Useful beginnings: How to make life better in autumn
Text: Daria Gavrilova
The beginning of the new season - an excellent reason to acquire new good habits. This is especially true of the fall, which is associated with the beginning of the school year and its clear timetable and schedule. We have chosen ten actions that will not prevent us from becoming a habit, and tell you why they are important.
Start saving money
Recently, we wrote about how to suspect oneself in tranzhyrstvo - and the beginning of the new season is great to start at last to put something off. It is difficult to save money if you do it on a residual basis; it is best, on the contrary, to begin precisely with this on the day of receiving wages or any other income. Especially for savings, you can create a separate bank account (in euros or dollars), withdraw and spend money from which will be problematic - let this account not be accessible by card. It is necessary to fix a certain share of income that you will save; for example, if it is 10%, then in a year you will accumulate an amount exceeding the monthly salary.
Leave your phone overnight in another room.
Dependence on the Internet and gadgets has long been no material for jokes, but quite a reality. In severe form, it can lead to irritability, loss of sleep and appetite, and even rejection of live communication with friends. However, even if you are far from serious Internet addiction, sleeping next to the phone is not the most useful habit. Firstly, the endless reading of a Facebook or Twitter tape prevents the brain from relaxing and tuning in to rest - doctors recommend refraining from surfing the Internet for at least an hour before going to sleep. Secondly, modern phones constantly vibrate, blink and glow, and all these signals degrade the quality of sleep, even if you do not notice.
Give up the elevator and start a pedometer
Physical activity among residents of a large city is rarely sufficient: many spend eight working hours sitting, and the remaining free time sitting or lying down. For a healthy heart, WHO recommends 150-300 minutes of pure aerobic exercise per week — at least forty minutes a day. It sounds modest, but in fact, going to the gym three times a week is usually not enough. You can add activity to your daily routine in simple ways: refuse to take an elevator this fall and install a pedometer, having set yourself a simple task to start with - for example, to walk at least five thousand steps a day.
Sign up for professional dental hygiene
White teeth and fresh breath are primarily a sign of health. Treatment at the dentist is often not included in the insurance - and this is exactly the case when the prevention of problems is much cheaper than their subsequent solution. A great idea for autumn is to sign up for a professional tooth brushing (and then do it every six months). During this procedure, different types of raids are taken, including invisible to the eye. This helps to prevent caries, periodontitis, and related complications - and the visual effect is sometimes not inferior to bleaching.
Let your eyes rest and try audiobooks.
Most of us are constantly working with a computer, phone, and in general all the time looking at the screen. Our parents walked more and looked less at the luminous devices - but with us everything is the opposite: we spend the day at the computer at work, and in our free time we watch TV shows or socialize.
Meanwhile, prolonged eye strain can lead to painful sensations, a blurred picture, and headaches. Paper or e-books, of course, load the eyes less, but still do not allow them to rest properly. Try to at least partially switch to audio books - they, by the way, can be combined with long health walks from the previous paragraph.
Take care of the decision making resource
In Western scientific literature on psychology, the term "decision-making fatigue" has already become quite familiar. The essence of this phenomenon is that a person has a certain limit on the number of decisions that can be made in a day. You may have heard about the study with the participation of judges: in the morning they were more inclined to make positive decisions about parole, and in the evening they were almost automatically refused on all applications.
There are many ways to save your decision-making resource, but the main tips are as follows: plan your business and do the most important things in the morning. Try to get rid of the need to make small decisions like choosing which one to wear to the gym or which cream to spread your hands on. This can be helped by following the drawn up plan of action and limiting the objects of choice to a minimum.
Have breakfast
A healthy and well-feeling person has more strength, ideas and enthusiasm. The secrets of a healthy lifestyle have long been no secrets: move more, eat properly, sleep well. Over the past decades, the world has invented many new models of food, from paleodets to soylent beverages - but the old truth about the importance of breakfast has not gone away. According to new research, skipping breakfast does not lead to overeating - but there is a clear correlation between the lack of breakfast and lack of physical activity. But nutritionists recommend not to forget to enrich breakfast with protein and fresh vegetables and fruits.
Take a course on Coursera
Learning new is the best way to prevent Alzheimer's disease. People who remain optimistic, energetic and smart in old age often learn something. Today, it is easier to do this than ever: you do not need money or time to get to school. The well-known Coursera platform offers hundreds of courses from the best universities in the world: in a couple of months, you can master the basics of linguistics without leaving your home or you can figure out the structure of your own digestive system. We wrote about the most interesting courses of this fall last week.
Limit your time in social networks
According to a study by the University of Pittsburgh, there is an obvious connection between using social networks and depression: the more adults sit on Facebook and similar platforms, the higher their likelihood of developing depression. There are some separate concepts of facebook depression — feelings of loneliness and uselessness due to the fact that posts don't like a little — and facebook envy when one’s own life seems worthless compared to the life of friends. Procrastination and dependence are also in the list of negative effects of social networks.
In general, from whatever side you look, limit the time spent in social networks, a great idea. This can help you special applications or browser extensions.
Go to psychotherapy
We all have a heap of problems: hypersensitivity to gossip, nutritional difficulties, anxiety. In addition, not all grew up in ideal families - that is, children's injuries and scars from unsuccessful relationships are often added to this list. We made a detailed list of reasons to go to a psychologist; in short, any sensation of discomfort, discontent, or fatigue can be a sufficient incentive. In an amicable way, psychotherapy is needed by every adult, and signing up for it this fall will be a healthy undertaking and a great gift to yourself.
Photo: Serghei Velusceac - stock.adobe.com, component - stock.adobe.com, Africa Studio - stock.adobe.com, Zirodent