14 Healthy Habit Ideas To Consider Learning
The statement “nobody is perfect” doesn’t translate to an excuse for leading our lives in the most deplorable form while making zero attempts to embrace a healthier lifestyle and behaviour. Before we advance to change the world (and even while we’re doing so), let's make time to take an inventory of our lives, considering areas in which we may need more effort or improvement. We’ll find that there’s always some personal project to embark on if getting better is our goal.
In this article, we’ll be discussing 15 healthy habits to consider learning. While this list isn’t exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination, I hope it’s the spark your mind needs to adopt a healthy habit that can improve your overall well-being, no matter how little.
I’ve divided the habits into three sections; mental & emotional, relational and physical. Let’s dive right in.
Mental and Emotional Healthy Habit Ideas
Embrace Self Awareness & Accountability
Surround Yourself With Positive Visual Elements
Update Your Brain
Choose Your Battles
Take Screen Breaks
Give Small Gifts
Honor Commitments
Take Responsibility
Facilitate Civil Confrontations
Demonstrate Empathy & Compassion
Organize Your Space
Add Physical Activity to Your Day
Watch Your Diet
Monitor Your Posture
Why play self-defense in your mind when you can be honest instead? Just admit it. You’re weak sometimes. You mess up. And, there are things you know you’ll be better off quitting or avoiding. Accepting your contributions to any unfortunate situation is a healthy mindset to adopt because it makes you fully aware of your mistakes, learn from them, and make active corrections rather than take the role of a passive participator who believes they’re always victims of circumstances.
Sometimes, correction may be a long-winded journey, but how will you start if you don’t first identify what needs to change? While there are always circumstances outside of our control, training our minds to take responsibility for our reactions is better for our growth than constantly deflecting to everything, but ourselves.
What you feed your mind encounters frequently, it remembers. Students want to recall what they study during tests or exams so they review relevant materials and books repeatedly (well, good students). Now, what would you like to remember often? Maybe a great feat you didn’t think you’d achieve but did anyway. Or, scriptures that fill you with hope and strength? an encouraging text when you were going through a difficult? Or, pictures of an amazing place you visited with your family?
On some days, all you need to put a smile on your face are those visuals you surround yourself with. So, keep the messages, souvenirs, bible verses, images, and everything that brings you a little hope, strength, and joy. It’s a great habit to have in this sometimes stressful world.
Knowledge is inexhaustible, there’s always something new to learn if you’re up for it. Whether it’s work-related, spirituality, science, hobby, sports, fiction, content creation, or whatever. A little bit of research and study from time to time is necessary. You may be having a conversation with a friend and struggle to remember what something means or how to spell a word, just do a quick online search. Why stress yourself unnecessarily when you can quickly learn something or strengthen an existing memory? When you find an opportunity to expand your knowledge, go for it!
Whatever you set your mind to find, you’ll most likely find it. It may be easy or difficult depending on what you choose, but evil and good both co-exist in this world so you can always trust to find their expressions. Make a conscious effort to avoid what you don’t need and make room for the things you prefer.
If there’s something you want, go ahead and work towards that. Whether you want to quit an addiction, build a meaningful relationship, or heal from trauma. Chances are a version of what you’re trying to achieve already exists. Don’t mind that your environment seems to be saying the opposite.
Sometimes, you need some time away from the load of information and content on social media. Yes, social media is something that could influence our mental health and emotions so we want to ensure we’re in control and not the other way around.
I mean, why do you doom scroll when you have tasks to complete? Come on now, drop the phone, and face your daily tasks head-on. Spend an hour planning for your week, and organize your calendar. Clear the overwhelming information by focusing on what’s right in front of you. Enjoy a nice conversation. Meet up with other humans and interact. Intentionally fill your mind with what you want, read a book or something. Go on a spiritual retreat. Just leave social media for a bit. It feels great!
Relational Healthy Habit Ideas
This is one area I’m struggling to work on. But, having a memory of my friend jumping like a little girl to hug me when I bought her shortbread biscuit without her asking is an encouragement to keep going.
That’s the idea of gifts, they shouldn’t expect or request for it first. But hey, no pressure here. You can get small gifts when going to see someone especially when you haven’t seen them in a while. The gift doesn’t have to be anything fancy. It could be fruit, bread, or some fancy pen. Feel free to be creative, extra points if you know what the person would like. Such a simple gesture is how you create sweet memories and build stronger connections with people.
