In today’s read, we are going to dive into the 7 worst habits for your brain and dissect them into pieces. Then we will talk about the absolute best ways to avoid developing bad habits so that you can keep your peace of mind and remind stable through this year. We’ll also instill in you good habits for your brain. Now, these habits were picked and handcrafted by our community which was surveyed by 7,851 people. Therefore it is safe to say that these 7 worst habits are indeed very common for everyone.
Did you know?
7 out of 10 people said that the habits on this list were at least one of the numerous amounts of bad habits that they admitted to having. These 7 bad habits aren’t the only bad habits in the world but were definitely rated at the top of the commonality list. Are you ready to dive in?
Let’s start with the most shameful one of them all.
Table of Contents
For more everyday encouragement, subscribe to Good Self-Healing Habits—a 30-second newsletter delivered to your inbox each morning with tips for best habits and sustainable living
Best Habit to Break
Watching Porn & Masturbation
This bad habit is by far one of the worst psychologically damaging activities to encounter especially if it is often. According to webroot.com over 40 million American people regularly visit porn sites to masturbate. In 2018 according to Pornhub, over 109,012,068,000 videos were watched. In 2019, according to canopy.us, a website happily claimed to receive 42,000,000,000 in 2019 alone. Yea, you read that right, that’s a billion.
So why is this bad? What it does to your mind is, tricks your brain by releasing extreme amounts of dopamine known as a pleasure chemical, and creating a link between certain habits and a reward. Activities like exercising, eating, and sex all trigger this reaction.
Porn impacts the brain, (as it relates to an addiction) it triggers a ton of the chemical, dopamine, and just like with everything if taken consistently, your brain develops immunity to it causing you to want more and more of it.
Nonetheless, you will watch more porn, you will look at men and women differently, and by differently I am talking about sexually, you will masturbate and self-harm often, you will think about sex more on a daily basis, you will become unfocused and distracted of your goals by people who you wish to have sex with and so on and so forth. DO NOT FALL INTO THIS BAD HABIT. If you have already fallen into this ditch, let me teach you three ways to stop watching porn.
How to Stop Watching Porn
Prevent It
Easier said than done I know, but I never said it will be easy. Analyze the time and location of when and where you do it and replace it with a better experience. For example, if you masturbate to porn in the shower using your phone, computer, or tablet, remove your device from the equation, and instead replace it with a radio such as Alexa or Bluetooth device. Try for 33 days in a row.
Read Porn
Watch a documentary about porn. Listen to how the porn guys and girls actually talk and learn about their stories, learn what they have to do daily to act, and why they started doing it in the first place. Doing this will give you a new perception of porn and a new way of thinking bringing a new way of living.
Fast
If you commit to yourself and God that you are going to fast from things that harm your body, mind, heart, and soul, this will eliminate the need to watch porn and reduce your addiction levels to a minimum. If you are not religious then go on a fast for yourself. Promise yourself by going on a complete cleanse.
That is what a fast is. Cleanse with fruits, cleansing agents like drinks and superfoods, and whatever you wish to cut back on and try for 7 to 14 days. Start with 14 days first if you can, then to 33 days. This will help you quit.
As this is not a blog about pornography, I will go into details on the subject on a later post if you want. But you must send me a private email first and tell me you’d like a full detailed list.
Reading the News
Reading or watching the news is by far one of the most common worst habits to have in this day and age. According to statista.com more than 100 million people nationwide watch the news or read the news in some way shape or fashion. With pandemics happening currently around the globe, it has become more popular to do. According to verywell.com, watching the news activates the sympathetic nervous system which causes your brain and body to release stress hormones.
An increase in news can cause you to become more fatigued, causing anxiety, depression, and other physiological and psychological problems. The constant reading or watching of the news will cause you to live in fear and worry. It will hinder and impede you from your goals, your success, and your happiness.
If you watch the news often you start to think negatively and hopelessly of the world. You have a sense of lack and nonfulfillment. You believe that things will always be the same and if not, worse. Cut this terrible habit out of your diet. Here’s how.
How to stop reading and watching the news
Remove Programs
Remove the programs from your devices such as apps, and extensions, and develop the discipline to skip or cancel ads or X out of them.
Commit to Change
Commit to cleansing your mind and detaching from the world by keeping yourself busy with books and other more important habits to do.
Limit Watch Time
if you watch daily and hourly, then cut down to a couple hours a day, then 2 hours a day, then 1 hour a day, then 30 minutes. Start with these small incremental changes and see your life and mind transform right before your eyes.
Worst Habit Everyone Has
Social Media Overload
With the internet and with apps being even more accessible and ready to download so you can connect to online instantaneously, the world has been made into an online hangout. However, what does it do to your mind? You may not notice it because it is the thing to do because everyone is doing it, but with everything that you do, there is always something happening or reacting behind the scenes.
