Did you know that self-discipline is important for your health? It can keep you safe and healthy.
Most people have a wrong concept of self-discipline. They associate it with deprivation, harshness, and giving up pleasures. If you think so, too, you need to change your concept.
Start associating self-discipline with inner strength, courage, and inner strength, and do not give in to harmful habits, laziness, and procrastination. This skill can help you gain more control over your life, your actions, and your reactions.
Self-discipline can help you protect your health in many ways. If it is absent, there is a lack of self-control, a lack of the ability to set limits, and an inability to control harmful habits. However, when present, it protects your health and helps you avoid doing things that could harm it.
Below, you will find several reasons why the possession of this skill is beneficial for your health.
Why Self-Discipline Is Good for Your Health
1. It Helps You Stop Eating Unhealthy Food
Eating too much food, eating junk food, and consuming too much sugar are not good for your health. A great number of people have no control over their eating due to lack of discipline. They just cannot change their eating habits because they lack the inner strength to do that.
If they had some discipline, they could have reduced the quantities of food they ate, avoided junk food, and consumed less sugar. This would have improved their health and prevented all kinds of health problems.
Discipline would help you eat in a more healthy way.
2. It helps You Reduce the Amount of Alcohol You Drink
When you possess discipline, it becomes easier to reduce the quantity of alcohol you drink.
Drinking a cup or two of alcohol might be okay for most people. However, when drinking turns into a habit over which you have no control, it becomes a problem.
Possessing self-discipline can help you resist drinking with no restraints. Of course, one needs to develop this ability before becoming a heavy drinker. Then, it would be easier to resist the temptation to drink too much.
A heavy drinker might find it difficult to show discipline, and would therefore require additional means and help. However, a great number of people who drink not too much alcohol would find that the possession of a certain degree of discipline is most useful to keep this habit in control.
3. It helps You Avoid Using Drugs
People, who use drugs, know that they are not good for their health and can damage it, but due to lack of discipline, they cannot stop using them. If there was a way for them to improve their discipline, they could be made to reduce their use, and even stop taking them.
A person who does not use drugs, and works on training and improving his or her self-discipline stands a better chance to abstain from drugs and keep away from them.
4. It Enables You to Exercise Your Body
Do you avoid physical activities? Do you prefer to slouch on your couch, watch TV, and eat junk food when you return home from work? Do you keep telling yourself that you will start going to the gym next week, but this never happens?
If you develop even just a small degree of self-discipline, you would be able to make yourself go to the gym, go for a walk, or exercise your body regularly with any kind of sport.
Exercising your body is essential for your health. When you have discipline, you do not succumb to laziness and procrastination. Discipline gives you the strength and the resolution to decide to exercise your body, and also to carry out this decision.
5. It helps You Lose Weight
How many people do you know, who tried to lose weight, but could not follow their resolution? Maybe you too tried to lose weight, but could not resist the tasty food, the enticing cakes, or the delicious ice cream.
Maybe you tried several diets, but quit after a week or two.
What stopped from losing weight? It is lack of enough discipline and self-control. Just imagine how slimmer you can be, if you have control over the quantity of food you eat, and could persevere with your diet until you lose the superfluous weight.
Some Discipline can help you lose weight.
6. It helps You Quit Smoking
Smoking is an unhealthy habit, which most smokers contemplated many times of quitting, but could not. They might say that they control this habit, and can stop any time they want, yet they don’t, because they lack enough willpower and inner strength.
If you set on improving your discipline, it would be easier to stop smoking.
7. It Enables You to Control Anger
Anger is not good for your health. It affects adversely the mind and the body, increases blood pressure and creates stress.
You need to restrain from getting angry, resist being dragged into unnecessary arguments, and avoid raising your voice or showing verbal or physical aggressiveness. To be able to do so, you need discipline and inner strength.
8. It Makes It Possible to Avoid Acting Impulsively and without Thinking
Impulsiveness means lack of control and acting without thinking. If you have no control over your actions and the words you say, you might get yourself into trouble, and sometimes, into dangerous situations.
A little discipline would reduce impulsiveness, add common sense, and help you avoid stress and unnecessary risks.
9. Self-Discipline Helps You Overcome Unhealthy Habits
Smoking, overeating, eating junk and unhealthy food, laziness, procrastination and other negative habits harm your health. However, you can overcome these habits, and build positive habits, when you possess the skill of self-discipline.
In order that you live a better and healthier life, and have more control over your actions, you need a certain degree of self-discipline. Its possession enables you to resist temptations and distractions, improve endurance, and can help you overcome negative habits.
How to Discipline Yourself?
- How to discipline yourself to eat healthy?
- What to do to have the discipline to lose weight?
- What to do to have good self-control?
- How to stop acting impulsively?
- How to overcome healthy habits?
- Do you wish you had diet discipline and weight loss discipline?
If you are asking these questions, you need to improve your willpower and your self-discipline. This is not difficult to do. You can find all the information, guidance and exercises to gain these skills in my book Build Up a Strong Willpower.
About the Author
Remez Sasson is the founder of SuccessConsciousness.com, a leading resource for personal growth and self-transformation. With decades of experience in self-improvement and meditation, Remez has empowered countless individuals worldwide to unlock their potential.
Join him on an extraordinary journey to self-improvement, success, positivity, inner peace, meditation, clarity, and personal mastery through his articles, books, and the comprehensive resources on his website.