I’ve been thinking about negative interest activities. These are all the small habits, behaviors, and actions that feel inconsequential in the moment but add up to result in a major detraction from quality of life, health, and fitness levels over the long term.
And the thing is that the older you are, the larger the impact of these activities. Here are some of the ones that I am thinking about and making sure to avoid as of late.
Using my hands to stand up from chairs.
We’ve all done it—getting up from the sofa and giving yourself a little boost off your knuckles to stand up. Maybe you’re getting up from the dinner table and kind of push off the table. This is most pronounced in the end stage of this habit: the old guy in the nursing home who uses his arms for everything that his legs normally would. He leans on a walker and stands up entirely using the armrest.
Once or twice—hell, even a few months of this—probably doesn’t really matter. It’s the lifelong repeated performance of this minor action that leads to the end stage of being unable to use your legs. Every time you stand up from a chair or even sitting on the ground, use only your legs.
Mouth breathing when stressed.
I’m not a mouth breather, but I may have picked up a few bad habits in intense concentration or stress. I’m pretty sure this is a result of me engaging in endurance athletics for so long, where even the best of us end up mouth-breathing at the most intense portion of the race or training. I will occasionally find myself, when locked into research or focus, breathing through my mouth.
I can tell that this is only increasing the stress of the situation, traveling a familiar pathway in the brain that I associate with stressful situations. So lately I’ve been catching myself before it happens and making sure to breathe through my nose, especially when I’m under stress.
Leaning on counters and tables with my elbows.
The urge to lean on the counter while standing is tough to overcome, but it places a lot of stress on the shoulder joint. To combat this tendency, I make sure to just stay moving. If I feel compelled to lean over and rest, I’ll just go for a little walk.
Letting problems linger.
I’m a Type A individual, someone who likes to be in control and take the reins to get things done, but I’ve also always been a thinker. Some would say an overthinker. If you have this problem, here’s what you do: address issues immediately.
Thinking must precede action, but thinking only begets more thinking and an endless loop that’s pointless and counterproductive. Every minute you waste thinking about something for the 30th time is training your nervous system not to take action. It’s convincing your nervous system that the act of thinking is the solution and your only recourse to a problem. You need to break that cycle before it begins, before it winds its way around and gets you mired in overthinking.
What negative interest activities and habits should you be kicking? Let me know over on Instagram and Facebook. 
