5 daily habits costing your life

2022. Covid-19, War. The world is everchanging and time has shown us that we reap what we sow. The habits we do set slowly, and overtime develop as a routine. With new information and trends entering life we don’t often hear about the effects they can cause overtime. Recognizing these habits is the first step forward in changing them. Finding out about them shocked me but what shocked me more was how often these habits happen in my life and in the lives of so many others.

Hand Dryers

Everyone uses the public bathroom, its called the public bathroom; but the only time I’ve ever wanted to use a hand dryer is when they are out of paper towels. Now they seem appealing to end the excessive waste of paper and over consumption in which we live but are they the best healthiest alternative? No. Hand dryers can spread more germs than paper towels as they blow and churn bacteria air from the bathroom back onto your hands. They take longer to dry which not only prolongs the bathroom going experience but also leaves your hands moister than paper towels speeding the spread of bacteria. Wet hands spread more pathogens than dry hands and aid in housing viruses and bacteria.

Shampoo

How can being too clean be a bad thing? Like all things, balance sets the course of life. Too much shampoo usage strips our scalp of essential oils we produce called Sebum, which locks in moisture keeping our hair glowing, flowing and radiant. Hair should be washed every 2 to 3 days according to use and hygiene, over cleaning causes dry and coarse hair prone to breakage. Harsh chemicals in some shampoos have even been linked to baldness and hair thinning with warning labels of diseases and cancers camouflaged and overlooked in the back. Switching to healthier, more natural alternatives cost more money but can save your life and your hair.

Too much coffee

This one like for maybe others is the one that hurts the most. Coming to this realization is one that I have ignored and tried to rationalize until I finally did. The warm aroma and big taste hidden in these small beans started in Ethiopia 500 years ago and has since then filled our bodies and souls every morning. However, it is still important to recognize the harmful effects and consider their consequences. Daily consumption is everywhere, almost deemed necessary but the effects it can have long term such as high blood pressure or irregular heartbeat make us take a double look at this daily habit. Restlessness and jittery feelings are the leftovers in the mug. Stained teeth, insomnia, and nervousness are the attributes we associate with, but keep in the coffee tin stored away. Coffee can be addictive; some people even make it a personality and I don’t know which is worse. Healthy moderation can help with ridding stress, anxiety or dehydration from your morning routine while keeping your morning coffee in it.

Phones

Thinking back to when people actually used to have to remember directions, all the different rights, lefts, ups and downs to take makes me think of how far technology has brought us on the road and in time. Now answered questions lie at our fingertips and the future at our feet. Or is it the other way around? The future is now, and the potential of technology has opened a new pandora of possibilities in a small step for man but giant leap for mankind. Daily usage of our phones is routine, it’s integrated in our life so seemingly as if it has always meant to be there. Concerns arise through the low levels of radiation emitted by phones that can cause headaches or brain tumors and daily excessive consumption of our phones overtime has had harmful effects like altered activity in our brain and central nervous system. There are also the other more apparent effects like stress, anxiety, depression and even relationship issues that can be caused by unfiltered use. We are biological beings so the ways our bodies and minds adapt to new technology are still new and unknown. We are seeing however the reaction to our actions, phones can make us so connected yet so disconnected, able to touch infinite worlds anywhere but out of touch with the world around you. Exercising breaks from technology can help clear your mental health and see through a new screen.

Yourself

Stress is one of the number one killers in America, its silent, patient and everyone has some somewhere in there house. Yet it can elude us what stress really is? What’s causing it and what are the effects of this ailment that seems to be plaguing all of us? Stress is our body’s response to pressure. Your muscles tighten, heart beats faster, and breath quickens all in anticipation for something big to come. This is great for when you need it and your body can activate it unconsciously but it’s not so great when it happens everyday over a topic you don’t want to talk about or person you don’t want to see. The veins that pump blood to your body who tells it is in need, constrict and wear over time, the worries and rumination that idle in our heads and seem so human affect our body and mind. According to the American Psychological Association, chronic stress is linked to the six leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide. In the United States 659,000 people each year die from heart disease. Medication and drugs everyday then put a cost to your wallet and daily habits. Health juices and miracle drink put a price on your health and help some, but don’t cure the illness. The cure is in you.

Stress belief takes 20,000 lives each year, that makes it the 15th leading cause of death in America, killing more people than HIV/AIDS, skin cancers and homicides. People who acknowledged they had stress and believed it was harmful to their health, did have poorer health, as well as lower morality and a lower lifespan compared to those who had stress in their life but didn’t believe it affected their overall health. Marathons in your mind, tire it out, and the constant worry of bad outcomes instead of healthy thoughts toward a positive one lead to stress. Dwelling on problems we lose sleep on and wishing for change in things that we can not change leave us in a pattern of harmful habits and coping mechanisms. Changing how you think about stress can make the difference. The effect of our ideas shows us the unmeasurable power of belief and of our mind. The perspective we take manifests and we live the life we accept. You are what you eat, you see what you believe and you are what you think. Growing from these routines and shifting your mindset can be a difficult and tedious process but it starts in recognizing them, trusting yourself and remodeling new ones. The smallest changes have the biggest impacts, stress can be the difference between a heart attack at 50 and a well-lived life into your 90’s. When nothing seems to help we turn into our own doctors, so we must look into our body introspectively and find what really hurts. Nothing however, happens overnight; it starts with the first step. It starts with practice, with patience for yourself, persistence, awareness, that same belief from before and ends with You.