Everyone comes to the end of themselves at some point. Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed at work, struggling to keep up with a busy home schedule, or feeling like your wellness journey has reached a plateau, you’re looking for ways to feel better. Maybe your wellness journey is just beginning, and you’re searching for ways to renew your mind, improve your health, and change your life.
Part of being on a journey to wellness is removing sources of toxicity from our life. Toxins may come in the form of unwanted food ingredients, products that might be harmful to us, or even toxic people who bring us down.
The best place to start is with ourselves — personal growth is an integral part of wellness. Together, we’ll look at seven toxic habits that could be draining your energy, sapping your happiness, and leaving you with pesky negative thoughts.
What Habits Can Drain Your Energy?
Habits are a natural part of life; everyone has habits we practice from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep. Our daily habits will either benefit or hurt us. Here, we’ll outline a few bad habits that are hurting your energy levels and are worth eliminating from your life.
1. Drinking Coffee on an Empty Stomach
Most of us find it difficult to get out of the house on time. Besides skipping breakfast, we barely get our hands on a cup of coffee to drink on the ride to school or work — but drinking coffee on an empty stomach unfortunately isn’t helping your energy budget.
Coffee itself might not harm you too much. It can be irritating to the digestive system of some people, but most people are able to drink it without any trouble. What it does do, however, is increase stomach acid, and this acid can change the way your gut flora behaves. Over time, this may lead to feeling tired and low in the energy department.
A good rule of thumb about your morning caffeine intake is to wait an hour and a half from the time you wake up to your first cup of coffee. Your body produces cortisol, a hormone that helps keep you awake and alert in the morning. Allowing this hormone to do its job may make you less reliant on your morning coffee.
2. Spending Too Much Time Around Negative People
Everyone has a few “extra patience” people in their lives. People who seem to have an uncanny way of emotionally draining you over coffee or leaving you feeling fatigued after a simple conversation.
While some people may be going through difficult times and need the support of a friend, some people choose to be negative and view their lives from a “less than” standpoint. Successful people, and people who have mastered their self-care routines, tend to avoid these types of people.
Negativity breeds more negativity. It's a waste of time to continue a conversation with someone who refuses to see anything but gloom and doom on the horizon, and before you know it, you’ll end up feeling just as low as they do.
Negativity can lead to overthinking, self-doubt, and even self-criticism, and you might be surprised to discover that how you feel largely depends on who you surround yourself with.
3. People Pleasing
There’s a popular saying that it’s hard for a people pleaser to find all their pleased people. This is because people-pleasing doesn’t work. The amount of time you invest attempting to control the emotions of others could be time you spend prioritizing your own mental health instead.
Even though you might feel that you’re being selfless in your efforts to please others, this is actually selfish behavior. When we can’t be happy unless another person is happy, we’ll do everything we can to keep them happy (including people-please). Ultimately, the underlying goal is our own well-being.
4. Criticizing Yourself
Self-deprecating humor might be popular, but using it constantly is often a sign of low self-esteem. Criticizing ourselves doesn’t help us with self-improvement; it keeps us trapped in an energy-draining habit that makes us feel unworthy and unable to do the things we want to do.
Practicing positive affirmations in the morning and throughout the day can help you begin to reframe your self-perception, ultimately leading to a happier you!
5. Suppressing Your Emotions
Many of us grew up feeling like showing emotions wasn’t acceptable. Now we know that suppressing our emotions can lead to both mental and physical health problems, like high blood pressure, depression, and anxiety.
Finding a therapist or friend you can talk to about your feelings is beneficial for your overall health, and it’s a form of self-love you deserve.
6. Staying Up Too Late
With our busy lifestyles, it can sometimes seem like the only time we have to ourselves is late at night. We end up staying up too late so we can finish a report, watch a show, or read a book. Staying up too late and generally failing to get enough sleep interferes with your sleep-wake cycles and can impact your daily routines.
Most people need between seven and nine hours of quality sleep per night to thrive. A lack of sleep is a massive drain on your energy stores that can lead to excessive caffeine consumption and problems staying energized day-to-day.
7. Spending All of Your Spare Time on Social Media
Social media has changed the atmosphere of all our lives. It’s a useful tool for staying connected, learning new information, and getting entertainment.
Unfortunately, it also has a dark side — research has shown that spending too much time on social media can lead to depression, issues with body image, and unhealthy comparisons.
What Can I Do To Feel More Refreshed?
While you’re working on eliminating toxic habits from your life, there are a few easy steps you can take to enhance your energy levels and feel happier.
Reconsider Your Social Life
Evaluate your lunch table. Your circle of friends should be people who build you up, make you feel good, and support your goals. If the people closest to you aren’t these things, it might be worth your time to join a civic club or try a new hobby to meet new people.
Validate Your Own Feelings
It’s a good feeling when we have the validation of others, but there’s nothing greater than having our own permission to feel the way we do. Understand that your feelings are natural, real, and never permanent. It’s okay to feel the way you do, even if that way may not be the way other people in similar situations feel.
Speak Your Mind
You don’t have to become obnoxious or overbearing to assert your preferences and opinions. It’s as simple as saying you do have an opinion about where you’d like to eat lunch or that you would prefer the person next to you on the subway use headphones or lower their music.
Revamp Your Diet
Our diet can change the way we feel both physically and mentally. If we have a dietary deficiency, we’re likely to feel less energized and deal with mental fatigue. An easy way to get the nutrients you need on the fly? L’Evate You Vitality Daily Greens.
This easy-to-use greens powder comes in three great flavors, including tart cherry, to give you a delicious way to support your health and increase your energy levels.
The Bottom Line
Toxic habits can drain your energy. Eliminating them is a process, but with each one that fades away, you’ll experience a new level of freedom. Small changes help revamp your lifestyle. Adding L’Evate You Vitality Daily Greens can’t eliminate your toxic text group, but it can give you the confidence of knowing you’re doing your body good. And maybe that confidence is enough to help you leave that toxic conversation.
Sources:
Your Habits Will Make Or Break You | Forbes.com
Is It Bad To Drink Coffee On An Empty Stomach? | NY Times.com
5 Lessons People Pleasers Need to Learn | Psychology Today
Can always staying positive be bad for our health? | HCF
Social media and teen mental health: 10 things to know | NPR