Yes, I know. Sometimes, we make promises we’re unable to keep. But, we shouldn’t make it a habit. Carefully consider your schedule before committing to a task or responsibility. If for any reason, you’re unable to honor a commitment, do well to communicate that to whoever is involved. It’s uncomfortable, and if you’re anything like me, ghosting seems to be the better option. But, since we’re learning new habits, we’re calling out the areas where we need improvement. So, let’s work on honoring our commitments! Hehe!
What’s your reaction to a mistake, failure, or screw-up in a team, friendship, or your family? Do you hide under the rock, point fingers, or defend yourself until the other party is exhausted? Practicing accountability means finding the humility to admit your contributions to an unfortunate event and the courage to implement whatever changes are necessary to guarantee favorable outcomes in the future. Being accountable may not always be palatable as you have to answer for your shortcomings and be vulnerable. But, it allows you to grow and potentially strengthen your relationships.
I cringe at confrontations, but sometimes they’re unavoidable. We have two extremes on this matter. One, you’re very volatile and create a scene, ready to attack at the slightest offense. Two, you pile up grievances in an attempt to ignore them because you’re avoiding the discomfort of a confrontation.
This is a tricky matter, but confrontation is part of human relations. When you need to confront someone, do so in private, talk in a calm tone, and allow them to express themselves afterward. Acknowledge their feelings as much as possible, hopefully, you can both reach a reasonable conclusion. Some issues may be so complex, that you may need the intervention of someone you both know and respect to help the conversation. But hey, do your best, okay? Okay.
We all have different personalities, thought processes, and life experiences, which explains our uniqueness. While we can’t account for how everyone treats us, we can choose to demonstrate empathy and compassion. Accepting that people see and experience life differently can help us get along better with those around us. Sometimes, you need to extend grace and cut people some slack.
Physical Healthy Habit Ideas
I feel a lot more hopeful when my surrounding environment is neat and organized. Unless you get inspiration from a messy space, keeping your living space organized is hygienic and calming to the brain. Depending on how disorganized your current space is, you may need to clean up in batches. You don’t have to clean out your entire room or house in a day, but you can clear out your reading table and shoe rack, arrange your closet and wardrobe in a day, throw out things you don’t need, and maybe mop your room the next day. The idea is to build a habit of doing one or two things daily or weekly to improve your living space and avoid feeling overwhelmed.
You probably can’t count all the times you’ve been advised to exercise regularly, right? But, hey, routine physical activity is worth all that hype. It isn’t just a way to burn fat or lose weight, it’s great for your mood, muscles, tolerance, flexibility, and all other sweet benefits.
Do you need to visit the gym? You can, but not really. You could set a timer for 15 minutes every morning, do a couple of squats or push-ups, sit-ups, plank, yoga, you know? Something to get your adrenaline and dopamine hit. I found this channel for beginner-friendly yoga, and it’s been great. Are you feeling down or depressed by being indoors or in front of screens all day? Take a walk in the evening, enjoy the cool breeze. It’s weird how that simple action can make you feel relaxed and hopeful.
I used to be a shawarma lover, eating it frequently and I noticed it consistently made me bloated (especially because I ate it while drinking coke), I decided to avoid it as much as possible. It’s July and I haven’t had or craved it this year. We’re still weaning off coke, hehe.
Watch out for food items and ingredients that aren’t great for you depending on your work schedule, body stature, or personal goals. And, as we all know, heavily processed food items are the least nutritious and most unhealthy.
The goal here isn’t a strict unrealistic diet. You can practice removing one unhealthy item from your diet in a week or month to see how well you thrive without it. In church, we do this as part of our fast. While it’s a way to seek God, it also feels pretty great to do just fine without the food you believe you’re so addicted to.
Have you ever caught yourself creepily bending your spine? I’ve noticed that I tend to slouch my shoulders leaning my head a little further than it should be, it's been a tough habit to break. My weird bending posture causes my lower back to ache. You may be experiencing a different postural issue, but I bet it feels better to leave the spine at the angle it prefers.
Learning the habit of proper posture may include intentionally reverting to the right position whenever you catch yourself bending weirdly. Get your friends and family in on it too. Tell them to let you know when you need to straighten your spine or just sit properly.
Learning New Habits
Time will pass no matter what we do, but we can consciously make the most of it. If you’re interested in practicing something from these healthy habit ideas but aren’t sure you’d keep up, then take this old advice - make it simple. Break any obstacle or excuse by making the first step simple and fixing a particular time to start. Visualize learning new habits as an exciting (sometimes challenging) journey to create more wholesome experiences. Have fun, you got this!