No, it’s not Smoking, Drinking, or UV Rays

by Khyati Jain

Your lifestyle plays the biggest role in your aging process. You can’t stop time but you can give up the habits that accelerate your aging.

Good habits can help you slow down aging, but they won’t do jack shit if you don’t adopt a healthy lifestyle.

These are the few bad habits that will kill your efforts to slow down aging. So, boost your longevity by giving up these dangerous habits.

1. You don’t take this illness seriously

Our busy lifestyle is the root cause of poor mental health. Your work has consumed your life and now you can’t detach yourself from it to relax.

Burnout is our automated state. Nowadays, you can’t relax on command, you need to prepare your mind in advance for a little downtime.

This unhealthy obsession with productivity is killing your mental peace. Then there’s the societal unrest that’ll keep you up at night.

Your poor relationships and friendships add fuel to the fire. All these factors increase the chances of mental illness.

This study has proven that mental illness can make you age faster as it can accelerate the aging process.

People suffering from depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder have a higher biological age than their chronological age.

Billions of people suffer from mental illness every year, and sadly there would be many more undetected cases as well.

It’s an epidemic that we can immune ourselves from with a few lifestyle changes.

You can decrease your chances of getting a mental illness by 80% if you change your lifestyle a little.

Adopting a healthy lifestyle will boost your mental health and it can also decrease the intensity of a pre-existing mental illness

Here’s what I do to protect my mental health:-

• Add physical movement to all aspects of your life.
• Find a habit that helps you vent out daily, for me it’s journaling.
• Meditate daily, even if just for 5 minutes.

2. You can’t escape the corporate jail

Your life is moving fast while you sit in an air-conditioned jail of the corporate world.

Your job accelerates aging because of many factors but the main reason that kills your youth is a sedentary life.

We sit at least 8 hours a day in front of a screen to do the work that most of us don’t even like to make a living.

Sedentary life speeds up cellular aging and can even wreck your DNA health.

It decreases the length of the telomeres which have long been used to measure longevity.

A sedentary lifestyle puts you at a higher risk of mental illness which ages you faster as well.

Moreover, this study found that sedentary leisure can age elderly women faster by as much as 8 years.

So, get a standing desk to protect yourself from the ill effects of sitting. Moreover, it can also improve your productivity as well.

Here’s how you can curb sitting:-

• Take a 5-minute walking break every 40 minutes.
• If you can’t take a break then just stand for five minutes.
• Walk while standing at the same spot.
• Go on walking meetings.
• And try to take 10 a minute walk after lunch.

3. You destroy your health with this stupid habit

The easiest thing you can do to ensure a long healthy life is to drink water. The simple act of staying hydrated is enough to boost your longevity.

This study found that well-hydrated people reduce their risk of developing lethal chronic diseases and live longer than dehydrated folks.

So, the easy act of staying hydrated can increase your chances of longevity. But we are too lazy to even do that.

Everyone knows water is good for you, but how many of us get up from our seats and make the trip to the water cooler is another question.

I am a lazy bum and I let dehydration take over my life until I can no longer beat it with a lip balm.

This stupid habit is costing you your brain cells as well as even the slightest dehydration can reduce brain power by 1%.

So, get a water bottle and fill it up regularly.

Here’s what you can do to stay hydrated:-

• Keep a water bottle at your desk.
• Start your morning with water, not coffee.
• Add more healthy liquids to your diet.

4. Your eyes are begging for rest

We are surrounded by screens. We live our life through and for the screens now.

You plan every outing, vacation, and outfit for the sole purpose of posting it on Insta. You keep tabs on your friends and family through a screen.

Calls are the least preferred form of communication, we now prefer texts over everything else. Three little bubbles have taken over talking.

You work, socialize, and relax all through a screen. This blue light-emitting monster is decreasing your longevity every minute.

This research claims 60 minutes is enough to trigger skin problems, yet we spend most of the day in front of screens.

You can’t escape screens in today’s world, even monks use digital devices. But you can decrease the excess usage of screens.

The unproductive hours you spend scrolling can be utilized for something fun and productive.

So, keep your screens but learn to use them wisely.

Here’s what you can do:-

• Close your laptop one hour before bedtime.
• Try to get out of the office to soak some real light.
• Try to get the sunlight in your eyes as soon as you wake up.

Conclusion

Your daily habits are making you age faster every day. But you can take actionable habits to mend these habits immediately.

Making a few easy lifestyle changes will help you slow down aging and improve your overall health.

So, start today by giving up these four dangerous habits that are aging you faster.

• Build an active lifestyle that helps you prevent mental illness.
• Take regular breaks from sitting to avoid a sedentary life.
• Sip water throughout the day for better brain function.
• Don’t overexpose yourself to blue light.

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Citation Resourceshttps://medium.com/change-your-mind/5-every-day-deadly-habits-that-are-making-you-age-faster-c1ff790452b

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