Create Healthy Habits

“Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.”
—Shaquille ONeal

Many very talented people got to be that way with hard work and lots of practice. Ask anyone who teaches a musical instrument about learning and they will tell you that the most important thing is to practice. Some of the greatest talents in the world, including those who invented things we take for granted, spent abundant time and repeated tries at becoming the best or finally inventing that thing they sought after.

We don’t become great at anything if we don’t spend time with it. We also don’t have good relationships with our families, friends, or partners if we don’t nurture those relationships.

Becoming what we want to become doesn’t just happen to us; we create it by making it a habit. Those of us who work out regularly know the importance of the routine and we don’t like to skip working out on our scheduled days because it’s easy to skip again if we skip once. Making something a habit causes us to be able to continue to do it, even when we’d rather do a hundred other things.

Being a kind and gentle person can be attained with practice. Learning patience may be achieved when we repeatedly work at being patient when confronted with certain situations. Being punctual rather than late all the time can become a good habit to have. Eating right and skipping certain foods or bad eating habits can become routine.

It’s all about doing the things that get us where we want to be. If we want to lose weight, we have to do certain things to attain that. Maybe we want to stop having bad relationships and we need to break our old patterns and form new ones; this takes practice.

Habits can be healthy or unhealthy. It’s better to repeatedly do the healthy things in life than those that are bad for us. Once we replace the bad patterns with good ones we find we don’t have much time for the bad.

Whatever you do you become; make your rituals things that help rather than hurt.

Exercise is Invaluable

“Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person’s physical, emotional, and mental states.”
—Carol Welch

No matter if we’re trying to lose weight, get over stress and anxiety, clear our minds or solve a problem, exercise can offer a solution. It’s not just an emotional salve; it has chemical properties in the brain that makes us feel better. Think “runners high,” although we don’t have to run to feel better.

A brisk walk where we get our blood pumping and exert some energy and sweat can be a fabulous way to let off steam or think. Sometimes getting up and doing it are the last things we can imagine doing. If we do it anyway, we reap the benefits soon after hitting the streets, gym, trails, etc. It clearly can’t hurt anything to give it a try if you’ve never experienced it or if you feel too out of shape from not exercising for a long time, although going easy is best if it’s been some time since exerting yourself.

Another added benefit is if we can get out and about on a nice day with sunshine during the time of year when it’s dark more than light and the sun doesn’t shine a lot of days. We get out on a cold brisk sunny day and soak up the rays while breathing in fresh air instead of that which has been circulating through our homes and offices for days.

We also may find new, fresh thoughts replacing the stale, ugly thinking that’s been swirling in our minds for hours, days or forever.

Exercise is a healthy de-stressor.