Are Habits Harmful or Helpful?
Biting your nails, waking up at 7 a.m., drinking a soda with each meal and taking the same route to work each day are common habits we form purposely or unintentionally. Depending on your outlook, habits may be harmful or helpful to your lifestyle.
Habits are routine acts ingrained over time until the act seems involuntary. Some of these acts are beneficial, like buckling your seat belt and brushing your teeth. Other habits are deadly, such as drinking a 24 - pack of beer solo every night.
Overall, are habits healthy or harmful for our overall well being?
You may be thinking it’s not that black and white. There are forms of beneficial habits and destructive habits. My research focused on the core principle of a habit versus a routine. Are daily routines healthy? You decide.
Writer Karen Chaffee said there are ways to achieve balance between healthy and harmful habits. She said routines, to an extent, are necessary for a sane life. “Life is full of change and unpredictability, and routines can provide us the sense of security that comes with knowing what will happen and when,” Chaffee said. Routines and habits clean up chaos and establish organization and predictability.
However, habits and routines can make you feel trapped in a rut. Chaffee said that habits can be harmful personally because they can create excessive predictability which can suck out one’s interest and passion for day to day life.
“Some people are so adamant about sticking to ‘the routine,’ that it becomes a full-blown stress when anything disturbs it,” Chauffer said. “You can count on disturbances! They are a part of life. But these people have forgotten how to think outside the cherished routine.”
Psychology Today blogger Ian Newby-Clark said whether harmful or helpful, habits affect more than just you and your daily routine. “Just as we develop habits to make our lives easier, so to those same habits influence others' lives and their habits. And, their lives get easier too!”
Amidst change, habits are initially harmful. “When you start to change one of your habits, it will be disturbing to those around you.
We value and respect the experiences of all of our HERWriters, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.
Add a Comment5 Comments
Why does this article even exist? Habits can be both good or bad? Really? You just changed my life because evidently I'm a moron.
March 26, 2010 - 4:04pmThis Comment
Wow!! I just read the comment by unknow author. The thing to remember is we are not hear to judge a
March 27, 2010 - 5:16ampersons writing style or make improper comments.If something bothers you , and you want to express your feelings-please do so in a nice manner. Or follow the old saying "If you can not say something nice, just don't day anything at all". This is my own personal guide to being polite. If this is being an old fuddy-dudddey, then so be it. Sincerely. Lioness111
Here's a critique on your writing style. Two exclamation points should never be used, you misspelled unknown and used the wrong version of here. Second, what's an improper comment, you dolt? The people other than you have all been right, you just want a vapid author to have her feelings shielded. Welcome to comments, they're where you put down honest opinion. It's called free expression, live with it.
March 30, 2010 - 2:23pmI've got something nice to say. Nice typeface. That's about it.
March 27, 2010 - 12:15pmPlease keep comments directed to content, rather than style and please do not name call other members ('dolt').
All opinions are welcome but readers continually posting mean-spirited comments and name-calling may be asked to leave.
Thank you!
March 30, 2010 - 2:38pm