You might not notice it, but many of your daily habits can be the cause of your low energy and exhaustion during the day.
Mental and physical exhaustion and fatigue are more common now than ever, and they are all symptoms of bad habits and lifestyle choices that drain your energy.
How we live and our daily routine can immensely affect our well-being and our productivity during the day.
Habits are very important in our daily lives. They make up the patterns that define who we are and how we live, as well as our lifestyle quality in the long run. This makes it hard to break bad habits that you have developed for years.
Fortunately, these habits can be altered or broken with consistency and by adapting better and positive daily activities in your life that will allow you to stay motivated and get through your daily chores with higher energy.
Integrating new positive habits into your life can have many benefits for your physical and mental health. These changes can combat diseases and health conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. They will also help you manage your time and boost your energy.
However, it is important to first acknowledge and define all the negative habits that drain our energy and hinder our physical and mental health, and then gradually adopt new positive habits that allow for positive personal growth.
Poor diet
The food we consume and the diet we follow have a great impact on our health and our daily performance. Having a busy schedule with work or studying can interrupt your healthy eating and lead you to eat more fast food than your body can handle.
Processed foods contain a high amount of sugar, sodium, and fat that can lead to serious health issues and complications such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. Junk food is high in calories with little nutritional value, lacking vitamins, fiber, and minerals, which causes your body and brain to tire and quickly fall into exhaustion during the day.
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It is important to make your diet a priority and adopt healthy eating habits that will not drain your energy. The right diet of vegetables, lean protein, whole grains, and healthy fats can help you stay alert during the day.
Less caffeine, more water
Not drinking enough water through is a bad habit that easily drains your energy. Dehydration is a serious health condition that should not be overlooked. Mild dehydration can impact your body and brain’s functioning during the day and cause trouble focusing.
Many people opt for energy drinks or coffee when they are feeling tired and dehydrated. This is a huge mistake because those drinks are high in calories, sugar, and stimulants. You may feel energetic in the first hour but you will quickly lose that energy and risk health complications such as addiction, insomnia, anxiety, rapid heart rate, and high blood pressure.
The best way to stay hydrated is to keep a water bottle with you at all times and drink from time to time even if you are not thirsty—being thirsty is a sign from your body that you are not hydrated enough.
Excessive social media usage
Social media is not inherently bad. It can make our life easier, bring us worldwide news fast, connect us to our friends and family no matter how far they are, and educate us.
However, excessive use of anything can turn bad and have a negative effect on us. Using social media for hours during the day can be distracting, reduce productivity, and drain energy.
Social media can also be addictive, cause anxiety, and trigger negative habits such as comparison, seeking validation, and worrying about what other people are doing and what they think of you. In reality, none of that matters or adds value to your life or personal growth.
It is essential to use social media in smart ways. For example, you can use it for inspiration and follow pages that encourage you to be positive and teach you how to have a healthier lifestyle.
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You can also pay attention to the amount you spend on social media and try to lower it little by little so it can be easy or indulge in other activities that you love and enjoy. Try disabling the notifications on your social media apps.
Bad sleep
Beside draining your energy and decreasing your productivity during the day, not getting a good night’s sleep can also increase risks of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, and depression.
To improve your sleep, you have to know first what results in your lack of sleep. This can have many causes such as poor diet, stress, and anxiety, work schedules, or lack of exercise. Knowing what causes your bad sleep will help you directly treat the problem and improve your rest.
Aim to sleep the recommended time for your body and brain, which is generally 7 to 8 hours. To improve your sleep quality, you have to change your diet to a healthy one, avoid drinking too much caffeine, and eat food that promotes sleep like nuts, seeds, bananas, honey, and eggs.
Read also: How to Achieve a Better Night’s Sleep
Learning how to manage your time and creating a regular bedtime routine will help you get sufficient sleep. You can also indulge in relaxing activities in the evening or right before you sleep such as gardening, journaling, yoga exercises, and meditation.
Not setting boundaries
Setting boundaries can be hard, especially if you nice and friendly. However, being too friendly and trying to please everyone and never saying “no” when you want to can negatively affect your physical and mental health.
Trying to please everyone is almost impossible. Living your life according to others’ expectations is one of the worst habits that drains your energy and causes you to live a stressful and unhappy life, not doing what you actually want and love.
It is important to always remember that each person’s life is unique and everyone should live the way they want, do what makes them happy, and pursue their own goals and objectives.
Living true to yourself and not how others are expecting you to will boost your energy, motivate you to follow your dreams, and significantly improve your mental and physical health. Saying “no” when you want to will help you set boundaries and save you time for yourself and your own personal growth.
Perfectionism
Seeking perfection and having perfectionist habits can really drain your energy fast and cause many inconveniences in your life. Being a perfectionist can trigger anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression.
Perfectionism is also linked to the fear of failure and not being good enough, which confines you to your comfort zone and causes you to burn out.
Read also: How to Come Out of Your Comfort Zone: 5 Tips for Personal Growth
If you believe you are a perfectionist and see that it causes obstacles and challenges in your growth, it is important to take a moment to recognize your bad perfectionist habits and learn how to overcome them.
Fortunately, there are other habits you can adopt that will lower your need for perfectionism. Setting realistic goals and expectations can improve your work quality and help you get through your daily tasks. It is also important to take breaks, rest, and recharge when necessary to avoid burning out.
Bad habits usually drain our energy and have a negative effect on our physical and mental health, causing us to not give our best performance and feel unhappy in life.
Breaking from these bad habits can be difficult and challenging. However, changing these habits to healthier ones can improve our lifestyle, impact our health positively, boost our energy, and motivate us to grow and be the best version of ourselves.
