Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be challenging between a busy schedule of work, study, and family commitments. However, understanding how to motivate yourself to live a healthy life effectively at each stage can transform these challenges into opportunities to improve your well-being.
WHY HEALTHY LIVING CAN BE DIFFICULT
Despite good habits like exercising regularly at the gym, good sleep, eating well, and more, we often fail to achieve the goals we have targeted for ourselves to live healthier lives. Why do we find these changes harder than we thought? Why is it so hard to motivate ourselves? Here are a few reasons that cause you to fail in achieving your healthy lifestyle goals.
LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY
It is difficult to attempt a big lifestyle change without support from friends and family members. For an extra sense of responsibility, make a firm resolution, especially with someone who shares your ideas, to keep each other motivated.
DIFFICULTY IN BREAKING BAD HABITS
Research suggests it takes at least 68 days to motivate ourselves to a new behavior which is so long that most people give up midway. The only way to change these bad habits is to stick to moderate goals for two months in order to make them a part of your routine.
TRYING TO MAKE CHANGES TOO QUICKLY
Many people resolve to do things quickly to change their lifestyle in a short span of time. Studies have shown that things like giving up sugar, carbohydrates, and meat and hitting the gym every day failed to achieve the desired results in 67% of adults. Instead, try to adapt to a healthy lifestyle gradually and one step at a time.
STAYING MOTIVATED AND PRODUCTIVE
Keep reading for some healthy advice on how to motivate yourself to live a healthier life. Discover how to stay motivated and create a new self-improvement routine to support your unique lifestyle goals.
UNDERSTAND WHAT KEEPS YOU MOTIVATED
Motivation is something which fluctuates from time to time and even though you feel motivated at the start, there will be periods when there is a dip and you become prone to old habits. This is the time to remind yourself of the things in life you value most and how living more healthily helps sustain that. For example, if you love spending time with your children, you can use that as motivation to live longer and spend more time with them.
MAKE TIME FOR EXERCISE
Some people have simply no time for exercise, but there are many ways to include exercise in your daily routine without having to sacrifice time for other things you enjoy or must do. Simple changes like cycling, walking, or doing exercises during lunch breaks will always make you feel good. You can also pair exercise with music you like listening to, in order to stay more motivated and engaged.
GET ADEQUATE SLEEP
Just like exercise, maintaining good sleeping habits is equally important. Sleep also plays a critical role in memory retention and overall well-being. If you are feeling fatigued during the day, take steps towards proper sleep to improve the situation. While developing a good sleeping routine can take some time and effort, it will be well worth it in the long run. You will feel more energized, and focused, and will find it easier to motivate yourself to keep up with your other goals.
TURN NEGATIVE THOUGHTS INTO POSITIVE FEELINGS
When things are not going right, it is but natural to return to bad habits. To avoid this you need to reframe your negative thoughts to create positive behavior patterns that offer a more optimistic outcome. Instead of throwing in the towel after a setback, what is more important is to change habits to create a healthy lifestyle. Reflect on what caused the setback, so that the next time life throws a challenge you can plan for a positive outcome.
LIVE MOMENT BY MOMENT
We often spend considerable time wondering about the future, instead of paying attention to what is going on around us at the very moment. When you observe these moments without judgment, it’s called mindfulness. Mindfulness involves meditation in a sitting pose that is done in a quiet space and simply focusing on the present. Mindfulness-based treatments can reduce anxiety, and depression, lower blood pressure, improve sleep, and even help people to cope with pain.
JOURNALING FOR A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
Journaling is a great way to help motivate yourself and can help us to expect rather than judge our mental experiences, resulting in less negative emotions in response to daily stressors. You may have used a diary during childhood but the concept and benefits also apply as a grown-up.
Journaling is a healthy non-pharmacological channel to express any overwhelming emotion and manage mental health. Journaling can help in:
- Managing anxiety
- Cope with depression
- Reduce stress
- Identifying negative thought patterns and behaviors
- Prioritizing problems, fears, and concerns.
Nowadays, there are many apps that offer help and access to free tools such as journals, meditation, and mindfulness workshops. There are even some that offer a DIY approach to CBT – a therapy treatment designed to change unhealthy thought patterns or behaviors. Online-therapy.com isn’t free, but offers all of the above for an affordable cost, and is the top recommended choice by bestonlinetherapy.com.
A HEALTHY MIND LIVES IN A HEALTHY BODY
The link between a healthy mindset and a healthy body is an intricate and profound relationship that impacts our well-being significantly. Understanding this connection is critical, as it plays an important role in how we experience and navigate life as well as impacting our holistic well-being. What you allow to enter your mind affects the body in the same way that what you put into it. Therefore, balancing both a healthy body and mind is necessary for optimal health, both at present and in the future.
A healthy body keeps one fit and energized at work and home while a healthy mind keeps one focused on concentrating on hobbies and life’s personal goals. Working to improve on both these aspects of health and well-being will not only be beneficial for you but also good for those around you.
Not only do social and family life improve, but leaders and employees display these desirable traits at the workplace by demonstrating higher productivity, fewer sick days, and improved motivation. Understanding this holistic connection is essential in our modern world, where the pace of life is so hectic that it often leaves little room for balance and self-care.
Conclusion
By using all these tools to motivate yourself to live a healthy life you are improving your mind, body, and soul. A healthier you is a happier you.
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