Your overall health is a machine made up of many parts. Generally split into two big sections, consisting of your physical health and your mental well-being. And when either one of these parts is off balanced, it can be hard to focus on the good in your life. Plus you can find it difficult to be hopeful about the future. Or in a worse case scenario to even get out of bed in the morning. If that is the case it might be time to change your lifestyle.

We all have experience with low times in our life, both physically and emotionally. Hopefully we’ve learned a lot from them. For example, we learn how bad we can feel, what helps to alleviate these feelings/sensations. Then we can look at what habits we’ve formed as a result of them. And the habits you commit to, consciously or not, make up your current lifestyle. 

That’s why it’s so important to think actively and openly about the things we do. Then think about how they can affect us in the long run. So, here are some small ways to change your lifestyle that you might not have considered. If you have been feeling low, this is your push to make that change! 

Putting the Phone Down

We spend a lot more time on our phones than we ever realize! And of course, there’s a reason for this – there’s so much to see. There are millions of apps to use, websites to visit, and games to play. However it can mean you spend hours just sitting on the sofa tapping away at your screen. 

Of course, we all fall prey to this. Furthermore this post isn’t here to just tell you how bad technology is! After all, it’s changed our lives in so many great ways, and there’s few people who would trade their phones for a life without them. But as it’s been said before, too much of anything is a bad thing. And too much phone usage can mean you lose time throughout the day. Time which could be spent doing the other, more productive things you want to do. Too much phone use could stop you from really achieving the deep bonds you want with friends and family. 

But how can you change this? Well, start with your work breaks; whether you work from home or not, don’t pick up your phone when you’ve got 20 minutes. Get up and walk around. Instead talk to someone, even do a bit of meditation, and you’ll soon find you actually prefer spending time without it. 

Think About Your Habits

We all have habits, and we’ve all developed them for one reason or another, and we don’t tend to really think about them. However, by taking a moment or two to actively consider the way you spend your time, or how you think and react, you can make a very small yet healthy change in your lifestyle. After all, not all habits are created equally, and some can be quite bad for your overall health and well-being. 

And less than healthy habits can take many forms. Whether you’re a smoker who’s thinking about taking up Pockex Box Aspire, or you don’t exercise very much and know you should move a bit more, or you always react angrily when friends tell you plans have to change, a ‘bad’ habit can do a lot more harm than you realise. 

They can damage your health over time in potentially irreversible ways, and they can damage your relationships too, and absolutely no one wants that. But even just thinking about ways to tweak these habits is a great and small start, and is the kind of push you need to change for the better. 

Stop Having to Explain Yourself

Do you overcompensate when it comes to saying ‘no’ to someone? do you feel bad when you have to turn someone down? or do you even feel guilty telling your boss that you can’t get back to work to cover a shift when someone else is off? Well, it’s time to think about why you react in this way, and what it’s doing to your mental health. 

Guilt is one of the strongest emotions known to man, and it really can make a person do anything! If you feel guilty, you want to make things right, and people tend to play on that. The key is to realize when this is occurring, and when the guilt reaction is actually appropriate. It’s a small change, but it’s powerful. 

Because if you hurt a friend, and they tell you how much it hurt, you should feel guilty, of course. But if your boss needs you to suddenly come in, either on a rare day off or after an 8 hour shift, should you really feel that knot in your stomach over whether or not to say no? Absolutely not! It’s all about realizing what you owe people, based on their connection to you, and whether or not your reaction afterwards is healthy for you.

Feeling Your Negative Emotions

Finally, it’s time to confront the negative emotions in your life. Guilt, as we mentioned above, as well as sadness, anger, shame, jealousy, and even just annoyance are all negative feelings that you’re often told to just let go of. However, this is far easier said than done. Plus if you can’t let go, you just work yourself into another state over how terrible of a person you must be! 

But you’re not a terrible person. Emotions are wide and varied and confusing, and feeling and accepting them all is key to living healthy. This way you accept yourself, and you know that your negative emotions aren’t evil, and don’t have to be disposed of. You can simply feel them, maybe write them down or talk about them. Then move on knowing they’ve actually been dealt with. Don’t bottle them up in the name of positive vibes only! 

It can be hard to let go of the habits we formed to cope with bad or unsatisfactory situations, and it’s time to take baby steps towards a more positive future. So, what needs to change in your lifestyle?