OPINION
By GreenHawks Media
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March 18, 2021
While habits aren’t technically food, good habits do indeed nourish the mind & soul. As a matter of fact, Ibn Khaldun, universally recognized as the founder and father of Sociology and Sciences of History, stated that “Habits are qualities of the soul”. Not only do habits enable you to be on top of your responsibilities and obligations, but they also allow you to get mindful about your activities each day if you are intentional with them. I keep saying “good habits” and “being intentional with habits” because we all have habits regardless; in fact, a paper published by a Duke University researcher in 2006 revealed that over 40 percent of actions that people perform each day are habits, not actual decisions (Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit). Therefore, in order to have habits that improve our self-worth, mental health, emotional intelligence, and everything above, it is essential to develop good habits and eliminate the bad ones. What this entails is being mindful of how each of our habits makes us feel; for example, last semester it was a habit of mine to stay in Farmer for hours on end without interacting with another person or going home. I realized that this was a huge barrier for me to live a happy and healthy life, so this semester I have made a huge effort in coming home throughout the day or doing homework from home in order to ensure intermittent social interactions with my best friends.