Habits, Routines and Mental Health
Routines and habits: these are the way to building up and sustaining health and wellness in your life, according to the above listed elements of well-being.
Developing Routines and Habits:
◇ one technique for developing routines and habits is to ensure that the habits and routines in your life have meaning, whether they themselves serve a purpose, such as coaching youth soccer, which would both connect you with others and teach young people soccer, or which serve a larger goal, such as becoming rooted in your community, for example.
◇ understanding your needs in limits: this goes for all things, from sleep to socialization, to food and alcohol consumption, to work, and so on.
◇ setting good intentions for the day: you could do this by listening to a favorite song in the morning, by talking briefly to a friend or love one about your goals for the day, making a note or list to yourself, or other method which suits you and which identifies what your realistic goals are for the day, so that you go forward with a sense of purpose and capability.
◇ building up habits deliberately, such as an earlier sleep time: there will be a period of time when a new habit is challenging and you must reinforce it deliberately, but once it has become a habit it will be easy to follow through and maintain a routine, such as going to sleep at 10:30 every night.