Welcome back to advice for young people! Now, if you aren’t caught up, we’ve talked about philosophy (here), money (here), and housekeeping ideas (here) in this series so far. Today is a fun mishmash of ideas, all about healthy habits. So let’s get down to it!
Take care of your teeth!
Now, I would really suggest you take care of your whole self. Get a skincare routine, learn about taking care of your hair type, and so on and so forth. But your teeth, specifically, need tender loving care, on a regular basis.
It can be easy to forego regular, important dental hygiene. Because it’s extra effort and unlike if you don’t shower, for instance, you don’t tend to see the negative repercussions right away. But there are bad repercussions for not keeping up with dental hygiene. In fact, it can even lead to heart problems or deadly infections. Although most people don’t end up dying due to poor dental hygiene, anyone who has had to get dentures or root canals will tell you, dental problems are extremely costly and can be painful!
The only way to prevent these things is to take regular, good care of your teeth. Floss them daily, brush them twice a day, and in some cases use a fluoride mouthwash. Keep regular appointments with your dentist, every six months if you possibly can. And get in the habit of pushing yourself to do your oral hygiene routine even if you’re feeling tired or lazy. Just give yourself that extra push when you’re feeling like it would be easier to let it go, because you’ll regret it if you don’t. You have your teeth in your head now, and in many ways, you have so many assets to protect as a young person. Take good care of them in order to preserve your health for longer.
Get exercising
Many young people already know about exercising and its benefits. But what you don’t realize is that as you get older, exercise can be the difference whether you feel alright or not in your body all day. If you keep an exercise habit, you’ll find that you have more energy and you’re less stiff while going about your life. This becomes more important the more years you acquire, and getting in the habit early will set you up well for later.
Learn to fit your exercising in with your work schedule. Even if you’re tired or feeling lazy, still get some movement in your day. Even while you’re still young, you’ll be able to feel the many benefits of exercising regularly, such as more energy, a fitter body, mental clarity. Your immune system will be heightened and you’ll be better insulated from aches and pains as the years go by. Again, exercising might not be cool in your friend group. But the benefits you’ll reap in the coming days and years more than make up for the efforts you’ll put in. So put some movement in your life.
Learn to have a hobby outside of work
Listen, it’s easy to let life fall by the wayside when you’re working, or juggling school and life (or both). It happens. But the truth is, you need to be able to live life outside of work and school.
Having hobbies helps temper your perspective. You become a more well-rounded person, and you tend to have better emotional regulation because joie de vivre is a definite stress buster.
Also, ensuring you “have a life” outside of work helps to teach you important lessons about time management and personal energy monitoring. If you have to finish your work because you have plans, you won’t find yourself making excuses for staying late every night. And if you have other interests and goals outside of your job, you’re going to get better at making boundaries to protect your work life balance in order to maintain what you have. That’s a positive thing.
Not to mention that you are more than just your career goals, even if you love your career. You get to be a multifaceted, whole human being. With thoughts and interests that don’t have to align with your job title. That’s okay, and for many people, important to maintain sanity. Keeping your hobbies outside of work helps anchor your identity in a much wider perspective of life and yourself, and is something I would recommend to anyone who is willing to listen.
Take time for those you love
If you find yourself suddenly taking on a full gambit of adult responsibilities, you will likely run into one issue fairly quickly: you are tired. Working full time is exhausting, bills are stressful. Life can pass you by very quickly in this state, if you’re not careful. And we’ve talked about making sure to get the important things to you stuck into your life in this series already, which is very important. But let me tell you something. There is little that you will regret more than not spending enough time and energy on the people you care about.
It’s easier to sit down in front of a screen and watch a movie with a bag of chips, especially after a long day or week at work. But you love your family, your friends (maybe even your coworkers.) And relationships with people don’t last forever, even the ones that last to the death. When people come to the end of life, it’s really common to wish they had more time with their loved ones. That’s mostly unavoidable. But you don’t want to add a regret on top of that where you cry over the fact that even when you were together, you didn’t spend time and energy on them.
What I’m saying is, take time to check up on your loved ones and make plans to be in each other’s company (remotely or in real life). With the people you live with, make an effort to pay attention to them and give them the affection that they deserve. Learn their love languages and try to make them feel appreciated, and connect with them regularly. Because there is nothing more precious in this life than love, and it is all around us. We just have to nurture it.
Beyond this post
I hope you found this synopsis of some healthy habits interesting. You can find a lot more about habits on this site, like meditation, mental mastery, intuitive eating, and yoga, so if this post resonated with you, consider checking those pieces out. And as always, thank you for checking in with the Thoughts that Bind. Remember to continue to living life as it comes!
