Good personal habits go a long way in helping you maintain good health. They shape your personality and define who you really are. Have you thought of the good personal habits you should essentially have? This WellnessKeen article gives you a list.
A personal habit can be defined as an established custom or a pattern of behavior that repeats. We have certain personal habits that are important to us. We talk of cultivating good habits in children. If developed early in life and if their importance is understood, these habits stay with us for life. They become a part of our daily life and integral to who we are. Personal hygiene habits are important for our health.
Good fitness, eating, and sleeping habits, if established at the right age, have many long-term benefits for our health and well-being. And among the most important good habits are the ones developed for mental fitness and those which help you become a good human being. Here, we give you a list of good personal habits you need to have.
Maintain Personal Hygiene
Personal cleanliness and hygiene is one of the most important factors that contributes to a healthy living. Uncleanliness can invite illness. Lack of hygiene can make you feel dull and sick. Moreover, an unkempt look is quite unappealing to the people around you. Good personal hygiene habits make you and the ones around you, feel good.
- Brush your teeth twice a day.
- Floss daily.
- Clean your tongue daily.
- Wash your hands after using the washroom.
- Wash your hands, feet, and face after coming home from outside. And change into clean clothes.
- Wash your hands before eating.
- After every meal, rinse your mouth with water.
- Use a tissue or a handkerchief while sneezing or coughing.
- Lather well with soap while bathing.
- Use sufficient water to remove the dirt and soap.
- Wash your hair regularly.
- On bathing, dry all the areas well.
- Wear clean clothes.
- Use an antiperspirant if you need to.
- Smell good.
Eat Healthy
Following a healthy diet, based on your age, health condition, and level of daily activity is a good habit you need to have. Eating at the right time, and in the right quantities is important for the maintenance of overall health. Frequent consumption of junk foods should be avoided. The most tempting of foods are often the most harmful ones. Both skipping meals and overeating are bad eating habits that you should stay away from.
- Have a heavy breakfast, a less heavy lunch, and a light dinner.
- Include a fruit in your daily diet.
- Follow a balanced diet.
- Follow regular meal times.
- Maintain a journal to monitor what and how much you eat.
- Identify your hunger. Eat when your feel hungry.
- Instead of fast food, have healthy snacks.
- Drink plenty of water everyday. Stay hydrated.
- Have dinner early.
- Eat slowly.
- Chew your food properly.
- Sit down at a table to eat.
- Instead of less number of large meals, have more number of small meals each day.
- Include healthy carbohydrates, proteins, unsaturated fats, and fiber in your daily diet.
- Avoid packaged food.
- Avoid processed foods.
- If eating outside, ensure the food’s cleanliness.
- Do not eat while watching TV.
- Have meals with your family.
Sleep Well
“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”, is something you must have heard from your elders when you were a kid. But do you really follow it? Do your children follow it? The simple saying summarizes how a healthy lifestyle should be. The amount and quality of sleep you get everyday and the time you sleep at, has a great influence on your energy levels throughout the day as well as the functioning of your body and mind. Sleeping more or sleeping less can bring laze and ill health.
- Keep a regular time to go to bed.
- Wake up at a regular time daily.
- Relax your mind before going to bed.
- Avoid having alcohol, coffee, or fatty foods just before going to bed. Eat light.
- While sleeping, keep all the distractions away.
- Just before sleeping, switch off the lights and see that the room temperature is comfortable.
- Sleep in a comfortable bed.
- Relax your muscles before going to bed.
- Have warm milk before bedtime. Or have a warm bath. It will help induce sleep.
- Keep the noise levels down before bedtime.
- Do not force yourself to sleep.
- Wake up naturally, without an alarm.
Exercise
Daily exercise is an important personal habit that you need to have. It is one habit that applies to every phase of life and it reaps plentifully. You need to understand the importance of a daily workout and start following it with dedication. It is absolutely necessary to find some time from your busy schedule and devote it to exercise.
- Do stretching exercises daily.
- Take a walk everyday.
- Find a workout partner. The exercise routine will be more enjoyable.
- Do a 10 or 15 minute aerobic activity daily.
- Include strength training exercises in your daily workout regime.
- Don’t work out on an empty stomach.
- If you are in a sedentary job, move around or stretch periodically.
- Spend your spare time in anything that involves physical activity.
- Find ways to enjoy your exercise.
- Walk your pet.
Mental Fitness
Your mental health is as important as your physical fitness. There are several activities that boost mental health. It is important to calm your mind, bust your stress, stop worrying too much about your future and start living in the present. It is important to realize that ‘now’ is all the time you have and it is in your hands to make the most of it. It is only wise to accept yourself and the world around, be happy and make others happy too. What’s essential for your well-being is mental peace. The following personal habits can help you with the same.
- Meditate.
- Breathe deeply.
- Practice yoga.
- Practice positive visualization.
- Make positive affirmations to yourself.
- Motivate yourself.
- Spend some time in the proximity of nature.
- Pray.
- Before going to bed, think about all the good things that happened to you during the day.
- Spend some time with yourself.
- Devote some time daily to something you like to do (your hobby).
- Spend some time daily, doing nothing.
- Don’t be judgmental.
- Be thankful.
- Be positive.
- Smile more.
- Be happy.
Read
We really feel, reading should be on your list of personal habits. It gives you knowledge, it entertains you; through reading you can learn about the world and about life. Reading is inspiring. It can develop into a very good hobby, it aids in language development and teaches children the values of life. By reading good content, you make a positive addition to your knowledge and experience. Reading is a good personal habit for the enriching experience that it turns out to be.
- Read something daily.
- Read everything that’s worth reading.
- Maintain a list of books worth a read, that you are yet to, and plan to read them.
- Invest in good books. Have your own book collection.
- Take notes from what you read.
- Learn from what you read.
- Seek inspiration from reading.
For a Better You
There are some things you should do, just to be a better you. With each passing day, you should get better than what you were. Learning from your mistakes, shunning the bad, and always adhering to the good, you must try to develop yourself as an individual and be a good human being. Socializing to know what’s happening around you, and introspecting to know what’s going on within, are two important personal habits you should have.
- Help the ones who are less fortunate.
- Provide what you have in excess (clothes, food, money, etc.) to those deprived of it.
- Greet the people you meet, with a smile.
- Socialize for some time daily.
- Make new friends.
- Motivate someone.
- Pay a compliment when you sincerely feel like. Don’t hesitate.
- Have a pleasing disposition.
- Make someone smile.
- Do something that makes someone feel special.
- Say “thank you” when you are grateful.
- Say “sorry” when you are wrong.
- Spread cheer through your presence.
- Derive a lesson to learn from every experience you have.
- Laugh and make others do it.
- Show love.
- Be kind.
- Understand the feelings of others.
- Do your bit for the environment.
- Support what’s right; discourage what’s wrong.
- Maintain a journal to monitor your health.
- Write a diary.
- Take some time out daily, to plan for the next day.
- Manage your time well.
- Reflect on your goals. See what you want from life.
These were some of the personal good habits that you should have. A basic understanding of what is detrimental to your physical and mental well-being, helps you differentiate between the good and bad habits. Make a habit to follow everything that is good and break away from anything that is bad. Cultivate yourself into a better human being.