Let’s think about it. According to backlinkO.com, over 4.48 billion people are actively using social media. That is roughly 82% of the population. How many people do you think to depend on it? Let’s talk about what it does and why it is such a bad habit.
Social media may make you spend more money. With the amount of exposure from these ads to your eyes, especially with specifically targeted ads, it has a higher chance of showing you what you always wanted to buy. It may also alter your appetite. With all the food images, and people showing off their fancy dinners and breakfasts, it may make you eat more or less than ever before. Social media may hurt your self-esteem.
With more girls and boys being impacted the most, adults are starting to feel more stressed as well because they can now see what others are doing and how they are in lack because they don’t have what the other person has.
On-lining also takes the ability to have personal, face to face one on one conversations, which cause a lack of social skills. It will make you feel self-conscious about yourself and so much more. I think my point is proven.
How to Quit Social Media and Brain Dump in 3 easy ways
Delete all Apps
Delete the apps from your phone. Period. That’s how you forget about them. No one will miss you if you take a break from social media. That’s what I have learned and I run a business and a Facebook community that depends on me. I would know lol
Exchange it With Learning
Every time you go online for social media to browse, go to a learning source, such as Youtube or even Google. Or what I do is I work on my business rather than write books or blogs that keep me away from online media.
Replace with a healthy habit
Develop other habits that consume your time, such as reading, playing with the kids, going on a date, being productive, or working on your businesses or passions.
The point is to remove the idea and or replace it with a good habit. It takes 66 days roughly to break a bad habit. Keep in mind. It will be a process.
Define your Listening Habits
Listening to an Abundance of Unhealthy Music
Research has shown that your emotions and behaviors are directly correlated to the amount of content you consume and what you take in. The famous saying, “You are what you eat” is indeed true.
Therefore it is harmful to your brain if you are consistently listening to music that does nothing for your growth, your knowledge, or your energy and vibration.
According to hopkinsmedicine.org, listening to music can reduce anxiety, depression, and sadness, and improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory. The best thing to do is replace these bad habits with positive music, sounds, & frequencies.
Examples can be podcasts, listening to audiobooks, I am affirmations or positive affirmations, spa music, jazz, classical, Christian, or religious music, or songs with no swears that are good for the soul. It will be far greater for your benefit and wisdom to remove the music that is not benefiting you or your life in any way and replace it with heartfelt music.
How to listen to Music and Podcasts
Here are 3 easy steps on how to listen to podcasts and audiobooks
Delete your accounts
Delete your account from Spotify, Pandora, IHeart Radio, etc, and or create an account with new and different positive singers and artists that make great music that you never heard before. Do your research.
Selection is Key
Select stations on podcast channels and pick a few authors for books that you are interested in learning more about and listening to.
Best Times to Listen
Listen to these artists and authors during your times of listening, for a minimum of 21 days straight, first make your commitment then execute your 21 day challenge. It is okay to miss a day or two and listen to your favorite music at first but build discipline and be determined for your growth.
No one cares if you listen to un-beneficial music, but the question is do you? And if that doesn’t bother you then we have some journaling prompts for self-discovery that will open your mind to a whole new way of thinking. “And with a new way of thinking brings in a whole new way of life” ~C.J. Perry~
How to Stop Hanging Around Bad Company
Hanging around Broke, Unhappy, Depressed People
According to usatoday.com, on average people have roughly less than $900 on them in their bank account. Pgpf.org states in a 2019 study that the average income is $69,560 with more than 86% of people living paycheck to paycheck.
As for unhappiness, Nimh.nih.gov states that roughly 14.4 million adults in the United States had at least one depressive episode. Also, more than, 54% of people are unhappy nationally. Wow, crazy right?
These numbers are astronomically high and alarming and show that you have little chance of getting away from these kinds of people. Hard to do but not impossible. It is all in your mind and has to do with the environment that you surround yourself in.
Life can be changed in an instant if you so make the declaration to. 7 times out of 10, if you hang around these kinds of people often, chances are you will end up just like them. The famous quote states true, that “misery loves company”. You are the 5 closest people to you. Choose to change if you wish to live a happy, stress-free, healthy lifestyle.
How to Stay Away from Toxic People in 3 Steps
Delete your contacts
Delete contacts on social media and in your phone who do not message you or call you, ever! These people don’t think of you anyhow, so you should cut them off.
Create Standards
Create standards for yourself and what you wish to make of life. If you wish to live a happy, Zenful stressed-free, and peaceful life then make your commitment and head in that direction. Follow and join people who have the lifestyle you wish to have and find people who share your interests ONLY.
