Listen To Your Body: It’s Telling You About Your Bad Habits
January 3, 2022
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4 min read
There are so many things we do everyday without deciding to do them ahead of time. Things like where we put our keys, where we shop, or how we spend our free time. Most of these routines are just habits we create to make things easier for ourselves. Many of our habits are good ones, but even good habits can become unhealthy when they start to overtake our minds or lives. The trick is knowing how to identify when a habit is becoming a bad one. Lucky for us, our bodies often know when our lives are off-balance even before we consciously recognize it. While everyone is unique and may have different signals, there are some cues that lots of people share.
If you notice any of these four signs in yourself, your body might be trying to tell you that you’re overdoing it with a particular routine, and it could be time to implement some changes. Here are the four signs:
You Sleep Poorly
Good sleep is often the “canary in the coal mine” for our other systems. When we’re stressed, eat poorly, or don’t get enough exercise, our sleep can go haywire. Worse, even when we do sleep enough, we might not feel rested when we wake up. For TaskHuman Coach Stefan Ivanovic, poor sleep is the first sign of other bad habits creeping in. However, it can be an opportunity for deeper reflection: “When I notice that my sleeping habits are broken…What is it that I’m doing during the day that’s causing me to sleep badly?” shares Coach Stefan.
You Can’t Think Clearly
Being unable to stop a habit is a pretty clear sign it’s turning into a bad one. Even seemingly harmless habits, like checking our phones, can start to rob us of our independence if done too much or obsessively. Always thinking about or constantly engaging in the activity can signal that you’re spending too much time and energy engaged in that activity. Coach Haley Smith acknowledges that her tendency to subconsciously reach for her phone to scroll social media (or for no particular reason at all) can easily become a bad habit. Haley describes the signals of this habit below:
You Have Low Energy
A clear sign from your body that your habit is a bad one is if you have no or low energy after you’ve done the activity. Ideally, our routines and activities should help us feel more energetic, inspired, and light. They should fill us up, or at the very least, keep us in a neutral state. Maybe they don’t add to our lives, but they don’t take anything away either. Bad habits can make us more lethargic, unmotivated, and spiritless. Coach Anita Steele uses her energy levels as the first sign of imbalance in her habits. She outlines her thoughts in this video:
You Feel Pessimistic Or Ambivalent
If you’ve felt consistently unmotivated, negative, or pessimistic, this may be a signal from your body that you’re out of sync with your needs. When we move towards habits that don’t serve us, it can have a domino effect to make poor choices in other areas and become off-balance. For Coach Sasha Williams, the feeling of “floating through life” is her first sign that she needs to reevaluate what she’s spending her time doing. Sasha describes her signs of being off-balance when she is “no longer am able to enjoy the things I usually do, and when my attitude starts to shift.”
To get support for improving your habits and shifting your energy, reach out to a TaskHuman Coach. They’re ready to help you attune to your body’s unique signs and overcome bad habits so you can regain your dynamic spirit.
Updated August 2025