How to eliminate an unhealthy habit, in 6 steps

Habits and routines that we want to banish from our life: Psychology helps us to achieve it.

Lately, the word habit is often heard and even more often written about this term and it is found as a fundamental ingredient to achieve what we want.

For example; habits to incorporate sport in your daily life, habits to integrate healthy foods in your life, habits to improve your self-esteem, habits to improve your health, habits to improve your health.habits to improve self-esteem, but what does the word habit suggest to you?

What exactly is a habit?

A habit is a behavior that we carry out in our day to day, it is part of our routine and we do it on autopilot. and we perform it on autopilot, without questioning it.

There are healthy habits such as applying body lotion after showering. However, our routine is made up of bad habits or unhealthy habits that when we perform them on autopilot, we generally do not question them since we do not even realize that we are carrying out that particular behavior.

Unhealthy habits are those that are detrimental to health and are generated by underlying problems, these problems are usually emotional.These problems are generally emotional. That is, by poorly managed negative emotions.

Negative habits that harm us

Currently the most common negative emotions are stress and anxiety. Without ruling out frustration, worry, envy....

These emotions lead to non-beneficial habits, such as nail-biting, smoking, etc.We are not only talking about the bad habits we have, but we are also talking about the bad habits we have, insistently and frequently checking social networks, eating between meals when we are not hungry, that is to say, gluttony, among many other routines that do not contribute anything positive to our lives.

Steps and strategies to give up a bad habit

Are you tired of these bad habits? Do you want to change these habits and don't know how?

In this article I encourage you to implement the strategies and exercises that I propose to replace unhealthy habits by healthy, positive, beneficial and productive habits, so if you want to: here and now we start!

1. Identify a habit you don't like and don't feel good with

The first step seems obvious, but it is crucial. We must detect what exactly is that habit that is limiting our life and that we want to eliminate from our life. Once we know exactly what it is, everything that follows is much simpler.

2. Decide to change

To get rid of a bad habit you have to be aware of the damage it is doing to you, noting its consequences.. To reinforce this decision, write down the benefits that you will obtain when you get rid of the bad habit.

Remember that changing and getting rid of a bad habit is not achieved only with the decision, it takes work, effort, willpower and carrying out the steps that I propose, so do not stop reading.

3. How many times does the bad habit appear?

Write down how many times you repeat the bad habit throughout the day and record it for 21 days.

4. What or who gives life to your bad habit?

Identify, observe, be aware of what or who gives life to your bad habit and write it down.Do you feel anxious every time you have to speak in public and this makes you drink a lot of coffee? Do you feel anxious every time you have to face a job interview and this makes you smoke more? Do you overeat without hunger as a scheduled family gathering approaches? Do you constantly complain and criticize when you visit social networks? Do you eat between meals when you are nervous?

Taking the last case as an example: the unhealthy habit is to eat between meals and what gives you life is this state of nervousness. Write down what or who generates this state of nervousness.

5. Replace the unhealthy habit

Replace, change the bad habit for a healthy habit.This way it is less difficult since the habit, being a behavior and therefore a routine, occupies part of our time.

It is impossible to eliminate the bad habit simply because we will have a feeling of emptiness and this can make us fall back into the bad habit. Therefore, it is important to choose a healthy habit to replace the bad habit and behave as we really want to.

6. Reward yourself

As you acquire the desired habit, reward yourself. Aside from feeling and experiencing the benefits of the healthy habit, reward yourself with something rewarding for achieving what you set out to do..

Now with these six exercises you are ready to eliminate any habit that you do not like, that does not make you feel good, that is not beneficial to your health and replace it with a habit, a routine, a healthy, beneficial and constructive behavior.

Remember, with one day of training in the gym you will not get the desired physical results, the same happens with the mind and emotions, work daily, be tenacious, have willpower and be perseverant to get the healthy life you want and deserve.