Healthy Habits

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It’s easy enough to list them out and expound on why they’re healthy habits.

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Exercise – we all need exercise, even those of us who consider it a chore. Actually we’re probably the ones who need it most. Exercise strengthens our muscles, helps rid us of unwanted fat, give us energy, releases endorphins in our brains, relieves stress and lets us prove to ourselves just how strong we really are. What’s not to like about it? Yet, many of us don’t.

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Clean eating – logical, common sense. When we eat “junk food” or convenience foods, we’re filling our bodies with chemicals and toxins that can’t lead to anything good except a temporarily content belly. Even our belly complains eventually. That kind of eating leads to more body fat, which leads to other health problems. It gives way to becoming sluggish and we lack desire to do anything. Eating real foods that don’t count on chemicals for flavor and other addictive traits contributes to healthier bodies that serve us better.

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Adequate sleep – we know this, our bodies need to be well-rested to perform at their best! Yet so many of us toss and turn well into the night, only to glare at the blaring alarm clock just as we finally enter that restful phase of sleep. We need to rejuvenate like we’re suppose to! I’m preaching to the choir leader here, because I’m up late with the rest of you. But, we know better.

A list of healthy habits could quite long, but this next one could potentially be the healthiest habit we can adopt: thankfulness. Can we make a habit of being thankful? Can we become grateful for all we have instead of daydreaming about all we want?

Think about it. If we purposefully wake up every single morning and reach for that attitude of gratitude before we even put on our glasses, before we stumble to the bathroom, before we throw the covers off – what benefits could we quickly see unfolding in our day?

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Every November we pull out our lists of what we’re thankful for and post them on social media for all the world to see. And, yay – sharing them is great! But, what if this year, we put a little more pondering into our gratitude? It’s pretty easy to write out a list of things we thank God for, perhaps even getting carried away with how long our list is becoming. If while we’re writing out that list, or even just composing it in our minds, we actually take the time to say thank You to Him, the list making might take longer and be even more fulfilling.

Plus, He loves to hear from us!

If it’s not a habit already engrained in our lives, it’s an addiction that will benefit all of us. Making new habits is much easier than breaking old ones. It makes sense that building new habits that will eventually replace our bad habits will erase the need to battle the ones that were dragging us down.

“In all things, give thanks….” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18

 

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