11 Healthy Habits That Make You Emotionally Stronger

By Drew Long

You may have read before that healthy habits are the key to personal and professional success. They say in order to develop a habit you need to be consistent with it for 28 days. That’s three weeks of being intentional to change your habits in order to potentially gain positive life change. It may not be easy, but you’ll be glad you stuck with it!

Here are some healthy habits to make your life better:

1. Physical Activity

Do 10 sit-ups or push-ups. Go outside and jog around the block three times. The trick here is to start small: you can gradually increase volume and intensity.

2. Sit Quietly

Monitor your breath for five minutes. Gradually increase over time. Now you have a meditation habit. (Among other benefits, people who meditate spend 11% less on medical costs per year.)

3. Create Better Communication

Call a friend you haven’t talked to in a while. Write a thank-you note, even if it’s just via e-mail. Follow up on emails that you still haven’t replied to (this is my personal weakness). Voila, now you’re a person who follows good communication etiquette.

4. Go to a Farmer’s Market

While there, buy yourself some local foods; then find a recipe that will make them delicious. Just like that, you’re a person who can prepare a tasty meal.

5. Replace All the Liquids You Drink with Water, Green Tea, White Tea or Fair-Trade Coffee

(If you currently drink more coffee than you’d like, substitute green or white tea instead.) There are many health benefits associated with both tea and coffee, and you can easily maximize by drinking both. If you’re an athlete, you could also probably benefit from taking a multivitamin, fish or krill oil or MCT oil.

6. Dial in Your Sleep Schedule

Sleep must be considered in conjunction with diet, exercise, stress and a host of other factors to get an accurate read.

7. Journal

Processing your days through writing can be a huge release. Not only will it help you to have a more clear perspective of the interactions you had throughout the day it will allow you to record in detail the happy memories you wish to remember.

8. Look at Your Financial Situation

Are you just throwing money away on unused subscriptions and casual entertainments? Money is to be used to further your purpose and dreams in the world, so consider if you could be paying off debt more quickly, saving for future goals and otherwise being more economical. Nature rewards those who are economically sound.

9. Do One Thing You Love Each Week

Make sure this thing feeds your soul and your passion, whether it be making music, cooking, writing, reading, photography, blogging, programming or something else entirely. Whatever it is that makes you feel like you’re living to the fullest.

10. Examine and Evolve Your Media Consumption

Remember, garbage in, garbage out. How much negativity do you put into your system each day through reading news outlets, random browsing and violent and provocative movies? Consider cleaning up your influences so they add energy to your system, rather than taking energy away (which eventually depresses you.)

11. Practicing for Life Using Visualization

Elite athletes know the power of visualization and use it to continue dominating their sport or activity. There’s no reason why we can’t use the same power. Mentally rehearse an upcoming meeting, negotiation, annual review, interview or any other important meeting. I achieved great success in the corporate world just visualizing my humdrum daily status meetings. And they went better.

If you are looking for a theme to the above list, here it is: cleansing from your life all influences that tend to depress or drain away your energy, and adding to your life all influences that will generate more energy.

Originally published at lightworkers.com