How to Quit Your Bad Habits Once and For All

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Bad habits are something that stop us from being the best versions of ourselves. Deciding to quit is only half of the battle, actually working through the addiction and the withdrawal process is the hardest part. 

Here are several of the steps needed to break a habit-before it breaks you.

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Where did Your Habits Start? 

Most bad habits are born of one of two things-stress and boredom. Most things, such as a shopping addiction to biting your nails can be a response to stress and being bored. 

Finding the root cause of a habit is a good start to knowing how to quit a habit. Many people turn to talking and behavioural therapists who can assist them with identifying and handling a traumatic event which could have caused an unhealthy, destructive behaviour to begin with. 

Being able to work through these things is a crucial way of being able to start overcoming the things that bind you to unhealthy habits and enable you to quit your bad habits. 

Set a Deadline to Quit 

Having a date in mind to quit your bad habit helps to prepare your mind and body. As you get closer to this date you will start to think more consciously about why you do the things you do to your body. For example- you don’t like the smell of cigarettes on other people, so why should others smell it on you? Your body feels slow and sluggish after eating fast food, so why continue to eat it? You want hangovers to be a thing of the past, so you’re careful about what combination of drinks you have in an evening and set yourself a limit of how many alcoholic drinks you can have. 

This is part of the psychology of setting an end date for a habit- it certainly helps when trying to go cold turkey on a habit! 

Replace Bad Habits with Good Ones 

Human beings thrive in routines. Sometimes those routines are ones that keep us healthy- like waking up and brushing your teeth and flossing in the morning takes care of our oral hygiene. This is a good habit to get into. 

 A bad habit would be to immediately go to light up a cigarette after waking up. You may believe it’s the best and only way to start a morning, but this is a bad habit that costs your health and your finances.

While smoking is hard to give up on cold turkey, this habit can be replaced with a slightly healthier one- vaping.  Check out an online vape shop to make a selection of E-cigarettes that can be used while going through the process of quitting. 

If you smoke when stressed, try to find ways of developing new coping mechanisms.

Avoid as many Triggers as Possible 

If having a drink leads you to smoke, avoid going to bars while you’re trying to get out of the habit of smoking. Make life easier for yourself by avoiding the things that cause you to slip into your bad habits.

Do you need to quit your bad habits?