5 Sneaky Habits You Ignore That Are Destroying Your Mental Health!
It’s sad but true.
I’ve committed every single mental health mistake on this list at some point or another.
I have made so many detrimental mistakes when it comes to my mental health and I didn’t even realize what a toll these habits were taking on me.
Fortunately, the Lord has opened my eyes and I’ve been able to undo some of the damage these mental health mistakes have done. Although some, are still a work in progress!
My prayer for you is that this post can help you avoid making these same mistakes too or at least recognize that these habits may not be serving you or your emotional health.
5 Stupid Habits That Destroyed My Mental Health That You Should Avoid
1. I didn’t learn from my mistakes.
This mental health mistake is huge.
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.
Well, I would make the same mistakes over and over again and get frustrated and even depressed that I wouldn’t see different results.
Take weight loss for instance.
I used to get so upset that I wasn’t seeing any progress. The thing is, I thought I was making changes in my diet or activity level but I wasn’t.
At least not enough of a change to move the needle. Writing in a weight loss journal helped me uncover some of my mistakes in this area.
Journaling helped me finally learn from my mistakes and gave me the mental clarity I needed to make different decisions.
Of course, weight loss is just one example. I’ve also made mistakes when it comes to other areas of my life like finances.
Now, I try asking myself questions like:
How did the mistake happen?
Why did I make that decision?
Did I need more information?
Would waiting a little bit longer before I acted have made a difference?
Asking questions like this can go a long way to ensuring that this mistake is a thing of the past, never to be repeated again.
These questions along with mental health journaling have made a big impact in my life and I suggest you try it if you haven’t already.
Journaling helped me finally learn from my mistakes and gave me the mental clarity LINK I needed to make different decisions.. Click To Tweet
2. I didn’t learn from other people’s mistakes.
Piggybacking off of the first example, not only did I not learn from my own mistakes but I also didn’t learn from other people’s mistakes either.
Instead of looking at someone else’s mistake and just gossiping about it or shaking their heads, a wise person will look at the mistakes of others and try to see where that person went wrong.
They will try to understand how that person got in the state they are in so that they too will not make a similar mistake.
(And a kind person would offer to help the person or pray for them and not just look down on them but that’s a different blog post).
You see we don’t have to wait until we have done a certain thing to figure out if it’s a good decision. Once I learned this, my mental health skyrocketed. Why?
Because when you learn from other people’s mistakes, you don’t have to experience the trauma and brokenness that they, unfortunately, deal with.
I’m not a huge fan of social media but I will say that I truly appreciate the cautionary tales that people share on those platforms. It’s saved me from untold drama & heartache.
3. I made excuses for my bad decisions and blamed others for them.
I know I hate being wrong. Ain’t nobody really all that cool with being wrong. But being wrong is like a part of this thing we call life.
You’re going to be wrong.
You’re going to be wrong a lot even… at least I have.
And guess what?
One of the best things we can do for our mental health is to take responsibility and ownership when we are wrong and not blame someone else for the condition of our lives.
Life would be so sweet if most of the things that go wrong in our lives were someone else’s fault…that’s how I used to feel.
It sounded like the right answer.
But was it really?
Nope…I was wrong about that too lol.
Think about it this way.
If everything that goes wrong in your life is someone else’s fault then you have no power or control over your life.
When we take the blame for our wrongdoings, we actually are saying:
“Hey, I have the power to choose and make decisions in my life. They can be good decisions or bad ones. This decision was a bad one. Now I’m going to take that power and start making better decisions.”
So actually taking the blame is a sign of mental and emotional strength and maturity.
Kinda makes you like an emotional Superwoman!
So actually taking the blame is a sign of mental and emotional strength and maturity. Kinda makes you like an emotional Superwoman! Click To Tweet
You feel me?
So go ahead, take the blame when you’re wrong. It’s actually a good thing.
4. I can make a plan but I can’t stick to it.
I’m crying right now over this one (not really though). I’m so good at making plans but terrible at keeping them.
I don’t know if I have undiagnosed ADHD but what I do know is that I have about 90% of the symptoms of this mental health disorder and it greatly affects my ability to be consistent.
