In order to become the absolute best version of yourself, you have to declutter your mind. Much like a dirty, disorganized workspace can be counterproductive, a mind that’s constantly riddled with random thoughts, fears, and ideas can leave you unfocused and incapable of any real accomplishments. Worrying about what lies ahead, feeling guilt or regret what’s happened in the past, and juggling a random assortment of things to do is hardly conducive to reaching your life goals.

Deal with Remorse, Guilt, and Other Emotions That Are Tying You to the Past

For most people, the vast majority of their mental clutter is tied to things already passed. You might feel regret about how past friendships ended, or you may be holding onto pain from your childhood. Although these emotions are likely buried quite deeply, they’re guaranteed to have an impact on your day-to-day decisions and actions. In terms of real-life clutter, these feelings are not unlike the old, threadbare furnishings that people lay up in their attics or basements, the outdated and damaged clothing that still hangs in their closets, and the unnecessary household items that they’re never going to use.

These are emotions that are taking up essential space. More importantly, they’re making it exceedingly difficult for you to bring new things into your life that actually add value. Use a journal to list the different forms of baggage that you’ve been dragging around from your past. Then, make an effort to make peace with each of these things, one by one. You’ll feel infinitely lighter once you do.

Fear of The Future

You might have urgent bills looming right around the corner and insufficient cash in your bank account for covering them. You may be worried about a forthcoming promotion, the loss of your job, or the possible, breakdown of your relationship. In reality, however, all you really have to worry about are the problems that are in front of you right now. Setting your mind too far in the future will cause you to overlook the opportunities and resources that are easily within your reach.

It’s also incredibly difficult to proactively engage in any beneficial life-planning activities when fear of the future has you frozen in place like a deer trapped in headlights. Make a list of the things that you can change in your life right now and take the necessary actions to change them. Taking a proactive approach to dealing with and preventing stress is far better than letting this negative and often debilitating emotion flood your mind and render you inactive.

Stop Trying to Multi-Task

Spend more time being totally focused on a single activity to promote a sense of mindfulness, and increase the overall quality of your work. Although multitasking is often considered a sign of high efficiency, it frequently produces low-value results. Applying your full focus to each, individual activity will additionally force you to let go of your mental clutter. There are a number of random, fleeting thoughts and fears that will simply go away if they’re regularly ignored.

Clean Your Physical Environment

Surprisingly, one of the best tricks for eliminating mental clutter is simply cleaning up your home and work environment. If you have piles and piles of random projects lying around, your brain will get the idea that there’s always something pressing that needs to be done. Creating a serene, peaceful, and organized space will make you more mindful and less prone to worry about what lies ahead or what’s gone wrong in the past.

You’ll be far more effective in all life areas once you’ve made a concerted effort to get rid of mental clutter. Keep in mind, however, that mental clutter, much like physical clutter, can be quite addictive, especially if you’ve become conditioned to living with it. Despite the temporary discomfort that mental decluttering might cause, ongoing efforts to remain clear and focused thinking will definitely pay off.

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Your everyday habits are the ones that make the biggest impact in your life, and many people have no idea what they’re doing every day is what causes their health issues. Good physical health has nothing to do with how thin you are. It has everything to do with how healthy you are, and not how well your body bounces back following pregnancy or how you don’t gain a pound no matter what you eat. Your physical health plays a prominent role in how you live your life, and it’s time to make positive habits to encourage physical health a part of your everyday life.

Eat Something Healthy Every Day

Even if you don’t want to, eat something that’s good for you every day and do it by replacing something that’s not good for you. Instead of having a dinner roll with your dinner, grab an additional helping of broccoli instead. Instead of eating a bowl of cereal for breakfast, have a bowl of oatmeal. Replace one thing you eat every day with something healthy as a start.

Move More

If you want to train yourself to create better habits for your physical health each day, start slow and work your way up. Start by moving your body for 20 minutes each day. Take a walk, play tag with the kids, or take the stairs instead of the elevator at work. You don’t need to go to the gym, but you do need to make it a habit to move your body and stay active for 20 minutes per day for good physical health.

Go To Sleep Earlier

Your sleep habits have an effect on your physical health. If you’re not getting enough sleep each day, make it a point to get to bed a bit earlier at night and get more sleep. Your body needs this time to rest for the following day. You’re less likely to suffer from depression, health problems, and even a weak immune system if you’re getting between 7 and 8 hours of sleep each night. Work it out so this happens, and your body will become a lot more physically healthy.

Keep A Gratitude Journal

Your physical health won’t change as easily if your mental health isn’t changing with it. A gratitude journal is a way for you to write down something you’re happy and grateful for each day. It’s a good daily habit that helps you focus on the good things in life. This helps you find more energy to use when working out, when making meal choices, and when you’re looking in the mirror.

The best way to create good health habits is to start slow. Choose one thing to change and work your way up the ladder to bigger and healthier changes in your life. Your body responds better when you don’t shock it into a complete change. Your physical health also responds to your mental and emotional health, so it’s important you don’t forget to change those.

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When you’re motivated to get fit and healthy, it’s easy to want to get to the gym and change your diet completely. You’re all in, you’re ready for this, and you love every second of it. Once your motivation is gone, however, it’s easy to fall back into old habits such as skipping a workout or eating poorly. While it’s fine to take a day of rest or to indulge in those amazing donuts you love so much in moderation, you can’t let your lack of motivation change the way you feel about your health. If you feel your motivation isn’t there, try these tips to motivate you to maintain your good health.

