The Worst Addictions I Have

As everyone knows, some habits are hard to break. It sticks to us like gum on a shoe.

But You may be thinking of some type of addiction like Smoking or other. But I don’t have that addiction because I don’t smoke.

Here I am talking about the Addiction we often Ignore. So, I am going to talk about my worst Addictions I Have.

1. My couch is way too comfortable

For me couch is so welcoming and its pillow seems to be always whispering sweetly. It offers the most comfortable rest ever and I thought that was my seat, my little piece of heaven.

But What I didn’t know was that the soft little peace of heaven would become my island, away from the busy world outside.

It all began pleasantly enough, with movie screenings on the weekends and the odd lazy afternoon. Soon, though, I couldn’t fight the pull of my couch. Wanna work from home? On the couch. Does your company offer coffee breaks? On the couch. Having fun? But who needs that when you have a friend like that?

A friend joked, “Do you ever move from that spot?” and that’s when I realized what I was thinking. As I hid under a blanket, I laughed it off, but it made me think. Had the couch I loved turned into a plush trap?

But do you know what I wanted to talk about? “Why this addiction is bad, although it does not seem to be?”

When I sit for a long time on my couch or any comfortable area, It makes me feel lazy. I start Procastinante. And It is not good for Us, Especially those who are young like me (age between 20–40).

Do you know what health issue we have to face if we sit a long time on the couch sleeping or resting?

I start feeling “Nothing” — Like my brain is empty.
Increase in Blood Glucose — No I haven’t felt that yet but it happens in the body when we take long rest.
Weight Gain due to limited caloric expenditure
Increased Risk of heart diseases

So, What I have done to break this addiction?

Firstly, I shifted from the couch to the chair. The chair is not very comfortable. It is made of wood without back support. And I had put that near my desk.

Secondly, I tried to be more productive by making a to-do list with reminders. Here I have two reminders: one is my best friend and the other is my phone. We have both started making a to-do list. And in the morning, we send it to each other. Then we both ask each other if the task is completed or not. If not, then I have to give her $5. And if she is not done, she will give me $5.

This trick made both of us more productive, especially during the exam periods.

2. Checking My Phone on Every Vibration and Notification

Next, let’s talk about something that only happens these days: checking my phone for texts, especially from “her” — The person’s texts make the day.

I swear I started feeling ghostly movements when I looked at my phone too much. Was it an email or a message, or was my mind going crazy?

Every time the phone rang, I was drooling over a word, an image, or anything else. It was like Pavlov’s dog. Probably the worst part.

I recognized the irony. I was trying to feel linked, but I was cutting myself off from the present and missing talks and times in real life.

Because of that, I had to rethink my goals and how I used technology.

So… I started Using the Pomodoro technique. You might have heard. It makes me more productive without getting disturbed and feeling burned out.

3. Staying Up Late for No Apparent Reason

Oh, staying up late for no reason. It’s an old story.

As the night falls, I become an intellectual, an artist, and a dreamer. Suddenly, every thought seems revolutionary, and sleep is the last thing on my mind.

The interesting thing is that most of the time, I wasn’t going on trips at night to get things done. Instead, I was just aimlessly browsing the internet or binge-watching shows I had already seen.

There was too much of a pull for “just one more episode” to resist, and before I knew it, the birds were singing to start a new day.

How much will it cost? I was tired in the mornings and drank so much coffee that it could beat a Gilmore Girl. There was a cycle that was calling for a change, but the night’s quiet call was too hard to ignore.

4. Hydration or Libation?

Now talk about the big problem that nobody wants to talk about — drinking drinks instead of plain water. When you pour a drink and hear the ice clink, it makes you feel like you can relax.

But if the scales tip too far, water should not be a thought. It’s time to reevaluate.

It became hard to tell the difference between relaxing and relying on myself because I reached for a drink out of habit instead of need.

That was a reminder to find balance, enjoy without needing, and remember that water, even though it wasn’t flashy, was the real star.

5. Scrolling, scrolling, and more scrolling

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that minutes have turned into hours on social media sites.

It’s like going down a rabbit hole where time stops. And all of a sudden you know a lot about something you didn’t know anything about 30 minutes ago.

This was sneaky; it came on slowly, like a shadow. I didn’t realize I might have a problem until I was looking through a friend’s 2015 holiday pictures. When it came to material, the never-ending stream was like a spread that I couldn’t leave.

The turning point for me was when I realized that jokes and popular videos were being brought up a lot in real life.

It was time to stop what I was doing and get back to the real world.

…

The first thing that helped me change was realizing that I had these habits. It wasn’t about giving up these comforts; it was about finding a BALANCE between them and my daily life.

Setting limits, like daily phone curfews, became important to me.

I remembered how much fun it was to talk to people in person and be fully present. Though the night still called to me, I learned how to find a balance between the need to be creative late at night and the need to rest.

When I scrolled, I became more aware and chose what to see on my feeds to make my life better, not worse.

And How about water? To put it simply, water and I are quickly becoming friends. Every once in a while, a glass of something stronger will show up.

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I hope you enjoyed the read. If you like this then subscribe to my medium Newsletter. The above blog post is for information purposes only.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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