Feed your mind
Fill your mind with powerful and impactful information. The more wisdom you take in, the more your energy and vibration will be raised which will deflect toxic people and attract positive people who match your vibe and energy. This is the powerful magic that you need in order for this to work 100%. Without this power that you have within you, it will be hard to do steps 1 and 2.
No Journal No Success
Never Writing Anything Down
Having the ability to write down your thoughts, plans, goals, and ideas is essential for your growth. It is a vital process that allows your brain to think and be released from autopilot mode. Most people live their life every single day, the same as the day before.
With not much change and thought that goes behind their day, we tend to fall into a comfortable state of mind. Writing and journaling are by far some of the most effective tools that we have at our disposal.
With no other easier way to relieve stress other than ranting to someone who will judge what you are saying secretively, journaling has the capacity to listen without judgment and challenge your mind to speak properly and eloquently, make sentences and paragraphs make more sense, also known as as paragraph comprehension and finally, journaling will grow your brain simultaneously.
There are far more benefits to writing than there are cons. Less than 16% of people are active diary writers, according to trisent.co.uk. That means you can be better than 84% of people who don’t if you just choose to write.
How to Journal Consistently
Know your reason why.
In order to journal or do anything consistently you must first develop, clarify and understand your reasons why. By having the knowledge and wisdom of the reasons to journal, you will have the ability to easily start writing and be consistent.
Get you a very nice journal
This is just as important as step 2. If you buy a fancy journal, a journal with meaning, you will have more willpower to put something in it. Since you paid money for it you might as well use it.
Planning Journal Prompts
Journal prompts are the easiest way to get started. There are thousands of journal prompts that spark up your interest, get you writing, and keep you busy. Choose your topic of choice or just go with the flow and watch sparks fly. We have 22 Bizzare Shadow Work questions that will keep you busy for the year if you so dare.
Although journaling takes a ton of energy to get started. Believe it or not, like anything else, the hardest part of anything is getting started. Once you get into the rhythm it becomes automatic. You don’t have to be perfect to start, but you most certainly have to get started to be perfect. ~C.J. Perry~
Setting a reading schedule
Never Reading Books
According, to one study, on average, people read less than 12 books per year. Most people, however, (realistically speaking) do not take time out of their busy schedules to read an entire book in a given period. Can you attest to this?
The likelihood of them finishing the book even if they did get started is about 8% according to inc.com says that’s the percentage of people who actually achieve their goals. The point here is that it has a lot of damaging impactful effects on the brain if you don’t feed your mind. It would make you lazy, not a thinker, reduce your knowledge, your creativity, and not exercise the brain for healthy blood flow.
The positives for reading are impressive. According to insider.com, reading consistently strengthens connections in the brain which improves memory, focus, and concentration, reduces stress, and prevents age-related cognitive decline as well as cognitive hindrances like dementia.
If you know the statistics of what reading does for you, then you will be more inclined to read and be consistent. Let’s talk about how we can make you a reader.
How to Develop a Reading Habit fast
- First make a commitment
- Build a reading list of everything you wish to read on. Topics that you are interested in.
- Create a reading plan. Start with 5-10 pages a day. For 21 days. The goal is 30 pages a day minimum.
- Find your peaceful place. Look for the quietest place in the house, whether it be a closet, attic, basement or patio. Just avoid rooms where you do an activity in like sleep, eat or fart.
- Keep a book with you at arm’s reach. The closer a book is to you, the more you are inclined to read it.
- Be specific in your plan to read a book. Break down the complexity of reading a book. (Example: Read Peace Be Shadow Work by C.J. Perry in 2 months divided by 230 pages. 230 pages divided by 60 days =7 ½ pages read per day which equals 2 months) You can do the same for weeks. 230 pages / 4 weeks equals 57 pages per week. This makes the process a lot simpler.
- Just start with a recommended book, in this case; Awaken Your Zen: Practicing the art of being spiritual awakened to heal the mind, body, heart and spirit. You can head over to our books tab for this or directly on Amazon.
So, there you have it, broken down for you in bite-sized chunks, easy for you to digest. More than 5 bad habits that damage your brain. These are the things that decrease brainpower.
Final Thoughts on the Best Habits to Start
We decided to add more than 5 bad habits that damage your brain from masturbation and porn to social media overload, to never read a complete book the entire year.
Let’s be honest, is it safe to say that you haven’t done at least one of those this year or last year at least once? Yea, we dove into the 7 worst habits for your brain and the one about being around broke people I bet shocked you the most.
Let’s do a challenge this week. I want to challenge you to do at least 2 out of the 7 worst habits this week and I want you to email me directly telling me your thoughts about what happened. I really want to know. Who knows, maybe I’ll tell you which one I struggled with the most. Ready for the challenge?
C.J. Perry
Keep Self-Healing