.
If you spend your day looking at a screen for work, this can be particularly useful in reducing headaches and migraines as well.
7: Practice Gratitude
Practice gratitude. An easy way to do this is to start a gratitude journal where you write 3 – 5 things down each night before bed.
Gratitude is linked to many physical and psychological benefits. Grateful people experience less body aches, have increased happiness levels by reducing toxic emotions such as envy or regret. Gratitude improves our self esteem and increases our mental strength so we are more capable of dealing with everyday life stresses.
If we are filling our minds with grateful thoughts, there is no room for negative thoughts. There is so much to be grateful for each day, it should be simple to find 3 – 5 things each day. For example, consider our senses, the fact that we can see beautiful colors in nature. Our hearing, that we can hear wondrous music. Possibly somebody showed you extraordinary kindness that day. Practice gratitude toward friends, family, colleagues and pets.
If you struggle to find things to be grateful for, check out my article on comparison to assist you altering your mindset.
8: Ask Questions
For the longest time I was too scared to ask questions when people around me were talking about things I did not understand. I was embarrassed that I would look stupid and that people would judge me.
Then one day, I decided that I didn’t care what others thought. It was much better to ask questions now and know the answers for the rest of my life, then to wait another 10, or 20 years to ask them. In the meantime living in the dark with limited knowledge. So I added Asking Questions to my daily habits
If someone is talking about something that you don’t recognise, ask them to educate you. As children we did not have the fear to question anything, that is how we learned. Somewhere along the way we became fearful of judgement. However, I have no doubt that your family, friends and peers know everything about everything so fear not! And ask away! Knowledge is power.
9: Learn Something New
If you feel like you are stuck in the same daily routine of work, eat, sleep. Then it’s time to expand your mind and to learn something new. I have found as I begin to learn a new skill or encounter a new knowledge that a whole world that I never knew existed becomes open to me. I realise there is so much more to learn.
One of my favourite ways to implement this habit is by reading a book. How often do you actually read anymore? By reading just 10 pages a day (a very simple feat), you could read several books a year. That’s a lot of books over the course of a lifetime.
I also love Duolingo, language learning. By even accomplishing just one simple lesson a day, I feel like I am boosting my brain health. Not to mention that I am very intrigued by languages ( I am also terrible at them!). However by implementing this daily habit that only takes a few minutes, I feel that I have achieved a new skill in my day.
If you feel that reading or thinking too much to learn a new skill sounds too hard after a long day at work, then why not change up your nightly TV routine by watching a documentary instead. I enjoy all Earth documentaries. They are educational but calming too, a nice way to wind down at the end of the day.
Feeling motivated to learn more? Book onto a course, large or small. A year from now when it is completed, you will enjoy the satisfaction that you improved yourself that year and feel more inspired to learn yet another skill.
10: Single Task
Do you ever feel like you have a Gazillion things to do and at the end of the day, nothing is done? The habit I love to overcome this issue, is to single task. The idea that human beings can multitask is ridiculous. Apparently only 2% of the world can actually do this! So, give yourself and your mind a break and stop trying to do everything at once.
I personally love a list and enjoy ticking items off it. In this way, I can work through the list one thing at a time and not move onto the next item until the one prior is complete.
To help you single task, I suggest removing distractions when you are trying to get things done. Such as a TV show on in the background that grabs your attention, or your phone constantly pinging with notifications.
If you have ever enjoyed the feeling of being in the flow, also described as being lost in whatever you are doing, then you have experienced the joy of single tasking. You probably also managed to complete the task you were doing in record time and felt pretty great about it!
Extend this habit across all aspects of your life. Try single tasking whilst you’re eating. You’ll actually notice when you are full and enjoy your food more rather than gulping through a meal. Try single tasking when you are catching up with a friend. I guarantee they will appreciate that you are giving them your time and truly listening to them rather than being distracted by a phone or a side tracked and busy mind.
The Round Up
These are 10 simple daily habits to add to your life and I hope they change your life for the better as they have mine. Remain patient and persistent and allow time for the benefits to take effect.
I would love to hear from you in the comments below how these daily habits are working for you. Also what are some of your own daily habits that you think will benefit others? How do you incorporate them into your daily routine?
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Love and Light
Lauren x