This is still a work in progress for me. I know it affects my mental health enormously but I haven’t quite figured out how to overcome it. I’ve made improvements in this arena but consistency is my Achilles heel.
Someone I follow calls people who make plans they don’t stick with dabblers.
Because what is happening is usually one of two things:
a) You make the plan and you don’t stick with it because you see something else that distracts you from your current plan.
And that something else seems better than the plan, idea, or path that you’re on (aka shiny object syndrome).
And the truth is, the newer shinier plan might be better than your current plan, but when you are in a constant state of going from one plan to another, your dreams and goals are never reached.
You’re in constant “chasing your tail” mode.
There’s a point where it no longer matters if you’re on the best path.
It matters more that you are following a steady path towards something good and worthy of being followed.
If the goal is worthy of pursuit, how you reach the goal isn’t as important as just making sure you reach the goal.
The tools you use to get there or the courses you take to get there don’t really matter.
It’s the getting there (there being the goal) that matters.
For instance, say you have the goal of losing weight and you start one plan and then see a commercial for another plan and decide ok I’ll start that plan.
Then you start that plan and see an ad in a magazine about this supposedly even better plan that guarantees you lose 20 pounds in a month.
That plan is surely the best one so now you decide to start that one.
Meanwhile, 2 months have gone by and you’ve lost no weight when in reality any one of those plans could have helped you.
It’s just a matter of finding one plan and sticking with it. If you struggle with this too, then you know what an emotional rollercoaster this can be.
It’s so frustrating because you’re not making progress but it seems as if you should be because you’re in constant motion.
It’s a mental treadmill where there’s motion but no real progress being made in terms of distance.
b) Or you make the plan and don’t stick with it because the commitment wasn’t truly there. The passion or drive is not really there. You didn’t count the cost of what it would take to get to where you want to go. I’ve done this plenty of times too.
Plans can seem easy on paper but when you start actually doing it, it can be overwhelming. So you slowly start doing less and less until the project is all but abandoned. This is something that Jesus talked about as well.
In Luke 14:28, He said, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?”
I unfortunately have to raise my hand and admit that I have been this person who didn’t count the cost. And if this happens once or twice no big deal.
But when it becomes a pattern, it makes you lose trust in yourself and your ability to follow through on the promises you make.
It weighs on your self-esteem and self-worth to the point where you no longer believe you are capable.
Hopefully, now you see why this mistake affects your mental health.
5. I didn’t track my spending and got deep into debt.
Oh yeah, I talk about money on this blog too. Because financial health plays into mental health and should not be ignored.
When your money is a mess, you will have stress. (And that kind of stress can drive you crazy) Trust me on this.
Years ago, I had gotten into a deep financial hole that I couldn’t escape…or so I thought. I was making very little money and owed thousands of dollars in debt.
And it wrecked my mental health because my anxiety was through the roof because of my debt.
But I finally yanked my head of the sand, made a plan, and actually stuck with it for once! And got out of debt. Go me!
However, I fell back into old patterns and am back in debt. This time though, it isn’t making me anxious because I know that if I got out of debt once, I can do it again, Lord willing.
How To Avoid These 5 Mental Health Mistakes
So what’s the best piece of advice I can give you to help you avoid these mental health mistakes?
In Proverbs 9:10 it says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding”. My interpretation of this verse is this:
Fear, that is to say, reverence and awe towards the Lord, will cause you to understand how small we are and how big He is.
When we get that, we will go to Him for counsel and guidance because we know that He sees the big picture of our situation while we only have a small piece of the puzzle.
It’s hard to make wise decisions when we don’t have all the pieces of the puzzle.
So go to the One who does know your situation and what you’re going through, in its entirety.
Ask the Lord for wisdom and keep asking until He gives it to you.
Ask the Lord for wisdom and keep asking until He gives it to you. Click To Tweet
Make sense? I hope this post has been helpful and that you will be able to learn from the mistakes I’ve made.
And I hope you will lean on the Lord for guidance, wisdom, and strength. I also think this post I wrote called 6 Inspirational Christian Mental Health Journal Prompts To Kick Anxiety’s Booty will give you some direction so be sure to check that out next!
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