Bad habits are just that – Bad. Some of them, however, can be good for you. While it is not encouraging to develop these bad habits, it’s useful to know which one of them you may be finding hard to break that is actually adding something positive to your health or life.

Losing your temper

No one wants to lose their temper. It leads to other bad things – saying or doing things you may regret later and so on. It’s definitely unacceptable to do in a social setting.

Research would tell differently. It was found that losing your temper could actually be good for your health. Venting your emotions is believed to reduce the effects of stress. A Swedish study found that men who bottled up their anger when unfairly treated at work doubled their risk of having a heart attack!

The best route to take would be to find a healthy way of losing your temper so you enjoy the benefits doing that brings

Being Messy

We all know that one person who is unorganized, clothes are dropped where they are taken off, nothing ever seems to be in order. Being messy has been linked to being creative. While a messy work desk or bedroom makes one regard the owner of the space as being disorganized, recent research would

argue not. According to research results in the Psychological Science by Kathleen Vohs and colleagues at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, it suggests that being messy can boost creativity. Vohs and her team carried out a number of experiments for the paper, “Physical order produces healthy choices, generosity, and conventionality, whereas disorder produces creativity.”

In one experiment, 48 participants were assigned to either a messy or tidy room. Participants were asked to think up as many uses for ping pong balls as they could and to write them down. Independent judges then rated the participants’ answers for degree of creativity. Results showed that participants in both tidy and messy rooms produced the same number of ideas, but those generating ideas in the messy room were more creative. Those in the messy room were (on average) 28% more creative and five times more likely to produce “highly creative” ideas. Vohs concluded that messiness and creativity are strongly correlated, and that “while cleaning up certainly has its benefits, clean spaces might be too conventional to let inspiration flow.”

Who knew being messy can be a sign that you’re just 28% more creative than the person who folds his clothes and puts everything in place? Now you know!

Swearing

Using curse words can be a shock to hear especially in the Nigerian Culture. But did you know swearing helps to relief stress?

According to a study by the University of East Anglia, swearing at work could help employees cope with stress and maintain solidarity. Imagine standing together at the fax machine and swearing together at the slow machine, definitely can encourage some sort of bonding at the work place.

Meanwhile, researchers at Keele University’s School of Psychology found that swearing can provide effective short-term relief from pain. If you have ever screamed out a curse word when you stubbed a toe, you already know this. However, the study also notes that swearing should be reserved for crises only, as the higher the daily swearing frequency was for participants, the less pain relief they experienced.

Coffee Drinking

Taking in too much of coffee, hence caffeine can have detrimental health effects. However, the intake of small amounts of caffeine can speed up your metabolism, boost exercise endurance and reduce your risk of gallstones and kidney stones.

A study done by the Harvard Medical School has also found that women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day are less likely to be depressed, while a separate research has showed that drinking three cups cuts risk of age-related diabetes.


Therefore the key here is the quantity. Drink just enough of your favorite hot beverage and you’re actually helping your body.

Daydreaming

Daydreaming will most likely be discouraged by any one. Most view it as being unproductive and as a sign of laziness. The researchers from the University of British Columbia will say differently. They found that letting your mind wander every now and then can actually help boost your problem-solving abilities. The study found that when participants minds wandered, the parts of their brain associated with problem-solving became more active than when focused on routine tasks. This may have increased the time it took for them to finish their task at hand but it also unconsciously allows one sort through other important problems in your life.

There’s something to be said about mulling over a problem and getting lost in it that allows you to reach a solution. So daydream away!

Fidgeting

Do enough fidgeting and you will burn some calories. While parents, teachers may discourage this in their wards, adults can benefit from it.

Research suggests that fidgeting can burn up to 350 extra calories a day! Implying that it can help you to keep off those excess pounds. This is because fidgeting speeds up an individual’s metabolism by stimulating neurochemicals in the body, thus increasing the ability to convert body fat into energy. So, if you tend to tap your foot a lot, pace while thinking, or you’re a restless doodler, you are burning calories!

Skipping a shower

This is quite the controversial one. No one wants to make this a habit. However it’s worthy to not that daily washing not only strips your skin of the natural oils that keep it hydrated and supple, it could also strip your skin of good bacteria that help to prevent disease.

So if you want to take this literally try skipping a shower on a day that you will not be too busy or on a day when you won’t be vigorously working out because doing it on a day after you ran a 10k will do no one any favours.

Gossiping

While this may not be a habit to hone or encourage, gossiping has it’s advantage. Those who engage in it have the added advantage of learning about people around them faster. Gossip also reduces stress and anxiety because it allows your body release feel-good hormones when you sit around and ‘chat’ with friends.

Nail biting

Nail biting is seen as a very nasty habit as it’s assumed you’re actually taking in all the germs that reside under your nails. While this is so, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Some doctors have postulated that this small-scale exposure to germs helps build up your immune system, making you less likely to get sick in the long run.

So if you’re finding it hard to kick that habit, you can console yourself with this at least.

Chewing Gum

Chewing gum helps boost alertness and thinking. Helps boost thinking and alertness. In the book Senescence and Senescence-Related Disorders, Kin-ya Kubo and colleagues noted that chewing gum immediately before performing a cognitive task increases blood oxygen levels in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus—important brain structures involved in learning and memory—thereby improving performance.

Another study showed that reaction time from chewers was 10% faster than non-chewers.

The research team also reported that up to eight areas of the brain are affected by chewing—most notably, the areas concerning attention and movement. As Andy Smith of Cardiff University neatly summed up: “The effects of chewing on reaction time are profound. Perhaps football managers arrived at the idea of chewing gum by accident, but they seem to be on the right track.”

So get chewing. If you watch the English Premier League, chewing gum definitely seems to help the coaches who pace tne sidelines endlessly during a match.

Source: https://www.nextedition.com.ng/bad-habits-that-are-good-for-you

Grunting durring sports.

Grunting During Sports, Workouts Boosts Performance - Men's Health
Mar 8, 2018 · But when it comes to harnessing power and focus during physical activity, we have news for you: Grunting actually works. According to a two-part study published in PLOS One last month, grunting gives athletes a competitive advantage by allowing them to exert more physical force during activity.