Maintaining Healthy Habits-In Five Simple Steps

Step One: Choose Wisely

许多人的生活压力过大，这往往会影响他们的健康、幸福和生活的其他方面。（事实上，据估计health problemsthat bring people into the doctor’s office are stress-related!) But while virtually all of us could benefit from adding healthy habits to our lifestyle, it’s harder to begin a new habit than it seems, especially when you’re already overscheduled and overstressed! The following steps can help you navigate a clear path from your good intentions to thereality更健康，更快乐的生活方式，包括更少的压力。准备好了吗？开始了！

Step One: Choose Your Activity Wisely:
The first step in creating a healthy new habit that will be a long-term staple in your lifestyle is to choose an activity that fits well with who you are and how you live. If you don’t, you may find that you’re working against personality and lifestyle factors that are too ingrained to change, and your new healthy habit never quite takes root.

For a more in-depth look at how to choose the best activity for you, takeThe Stress Reliever Personality Test，它将评估哪些减压药最适合你的生活方式和个性，并为你提供一份清单。你也可以在这里阅读更多关于choosing the right habits to adopt.

Step Two: Build The New Habit into Your Schedule

If you don’t have a specific plan for sticking with a new habit, it’s all too easy to find that your already-packed schedule won’t allow you the ‘spare time’ necessary to do anything new very often. You’ll be too busy, too tired, or will easily find another excuse to let inertia snuff out your best intentions. That’s why a crucial next step is for you to find a specific time in your schedule that’s allotted just for your new stress management activity. Whether it’s ‘every morning before my shower’, 'during my lunch break', or ‘weeknights at 8’, you need to have a time that you know is set aside for your chosen activity so that you won’t need to continually find a reason to practice your stress relief program.

Many people find it easiest to do things in the morning before they start their day, or at night before bed. Others find snatches of time during the day. The following articles have suggestions for all times of day:

• 6 Great Ways to Start Your Day
• Exercise for Busy People
• 10 Great Ways to End Your Day

Step Three: Enlist Support

You’ll find much more success if you have others who are helping you along the way. Not only will they give you support when you need it, but you’ll also have them to answer to if you feel like skipping your new stress management practice, and this will make it harder for you to make excuses and quit. One way to get support that is growing in popularity is to hire a personal coach. However, you can also get support by having a buddy start with you, or joining a class where they practice your chosen activity (like a yoga class, for example, or a meditation class). If you’d rather do it alone, you can always ask a friend to keep you accountable for the first few weeks, or keep a journal where you record your activity and success every day or at the end of each week. Whatever route you choose, it helps to have someone to keep you accountable, at least in the beginning.

Some great healthy habits that go great with a friend include:

• 和朋友一起散步
• Adopting Healthy Eating Habits Together
• 瑜伽课
• 大多数形式的锻炼
• Talking About Your Feelings

Step Four: Use Goals and Rewards

Although the great feelings you get from stress management can be their own reward, in starting any new habit, it helps to also have some more tangible rewards. For example, think of how teachers use stars and other tokens to encourage good behavior, or how you can train pets to do just about anything with a few small treats; none of us is above the power of a few good rewards, either.

第一个月尤为重要,that’s the approximate time it takes for a new behavior to become a habit. The rewards you give yourself are a personal choice, and you probably know what would be the best incentive for your own success, but I recommend something small and enjoyable. For example, when I first started going to the gym, I would reward every five gym visits with a new piece of workout clothing—that way I’d feel like I ‘earned’ the new outfits, and I’d also get the payoff of looking better in the dressing room each time I found myself there. Others I know have given themselves pedometers (to reward regular walking),soothing music（奖励和使用）yoga practice) or beautifulnew pens(to rewardjournal writing). For additional ideas, I suggest the following:

• Top 10 Stress Relief Gifts for Every Budget
• Self Care Products to Make You Feel Great

Step Five: Check In With Yourself to Be Sure You're On The Right Track

As you move toward developing healthier habits, pay special attention to how you feel as you incorporate them into your life. Does your new practice seem to fit with your lifestyle and personality? Is it easy to maintain your new habit, or do you think you may need to try something new? If you find that you haven’t kept up with your new plans as you’ve hoped, rather than beating yourself up over it, congratulate yourself for noticing that you need a change of plans—ithis is very important as t’s the first step in building a new plan that will better serve you! And, if you’re trudging along with it, but have decided that you really may need to try something else instead, at least you know what doesn’t work for you as well, and now you can try something else that you may end up loving. All in all, it’s best to learn several new stress relievers and stress management techniques anyway, to have a few options available for reducing stress in your body and mind. (For ideas on what to try, visit this article onhow to choose a stress management habit you can stick with.) Good luck, and have fun!