49 Habits That Might Seem Insignificant But Can Affect Mental And Physical Health Long-Term

Having an “all or nothing” mentality when it comes to habits. 5 minutes of exercise is always better than 0, one serving of fruits or vegetables is better than 0, etc. it doesn’t have to be big to be impactful.

The mentality that working until you burn out is admirable.

UK Based here, I've been working in Mental Health for the last 4 years. I'm noticing especially with the younger generations of adults (18- say 24), it's social media. Especially TikTok. I'm working in Inpatient Care and they share ideas on eating disorders, how to avoid taking their medication etc. It takes over their lives.

Thinking vaping is safe.

Some physical skills you should work to maintain as you age are:

-Being able to get up from a chair without using your hands.
-Being able to sit down on the floor and get up from the floor without help.
-Being able to stand on one foot.
-Being able to touch your toes (or as close as possible).
-Being able to pick things up off the floor.
-Being able to reach far overhead or far to the sides without loss of balance.
-Being able to walk backwards a few steps without loss of balance.

As long as you can do these things, your fall risk is incredibly low.

Related recommendation: Yoga is great. But if yoga is too hard for you, start with Tai Chi. It is gentler on the joints while still helping with flexibility, core strength, and balance.
Source: Occupational Therapy Professional.

ETA, since some people can’t actually touch their toes: Just get as close as you can.😊.

Stopping a medication for a chronic condition when you think the condition is “fixed”. I see this shockingly often.

They stop their blood pressure meds because their blood pressure has been normal every time they check it. Yep, that was the meds doing their job, now your pressure is 200/110 and you’ve had a stroke.

They stop taking their insulin or metformin because their a1c is normal. Yep, that was the meds doing their job, now your blood glucose is 600 and you’re in DKA or HHS.

They stop their blood thinners because they had afib “a while ago” but haven’t had any issues from it. Yep, that’s because you were on blood thinners, now you’ve thrown a clot and had a stroke.

It’s a “quiet” decision because they usually think it’s a benign choice but my god does it cause complications. PLEASE talk to your healthcare team before making medication decisions.

Note: inability to afford or access medications is a whole other, incredibly serious issue, and that’s not what I’m talking about here. I have horror stories about that and it enrages me.

Loneliness. People underrate what a protective factor community is, especially when things get tough. Relationships may not solve everything, but it tends to make so many hardships more bearable, like grief, poverty, divorce, depression, etc. It also helps with accountability when it comes to taking care of ourselves physically (fitness, diet). Having someone check-in when it looks like there’s something going on, be it physical or mental, goes a long way. A positive network also tends to push us to try new things, like hobbies, fitness classes, etc. Avoiding discomfort usually feeds isolation, and bleeds into our health, fitness, and social lives.

Second hand trauma. My whole team is deeply impacted by it. We work with the homeless and so many of them have experienced absolutely horrifying things.

Strength training is just as important as cardio - your bones need more support as you get older. Smoking is the worst thing you can do. Please get all of your cancer screenings.

When you are standing in a line, waiting for something, allow yourself to not be entertained. Don't reach for that phone. Sit with your thoughts, or talk to someone nearby. At Thanksgiving, everyone who wasn't watching TV was buried in their phone.

No conversation, and shallow interaction between people, if any.

And we wonder why people are feeling more lonely than ever?

Eating when full. No, you don’t have to finish the plate. Stop. Eat it later or just don’t eat it.

I feel like I can predict who’s gonna get dementia based on how they respond to learning new things. We have a payment terminal in our office and there are patients who take one look at it and decide that they don’t understand how to use it before they even try it. It vaguely resembles a computer, but all they really have to do is type in their date of birth and their bill come up. That’s it. That is all they have to do. And they still want us to do it for them. If you start youngish with not challenging your problemsolving skills, you will pay for it later.

I'm a massage therapist, and one of the smallest habits that causes big problems is keeping your wallet in your back pocket all the time. It's terrible for causing sciatica issues.

Switch it to your side pocket and make it a habit.

I work in a psychiatric hospital.

The amount of comparisons people make, whether upwards or downwards, healthy or toxic; it's just too much.

The amount of distractions we make to keep ourselves from having conversations and making peace with ourselves internally is staggering.

Anecdotally, people also fundamentally don't understand what forgiveness and acceptance are. They confuse forgiveness with reconciliation and confuse acceptance with liking something.

Forgiveness is to let go of anger; reconciliation is to rebuild relationships. Acceptance is to see things as they are without judgment, not as we want them to be.

Teeth whitening, bleaching specifically. It's not such a thing anymore, thank god. But repeated bleaching and abrasion (charcoal toothpaste etc.) erodes enamel which sets the stage for tooth decay and a resuling cascade of issues, which is strongly linked to cardiovascular disease.

As a massage therapist I always, ALWAYS, see that when people take a vacation their health improves. I think a 'quiet habit' that is wrecking people's health is not taking time to rest, relax and refresh. People so often forsake downtime for continuing to grind through life and work. I know a lot of travel and selfcare is expensive, but taking the time to get away in anyway or even cultivating the vacation mindset can help people's health in real positive ways. Stop and smell the flowers. Book the trip. Book the self care session. Call out sick. Sleep. Eat. Laugh. Turn off your phone. Leave space for spontaneity.

Not enough fiber. Fiber is a real magic bullet. Fiber cancels out sugar, regulates insulin, provides healthy gut biome which in turn helps brain functioning. It becomes a feedback loop in either direction so neglecting it results in fatigue, weight gain, inflammation, mental health problems, colon cancer, and diabetes .

I own a gym. What I have coined as the "gym shark era" of teenagers and younger people in the gym that will inject crazy amounts of anabolics into them, and they STILL dont even look like they have lifted weights. They are so obsessed with becoming IG or TikTok famous yet they cant be bothered to train hard or eat correctly to build muscle. They are going to pay for hard for it someday.

Neglecting stretching. Include yoga classes in your life if you can. At the very least, stretch on your own regularly. Seeing how many people (people who aren’t even that old) that can’t lay flat or raise their arms above their head is nuts.

PA here: people that are all on the carnivore diet for extended periods of time are going to have heart disease later, primarily those with family history of heart disease. When that happens, all of these influencers and pseudoscientists will not be held accountable and that’s unfortunate.