Look at Photos of Your Goal Body

Do you want to work on a Kardashian bottom or a flat stomach with abs that show without effort? Do you want curves or just some gorgeous muscle tone in your arms? Find a photo of the body parts you’re aiming to achieve and look at them. When you feel unmotivated, these photos will help you find a way to get your motivation back.

Set Small Goals

You have a big goal, but you must break that down into smaller goals you can achieve over time. When you have more than one goal to check off your list, you feel motivated. Here’s a good example. You want to get fit and healthy, lose weight, and look amazing on a tropical beach vacation in six months. That’s your main goal. You break that goal down into smaller goals. Perhaps you want to hit the gym four days a week for at least a half hour, and maybe you want to eat 80 percent healthy food and allow yourself 20 percent of indulgence food.

Write those down and cross those smaller goals off every day. If you manage to work out for 30 minutes that day, check it off your list. If you eat all healthy food that day so you can save your indulgence for a movie date this weekend, check it off your list. Each time you achieve even the smallest goal, you feel so much more motivated and positive about your life.

Find Accountability

Find someone to make you accountable. This is a person you need to check in with each day. It’s embarrassing to admit to someone you failed simply because you felt lazy or didn’t want to. You’d much rather tell that person you did meet your goals for the day, and that keeps you motivated. Let their disappointment motivate you to stay accountable.

Your body is going to change if you can change your mind, and that’s why your motivation level is so important. What works for you might not work for others and vice versa. This is why you should try a few of these to see if they work and eliminate what doesn’t make you feel more motivated.

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Whether you believe it or not, the vibes you put out into the world work to attract things to your life or keep them away. If you’re a negative pessimist always in a bad mood, you’re going to attract people who feed that negativity rather than people with a bright outlook and optimism. Your life won’t change for the better, and you won’t find life any easier when you continue to live with so much negativity. You don’t have to believe this if you don’t want, but you should try to see how changing to an attitude of gratitude can affect your life and health.

Expressing What You’re Grateful for Makes You Focus on Good Things

The next time your morning starts off on the wrong foot, try sitting down for a few moments to find three to five things you’re grateful for. Write them down and read them aloud to yourself. You’ll feel instantly better because you forced yourself to focus on some of the good things in your life rather than the bad things you perceive are happening to you that morning. Your mood changes, your outlook changes, and your day changes.

Your Gratitude Affects Others

When you focus on gratitude, it affects everyone in your life. The people you live with notice the shift in your mood, and they respond to that. They become happier by default, and they want to express their own gratitude. Before you know it, everyone in your home is happier than they’ve ever been and stress levels are lower. This is a great health benefit.

Gratitude Creates a Good Mood

Gratitude is infectious, and it’s infectious in a good way. When you feel good about life, you almost feel high on life. The rush is so good you just want to feel it again and again, so you find yourself looking for a way to make it happen. Exercise is a good way to get that rush of healthy endorphins, so you might find yourself focusing on exercise more often.

Now that you’re exercising more and focusing your attitude on one of gratitude, you’re going to find yourself feeling much better about life. You’re more positive, you’re happier, and your entire life begins to change. You have a better outlook, which means stress melts away. You take on a new viewpoint when negative things happen, and you find yourself feeling better from the inside out.

Focusing on the good things in life is always a better idea than focusing on the bad ones. You have a choice to make, and it’s easier to make that choice when you’re feeling good about life. You are in complete control of how you feel. If you’re feeling down and out, it’s up to you to change that.

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Some people dread getting into a cold shower. However, you can benefit your health by biting the bullet and stepping into a shower without turning on the hot water. This is ideal when it is completely cold, but you can ease into it by starting with lukewarm water, then gradually increasing it to colder and colder water.

Improve Blood Circulation

Cold water is a great way to increase your blood circulation, which is not only good for better energy and a number of other specific health benefits, but for overall wellness as well.

Increase Your Alertness

If you have ever had a cold shower early in the morning, you probably already know that it can help tremendously with making you more alert. There is a gentle shock to the system when you take a cold shower, making it especially beneficial for the mornings when you are already more tired than usual. Not up for a shower? You can also get similar benefits by splashing your face with water.

Alleviate Depression

Henry David Thoreau was an American historian who suffered from bouts of depression. Taking cold showers was one of the things that he did in order to alleviate his depression. Researchers have found that cold showers can be effective in reducing depression symptoms. Cold showers can stimulate the release of noradrenaline. This is a chemical that can reduce depression symptoms.

Stimulate Weight Loss

Did you know cold showers can also help to stimulate weight loss? There are a number of different reasons for this, from its fat-burning ability to giving you more energy, which helps you get through workouts during the day. Regardless, it is a great way to start your day.

You can stimulate burning fat activity when you take cold showers. There have been numerous studies that look at the overall health benefits of cold showers, including how they might aid in your weight loss efforts.

Improve Skin and Hair Health

Hot water can dry out your skin and hair. Cold water can make your hair and skin healthier. The cold water can close up your pores, which can improve the overall health and appearance of your skin. Cold water can also help to provide more moisture to your hair, which improves its shine and vitality.

Improve Your Immune System Functioning

Research studies have also looked at the benefits of cold water and taking cold showers for your immune system. It can boost many response systems in your body, including boosting your immune system and how it functions. This is great for overall health.

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