THESE Bad Habits Are Ruining YOUR Mental Health! (Stop NOW!)
Keep your soul in balance. Health is in itself a great good. While our body can fight back and develop symptoms that alert us to its needs, our psyche does not have such an easy communication tool at its disposal. It can withstand a great deal. At some point, however, even it runs out of breath and we notice that the glow inside us is slowly but surely threatening to go out. It’s in our own power every day and every hour whether we let it come to that. Mental stability is not a matter of course. Like any matter of fitness or endurance, it needs a foundation to build on. It needs regular training and someone to keep a watchful eye on it. Sometimes, however, it would be enough to simply do a few small things differently and toss out bad habits, because this is definitely an area that does damage to our psyche. We'll introduce you to the seven worst types of bad behavior in this article.
1. Being addicted to your smartphone.
Are you one of those people who check their smartphone first thing in the morning and last thing at night? This habit is not doing anything good for your psyche. There’s a problem if you can barely put your phone down for five minutes or carry on a focused conversation without glancing at the tempting screen. Studies by the University of Gothenburg have shown that checking your phone at off-peak times of the day, such as in the morning and evening, can lead to sleep disturbances and mood swings. One of the reasons for this is the blue light of the display, which disturbs our sleep-wake rhythm. Prolonged scrolling also leads to a condition that didn't even exist until a few years ago, known as "tech neck.” The muscles of the neck, throat and shoulders continuously tense up to such an extent that posture problems result. This can lead to constant pain known to be a door opener to strain on our psyche.
2. Spending more money than you have.
Shopping can give us short-term feelings of happiness. Shopping against frustration, loneliness and boredom is a popular compensatory act that also seems harmless at first glance. However, those who continuously live beyond their means cause themselves no end of stress. The budget shrinks and at the end of the month or sometimes even earlier, there is a yawning deficit on the account and no funds for vital bills. By overspending, we plunge into self-imposed poverty without necessarily being poor. Dividing money sensibly is possible even with a small budget. Knowing that there is at least always enough to live on takes away enormous pressure and feelings of existential angst. Don’t give that ragged need and empty hopelessness a chance to enter our mind.
3. Worrying too much.
Worries lead us nowhere, much less forward. Worries manifest in our minds like a swarm of negative energy that can't be stopped. We have to stop this development before a thoroughly negative mindset has taken control of us and our lives, and especially of our mental health. We can actually control the mindset. Too much brooding and thinking is like a mechanism that mutates into a self-propelled program if we don't actively counteract it. The bizarre and sad thing about this is that no thought process in the world is of any use to us if it feels bad and leaves a negative aftertaste. Autogenic training or a thought-brake in the form of a rubber band on the wrist can be effective remedies. Anyone who notices that unpleasant images and visions threaten to overwhelm them can also counteract this with a brisk walk. This method is doubly good for our mental resilience.
4. A negative self-image.
Most of us have been carrying our inner critics around with us since childhood. We always feel inferior or below average because of them. The child of yesteryear who was teased, ostracized and bullied then asserts himself and loudly demands attention. Even as adults with both feet on the ground, these flashbacks full of negativity are not so easy to block out. They act like knife wounds to our soul and can be the famous straw that causes the camel’s back to break.
5. Chaotic states and procrastination.
There are different views when it comes to chaos: Many a fine mind has operated well overlooking chaos, and quite a few creatives draw their ideas and flashes of inspiration from an overflowing disorder. Our psyche, however, clearly prefers orderly conditions. Anyone who has to cope with everyday life in a state of total anarchy is under constant mental stress. Mountains of laundry, dirty dishes and other things that threaten to literally burst upon us at any time inhibit our zest for life and mentally lock us in a prison without us being aware of it. Procrastination has the same unpleasant effect on our well-being. Putting things on the back burner that have to be done feels like a sword of Damocles to our psyche, swinging back and forth over our heads. On the other hand, if you divide your to-dos into small, manageable bites and work through them step by step, you'll have a constant sense of achievement that's good for mental stability.
6. Sleep deprivation.
Sleep is the best medicine we can give our psyche. It not only regenerates the cells of our body, but also ensures that many impressions and emotions of the past day are properly processed. Too little sleep not only weakens our immune system, it also weakens our resilience, our ability to concentrate, and our ability to react. All of these factors add up to a real state of emergency for our mental state.
7. Too little alone time.
Everyone needs it, not everyone has it available in sufficient quality and quantity. Me-time is a luxury that cannot be valued highly enough. Only when we can be alone with ourselves in silence are we centered and able to feel ourselves. Only then do we really perceive our needs. But also our feelings and moods really only come to the surface under these conditions. If you are constantly there for others but not yourself, you will lose yourself at some point.
Today’s Conclusion:
Look to yourself. Resilience is now a frequently used buzzword, but its authentic message has not yet really gained in importance. Every day, we are exposed to enormous pressure to perform. It is not so much society or the working world that produces this pressure, no, we ourselves are the main cause of it. We think about what other people think about us, how we are perceived and whether what we represent is really enough. We function, but we don't live. Our free time is packed with appointments and social obligations that often have absolutely nothing to do with our interests. Often they don't even fill us with joy or fun. Our psyche always suffers when we lose sight of ourselves.