Physical and mental health are intrinsically linked, and both take a combination of conscious effort and routine habits to maintain.
Changing your habits and implementing new ones can be challenging, and it can be overwhelming trying to figure out where to start.
To help you get started, we’ve published this blog – keep reading to learn more about healthy changes you can make in your life!
What are the benefits of implementing healthy habits?
Healthy habits can help to protect you from serious physical health problems such as obesity and diabetes, as well as manage any existing conditions.
Healthy habits also help to improve mental health, assist in staying focused and productive and can also help to improve your physical health through weight management and feeling like you have more energy.
How do you adjust your current habits?
Old habits die hard, so it is important to understand firstly what habits are currently employed, such as drinking, overeating or undereating and why these habits are used.
Start small when looking to adjust them and set small achievable goals, perhaps only adjust one behaviour at a time to assist in meeting them.
Importantly, don’t be afraid to fail – if the adjustment doesn’t work, reflect on why and adjust the goals to reflect this.
How do you develop new healthy habits?
Wendy Wood, a social psychologist at the University of Southern California who has researched how habits are formed and changed, has found that one important feature of habits is that they’re triggered by cues in our surroundings.
She uses an analogy of waking in the morning, going to the kitchen and making a coffee with the reward being a freshly brewed cup to show that habits generally offer a reward.
One suggested way to build new habits is to build on existing ones – start by identifying triggers and associated habits and then add a healthy habit to the routine and slowly remove the unhealthy habit.
Start small: if the goal is to get fitter and run every day, start by incorporating a small walk, even if it is just around the garden, once that becomes habit, increase the number of times you walk around until that too is a habit, gradually building these habits into routines means there is a greater likelihood of success.
How can WA Management help?
WA Management offer a Healthy Living online training course suitable for anyone looking to learn more about living a healthy lifestyle.
Mental Health Awareness and Healthy Living training courses are essential tools in improving physical and mental wellbeing. Make sure you don’t miss out on our 10% off deal on these courses, available until the end of January. Simply enter the code ‘wellbeing10’ at checkout to save!
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