What Is A Negative Habit?
What Is A Negative Habit?
All of us have habits that we repeat every single day. Some of them are more common and adopted by the majority of people like brushing your teeth in the morning and some are not as common like smoking throughout the day.
We form habits because they give us a sense of normalcy, security, and comfort. Are all habits beneficial? You may have heard of negative or bad habits, what are negative habits?
A negative habit is repeated harmful behaviour that has become a normal practice for an individual and it dictates who you become and ultimately your destiny and reality.
It leads to a formation of an identity that is not aligned with your real authentic true self.
So, you may be wondering how else negative and bad habits affect your life. let’s discuss that next.
How Bad Habits Affect Your Life
Negative or bad habits prevent you from living your best meaningful and fulfilling life of infinite possibilities and purpose in alignment with your Soul. You are a soul with a body and your true qualities are love, joy, peace, compassion, kindness, wellbeing, and abundance.
It is not easy to break or change habits. Why? Let’s find out.
Why Habits Are Hard To Break
Habits are hard to break and change because after a while your brain which prefers efficiency to conserve it’s energy forms shortcut pathways in your brain for you to do the habitual actions without thinking about them. Changing a habit requires an ongoing awareness of the triggers of the negative habits as they happen and can be changed with effort, patience, and time.
Next, let’s discuss some habits that affect your mental health negatively.
12 Habits Affecting Mental Health Negatively
Your mental health matters and it is so important that you take care of it. Most people take care of their bodies by exercising and do nothing to take care of their mental health. Your mental health deserves some attention as well because it is responsible for making you feel whatever/however you feel.
Let’s discuss 12 habits that affect your mental health negatively and hopefully you can start changing them.
Constantly Checking Your Phone
Your has become your master instead of you being its master. You are never completely present and are constantly distracted and checking your phone. You feel anxious and run to it when it beeps no matter what you are doing, and are continuously scrolling through social media due to the fear of missing out. It accompanies you to the dining table, washroom, and bedroom.
It is good to just unplug from all the social media on your phone and put your phone away every day for some time so you can be present with your loved ones. Your life will improve and you will feel happier and more in control of your time and mindset.
Consuming Negativity
Consuming negative news, music, videos, and violent movies influences and affects your mental health, thoughts, beliefs, identity, perspective, feeling, words, behaviour, and actions negatively. This negative information becomes part of your emotional diet. What you consume and allow in becomes your reality.
Be aware and guard what you are consuming carefully. Consume positive messages every day so that they become part of who you are, what you believe, and how you think, and guide all your actions and eventually form your destiny.
Negative Self-Talk
Watch what you are saying to yourself when there is no one around. Most people say negative things to themselves that they would never say to their friends like I look so fat, I wish I looked like so and so, I do not like my body etc. Negative self-talk leads to you not feeling good about yourself and having low self-esteem and confidence.
Accept yourself, be proud of who you are, practice self-love and care and stop saying negative things about yourself. You are perfectly created for your purpose and given challenges that you can grow from so you can serve others in a bigger and better way. Know and honour the fact that you are a powerful, divine soul and not your body, race, colour, gender, and all the other roles that you play.
Lack Of Sleep
Lack of not having enough sleep can lead to you not feeling good and not having enough energy. Aim to sleep 6-8 hours of every night. In order to get a good night’s sleep avoid having caffeine too late in the day, shut off all blue light emitting devices an hour before bed, do not do anything stressful and think any negative thoughts right before going to bed instead think of all the things that you are grateful for as you drift into your sleep.
If possible, be fast asleep between the hours of 10:00PM to 2:00AM for maximum rejuvenation and rest of your body and brain. A dark quiet room that is not too hot is good for ideal restful sleep.
Procrastination And Fear
Do not let fear, doubt and procrastination stop you from doing what and feeling stuck and overwhelmed. You are here now for a reason and deserve to live your best meaningful, purposeful, fulfilling, and impactful best life.
