12 Toxic Behaviors We All Need to Be Aware of and Avoid

 Smart home devices Joke book We are all capable of hurting and upsetting the people around us, especially those we care about. Very often it comes down to how we act with others. What follows are behaviors that will likely push people away from us. Here are 12 toxic behaviors we should all be aware of:

1. Being envious of others 

Don't let envy get the best of you! Your journey is different to that of everybody else's and focusing on the achievements of others will stop you from seeing all that you have accomplished. Be mindful that your journey is not a competition with others, and the only person that you are competing against is yourself. Each day, strive to be the best that you can be and measure your progress (if you want to) with who you were yesterday. 

2. Taking things too personally 

Very often, hurt, disappointment and sadness in our lives come from taking things too personally. When a person believes that everything that happens around them is a direct assault on them, they can be toxic to be around. Bear in mind that what people say and do to you is more about them than it is about you. People react to you through their perspectives, wounds, and experiences. Let go of other people's opinions of you and live your life based on your own intuition and wisdom.

3. Victimizing yourself  

Persistent complaining fuels your sense of victimization. When you believe that you are a victim you have no power over your life. Self-victimization is a toxic stance that keeps you stuck. Make yourself aware of this toxic behavior and make it a point to stop complaining, refuse to see yourself as a helpless victim. Doing so will help you realize that you are more powerful than you initially thought. 

4. Hoarding pain and loss 

Letting go is possibly one of life's hardest lessons. Change never comes easy, but oftentimes, letting go is the healthiest path forward. It clears out toxic thoughts from the past and emotionally releases us from the things that had once meant a lot to us. It allows us to move beyond the past and the pain that it has brought. Letting go takes a lot of hard work, but in the end, it is worth it. 

5. Obsessive negative thinking 

One of the hardest types of people to be around are those who refuse to let go of negativity. Those who obsess in negative thinking ruminate and speak incessantly about the terrible things that could happen and have happened. They dwell on the scorns that they have suffered and the unfairness of life. They stubbornly refuse to see the positive side of life and the positive lessons they can learn. They are locked in a negative mindset. 

 6. Lack of emotional self-control 

 You may know of someone who explodes in anger and tears over the smallest problem. If you come to realize that you are overly emotional, losing your cool at every turn, seek outside assistance to help you gain control over your emotions and try to understand what's at the root of your inner angst.

7. Making superficial judgments about others 

While it may be easy to judge people by what we can see on the surface, oftentimes, our perception is only based on what the person has shown us, or what they were driven to show based on their inner stress and pain. When another person tries to make you suffer in a small way, it is usually because they suffer deep within themselves. With this in mind, if you can't help them, let them be. 

8. Lacking empathy and compassion 

 Cruelty is one of the most toxic of behaviors as it stems from a lack of empathy, concern or compassion for others. It arises from being unkind or hurtful to others just because they can. If you notice that you are backstabbing and tearing someone else down, stop, dig deep and find compassion in your heart. 

9. Cheating and cutting moral corners 

Cheating is a choice we make. When we cheat, we succeed in cheating someone out of something that they may have rightfully deserved. Strive to be honest with yourself and with everyone else. Do the right thing. Integrity is the essence of success. 

10. Needing constant validation 

 It is exhausting to be around people who constantly strive for validation from others. Those who get caught up in the need to prove their worth over and over, and hope to win the approval of those around them are unintentionally toxic and draining. Focus on the bigger picture in your life. Focus on your path, what you are learning and how you are helping others to learn too.

11. Hiding your truth  

If you are constantly trying to hide from yourself, this can become a truly toxic situation as it enables you to become attached to your false persona. Each of us has a light to shine and missions to accomplish. Celebrate who you are! 

12. Being a stubborn perfectionist 

We often find ourselves in search of the perfect house, job, friend or lover. Perfection stops us from experiencing life's continual journey, constantly evolving and changing. With a little patience and an open mind, over time, that imperfect house will evolve into a comfortable home, that imperfect job will evolve into a rewarding carrier, and that imperfect friend will evolve into a steady shoulder for us to lean on. Let perfectionism go.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

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Improve Your Mental Health With These 6 Mind-Changing Exercises

If you live with anxiety, chronic stress or another mental health disorder, you know how negative thinking can affect your well-being. Sometimes it feels like there's nothing you can do but have the thoughts, letting them influence your emotions, behaviors and actions. But that doesn't have to be the case. 

Thought exercises can help you see experiences in a new light, and change how much power your negative thoughts have over you. Not only can thought exercises help you ease stress in the moment, they also can help us to make our subconscious thoughts go in more productive, helpful directions over time. Let's go through the top six thought exercises you can do to improve your mental health. We'll even show you how to perform them. 

What is a thought exercise? 

Thought exercises are new ways to think about a given circumstance or experience that can help us get out of a stuck or unhelpful way of thinking. While some thought exercises have been studied extensively by psychological researchers, others are offered by psychologists and clinical mental health counselors because they've been helpful anecdotally for specific types of patients. Thought exercises may be suggested by your therapist, whether they are online or in-person.

It's important to keep in mind that there isn't a one-size-fits-all thought exercise. Feel free to try one of them for a few weeks and see if you like the way they impact your mental health and feelings of well-being. If not, you can try a different one. Thought exercises are meant to be a method of seeing the world differently, not a medical treatment. 

What are the benefits of thought exercises for mental health?

Reframing thoughts is one of the building blocks of cognitive behavioral therapy, which has been found effective in many studies.

• A go-to thought exercise can help one maintain calm during a stressful moment and continue functioning, staving off a more severe reaction like an anxiety attack. 
  
