There is one important thing that affects our health the most and is having unhealthy habits.
Craving for the unhealthy
Things that we know aren’t healthful for us, but we do them anyways. The sugary coffee addiction, a wide variety of unhealthy snacks binges, eating sushi in excess (mmm.., that’s a lot of mercury!), chocolate bar, energy drinks, or the extra cocktail we understand we shouldn’t have.
Smoking is a substantial unhealthy habit, and it is especially difficult to quit smoking due to physiological addiction. Did you know that carbohydrates can be just as problematic? I’ve observed many people go through “withdrawal” like symptoms after taking away their cherished sugar. No wonder – polysaccharides activate opiate receptors in the brain!
Mom guilt
Don’t you hate mom guilt? It looks like everywhere you go, you get a massive dose of it. There is guilt hiding in parenting magazines, advertisements, schools, in your playgroups, with your friends. We receive Mom Guilt without even realizing we’re doing it because it is so established in our culture and our attitudes around parenting.
What’s concerning?
Mom’s fault has an effect on our body! There is a whole field of research on how emotions shape our physiology: it is called “psychoneuroimmunology.” The researchers examined the effects of shame and guilt and found that healthy adults who take responsibility for themselves increased proinflammatory cytokine.
Cytokines are substances discharged by the immune system that sends a signal when there is something wrong. Proinflammatory cytokines lead to, as you guessed, inflammation. Inflammation is related to cardiovascular diseases, rheumatic conditions (for example, arthritis), autoimmune disorders, and even higher perception of pain.
Excellent! So I just made you feel guilty for being guilty of mom 🙂
So, this is what we are going to do: commit ourselves to stop the spread of mom’s guilt. Instead, we will focus on making healthy lifestyle decisions and turning the negative into positive. Instead of feeling guilty about our unhealthy habits, let’s determine the purpose (s) that the habit is working. For example: “smoking cigarettes helps me relax.” Once the purpose is identified, discover ways to incorporate other activities that will provide that function.
You can use a similar technique to stop having Mom Guilt. When those guilty feelings bubble-up, we can name them and un-claim them. Sincerely saying, “I feel guilty because <FILL-THE-BLANK>”, it really can help us realize how our bad feelings are established on a lot of exaggeration or unreasonable expectations.
When making any change, remember you have the support of your partner, family, friends, physicians, and support groups. Take the benefit of resources around you for direction and reassurance. Let your loved ones know that you are making changes. Contemplate also therapeutic remedies such as acupuncture or hypnosis for cognitive behavioral therapy and many different habits.