Know that who you are is bigger than any fear and doubt. Your life is full of infinite possibilities. You are here for a purpose and for a short time so don’t waste that time and make sure you are proceeding forward with faith and trust. You live in a very intelligent universe that is always here to support you.
Disorder In Your Life
If you are always running around, and your life has no order or routine for self-care then you will eventually burn out and not feel good about yourself and life. Have a daily morning and evening routine for self-care, practice gratitude, recite positive affirmations, and connect to your creator via prayer and meditation.
Blaming Circumstances And Others
When you blame the circumstance or other people for how you feel you are giving power and control of your life away to others. It will be easy for you to feel helpless and hopeless. You are 100% responsible for creating your dream life. No one has that power over you unless you give it to them.
The way you feel is not determined by other people or circumstances it is a result of a story you make up and tell yourself based on your identity, beliefs, thoughts, feelings, actions, words, personality, habits, and destiny.
Not Enough Time In Silence
You will feel lost and unhappy if you are always distracted and around a lot of noise always. It is important to find some time daily alone and in silence.
Go for a walkout in nature, meditate, and pray every single day to connect to your creator and get guidance so that you can fulfill your purpose. You are your Creator’s instrument and your soul is here to fulfill a purpose so discover what that is as soon as possible.
Too Much Clutter
If you have too much clutter in your environment and house it will lead to a cluttered mind, lack of concentration, clarity, and mental focus. Go through your house and other environments to declutter regularly and start donating things that you no longer use or need to other people who will love and enjoy them.
Comparison
When you compare yourself to others you will start feeling not good enough or like you do not have enough. Don’t compare yourself to other people. Everybody’s here to fulfill their function and their purpose just because someone looks happier doesn’t mean that they are happier and even if they are, you are here to fulfill your purpose.
The more you grow the more you serve the better you’ll do in life so don’t compare yourself to others everybody is here on their path and you don’t know what’s going on in their life. Do not waste your time instead focus on your growth and serve others and fulfill your purpose.
Addictions
All addictions like eating processed food, excessive alcohol, drugs, and smoking will make you feel good temporarily never permanently. Anything that is not in alignment with your higher self and soul is not going to give you permanent joy and bliss. Instead learn to sit in pain and figure out what you are feeling, and why you are feeling that way and heal yourself with forgiveness, and gratitude, and by putting your focus on serving others.
Isolation
If you are used to being isolated and not visiting anyone then you maybe feel sad and experience loneliness. We are social creatures by nature we do need interaction and connection with other human beings. We have gone through a challenging few years due to the pandemic and not being allowed to see and get together with anybody.
Those of us who had family members were lucky to not be isolated and alone in comparison to those of us that had nobody to get together with. Do not stay isolated reach out to some friends, make new friends, go to the mall, the community center, public library to be around and interact with other people and lastly call for help if you need help. We all need interaction and connection with other human beings.
In conclusion, you now know that a negative habit is repeated harmful behaviour that has become a normal practice for an individual and it dictates who you become and ultimately your destiny and reality. It leads to a formation of an identity that is not aligned with your real authentic true self.
It prevents you from living your best meaningful and fulfilling life of infinite possibilities and purpose that you were born to as your higher self. You are a soul with the body and your true essence is love, joy, peace, compassion, kindness, wellbeing, and abundance.
Habits are hard to break and change because after a while the brain which prefers efficiency to conserve energy forms shortcut pathways in our brain for us to do the habitual actions without thinking about them. Changing a habit requires an ongoing awareness of the triggers of the negative habits as they happen, effort, patience, and time.
The 12 habits that affect your mental habits negatively are constantly checking your phone, consuming negativity, negative self-talk, lack of sleep, procrastination and fear, disorder, blaming circumstances and others, not enough time in silence, too much clutter, comparison, addictions, and isolation.
Next, read why is it important to manage your stress and anxiety for further helpful insights.