• Thought exercises can reduce the duration and intensity of anxiety symptoms even when not combined with traditional therapy.
  
• When paired with a mental health app, thought exercises can provide a log of one's growth and changes in mental health.
  
• Thought exercises can make us more mindful of what triggers our anxiety, allowing us to make life modifications that help us to experience anxiety  less often. 
  

6 thought exercises that will boost your mental health 

Next time you're feeling stressed out, try one of these methods to help combat overwhelming feelings.

The self-observation exercise

Many spiritual traditions include some kind of self-observation or mindfulness exercise, but it is helpful in a completely nonspiritual context as well. When you begin to experience the symptoms you associate with anxiety, you can use this exercise to get curious and learn more about what you're going through. Here's how to do it:

1. When you're feeling anxious and have the opportunity to take a couple of minutes to yourself, do so. Get away from others so you won't be interrupted, even if it's just a few minutes.

2. Start noting the way that every element of your body feels. Are you feeling the anxiety in your shoulders, neck, stomach or head? Are you experiencing other symptoms, like fatigue or a headache? Don't judge the feelings, just note them, like you were observing a scientific experiment and needed to catch everything.

3. Then turn your self-observation to your thoughts. What are the specific stressors cycling through your mind? Try to catalog them, rather than letting them overwhelm you. When you've noticed one, let it go, recognizing that you've "heard" it. 

4. If you can get to a place of fully focusing on bodily and mental sensations, you may find yourself able to calm down, doing things like releasing the muscles you've discovered are tense or letting thoughts go instead of holding onto them intensely. This may take a few tries.

The act of self-observation can be a way to take your mind off the anxiety and come back to your body. When we're in fight-or-flight mode, the anxiety gets us to safety, but if we are physically safe, this can be a way to evaluate our body and find our baseline again. 

Keep a thought record

One of the ways that people better understand their anxiety symptoms is by recording their thoughts. This can be done in a traditional paper journal, but there are other options, especially when it's inconvenient to carry an extra notebook everywhere. The app Thought Diary is a simple interface, letting you write down your mood and any details about it. It also includes other thought exercises, such as practicing gratitude and analyzing a thought.

Reviewing your thought record occasionally can help you draw connections, including things like how sleep, exercise and nutrition impact your anxiety symptoms. 

Interrupt anxious thinking

Anxious thinking respond best to being distracted by a different task. These techniques are more about what effectively distracts you and less about a technically "right" method. 

• Try tensing and relaxing different muscles in your body, focusing on the muscle activity and seeing if it can help you stop thinking anxious thoughts.
  
• Breathing with an intentional count, like four counts in and four counts out.
  
• Putting on music, an audiobook or a radio show can interrupt anxious thoughts and bring your mind to bear on something else.
  
• Loudly saying that you're done thinking this way or verbally speaking affirmations can help get out of one's head and hear a positive voice more clearly.
  
• Choosing a soothing task that is also mentally engaging: word games on your phone, loading a dishwasher, doing a yoga flow or other set routine of stretching can all be effective anxiety interruptions. 
  
• Counting backward slowly sometimes works to interrupt the flow of anxiety.
  

Use cognitive defusion exercises 

Cognitive defusion exercises are all about getting an outside perspective on our thoughts, or strategies that help us detach and look more clearly at our thoughts. They are used frequently in CBT and other types of cognitive therapy. 

• Use a silly voice: Some people find it helpful to detach from their thoughts by using a silly voice  to say something like, "Oh, you think this is very concerning, do you?" or some other observation about the thought. 
  
• Leaves on a stream: Some people use the visulazation that their thoughts are floating down a river, coming to them and then going away, as a way to see the thoughts as separate from their core identity.
  
• Label your thoughts: Some people find it helpful to identify "that is an anxious thought" or "this is a fearful thought" as they have the thoughts, helping to take them out of being an assessment of reality and treating them as separate items which don't have to be believed outright. 
  
• "Thank you mind": When our minds tell us a warning in the form of an anxious thought, we can offer gratitude to our mind for trying to help us and warn us.
  

Practice self-compassion

Anxiety sometimes presents as excessive worry that one isn't good enough or has negative traits. These thoughts, when played on a loop, can be demoralizing and can make everyday activities miserable. A way to combat this negative self-talk is to practice self-compassion. While it may seem odd at first, trying to see your current situation the way you'd see it if a good friend was going through it can be a start. Give yourself the kind of comfort you'd give a friend, instead of the harsh critique you often give yourself. 

Another self-compassion exercise is to find and focus on a photograph of yourself from childhood. Instead of directing your thoughts toward your adult self, direct them to that child. Recognize that your adult self deserves the same kind of comfort that a child deserves, as you are also still learning, albeit different things. 

The worry tree

The worry tree is a tool developed for those who experience compulsive or continual worry to help them make a conscious decision between worrying or doing something else. It is a flowchart graphic that is customizable to the person, but essentially starts by questioning, "what exactly am I worried about?" then "Can I do something about it?" and "Can I do something about it right now?" The tree guides people to let worries go when nothing can be done, to make a clear plan if nothing can be done right now, and to go do something if there is something useful to be done about the worry right now. It can help avoid rumination, where we think the same anxiety-inducing thoughts over and over without relief. 

The bottom line 

Thought exercises can feel different from our typical ways of thinking, but if you remain curious, you may find your mind changing, experiencing more methods for how to think positively over time. If you find that thought exercises make your anxious symptoms worse, you may have an ineffective thought exercise for yourself, or your anxiety might respond better to treatment from a psychiatrist or counselor. Talking with a mental health professional is a good idea to get better answers about your specific situation.

 
 

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

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https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
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