Living a healthy life can be very hard, especially in the years during and after a global pandemic where a lot of negative things are happening for different people. Working at home became popular during this time, but instead of helping people feel more relaxed because they are able to do their work without the need to commute or drive to the office, it further raised the stress levels for some workers since feeling being trapped in the four corners of your home office can be claustrophobic and may lead them to suffer from cabin fever.
Because of the increased stress brought not only by office work but also by the negative atmosphere caused by the pandemic, it can be difficult to motivate yourself to live a healthy life. However, living a healthy life can actually help you lower your stress levels and have a more positive outlook, which will be beneficial in the long run. To help you get started on how to feel more positive, here are some of the best habits to help you live a healthy life.
Get Some Exercise
Although it may sound cliché at this point, getting some exercise at least once a day can be beneficial for a healthy life. Exercise does not only affect you physically, as it would burn down calories to help you lose weight and have a healthier body, but it can also benefit you mentally since it releases several hormones that are supposed to energize your body. The hormones that are increased by exercise are adrenaline (makes you feel more energized), cortisol (enhances alertness), and endorphins (elevates your mood). The ideal duration of exercise that you should get per week is 150 minutes, but you can increase that if you have plenty of time in the morning.
Have a Healthy Diet
Besides getting exercise, having a healthy diet could also be beneficial for your physical and mental health. A healthy and balanced diet consisting of lean protein, vegetables, and fruits allows you to have sufficient energy to go through the day, and it also prevents your body from having any severe illnesses caused by weight gains, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Having a healthy lifestyle through daily exercise and proper will make you have a more fit body, which is helpful for you to have more confidence in yourself.
Reduce Your Time on Social Media
There was a time when social media apps were platforms for people to share happy memories and events. But today, you would likely see more negativity than positivity on Facebook and Twitter, as it is now filled with posts about disasters and bad events happening around the world. For the benefit of your mental health, it is recommended that you reduce your time on social media and just focus on doing other things that will help you feel more positive. In this era, it is still important to open a social media app so you can connect with friends and loved ones, but it is also essential to reduce your time on it since it may eventually be too time-consuming that you won’t be able to do anything else. Instead of always checking on your social media apps, you can do other things, which will be discussed on the next habit.
Learn Some New Hobbies
Keeping yourself busy while doing fun activities is good for your mental health, and some of those activities that you can do daily are discovering or learning new hobbies. You can learn how to draw or paint artworks, learn instruments, read self-help books, or just discover new video games to play. All of these activities allow you to have an “escape” where you can just experience joy instead of focusing on your stress and problems. Learning a new hobby can be difficult at first, but through constant practice, you will feel motivated to get better at your chosen hobby.
Have Proper Sleep
The simplest habit that you need to do to live healthily is to get good sleep every day, as it allows your body to rest, relax, and recover from the daily stresses of your life. Most self-care experts would say that the ideal duration for good sleep is seven to eight hours, and the sleep should be done early in the night so that your body clock wouldn’t get disrupted since we are not naturally programmed to sleep during the day. However, if you have night shift work, it would be best to buy black-out curtains or a sleep mask so that you can trick your brain that it is nighttime if you need to sleep in the morning or afternoon. Have a good sleep schedule and follow it diligently so you won’t lack sleep or oversleep.
Instead of thinking about the problems that are happening in the world and in your life, you should just focus on the positive things that you are experiencing in the present time to have a healthy mindset. Of course, focusing on only the positive happenings in your life doesn’t really mean that you should ignore any problems, but having a positive outlook could help you solve those problems with relative ease.