You can understand why so many people are making an effort to improve their mental health. After all, with seemingly more stress and strains than ever before, many people are finding their mental well-being needs additional love and care.
Happily, the conversation surrounding mental health has evolved significantly in the past couple of decades, and now there are more resources, tools, and strategies to help people on their journey.
With that said, while everyone undertakes their mental health journey with the best of intentions, it’s also true that there are many misconceptions and half-truths surrounding mental health that can make the journey unnecessarily more challenging. In this post, we’ll run through a few of the all-too-common errors people make, as well as outline how to avoid them.
Trying To Optimize Every Part Of Their Well-Being
As we said above, there are plenty of mental health strategies and resources that can help to push a person’s mental well-being in the right direction.
However, the sheer number of strategies can present a problem in itself. Many people end up causing themselves additional stress by attempting to optimize every aspect of their well-being. This pursuit of perfection, while seemingly a good approach, can turn into an obsession that causes additional problems. You don’t need to perfect every part of your well-being. Instead, focus on what is genuinely important to you.
Believing Lifestyle Improvements Can Fix Everything
Making lifestyle improvements, such as getting regular exercise, spending time in nature, and eating healthy foods, can go a long way towards supporting your mental health.
But it’s important to remember that while these lifestyle factors will be sufficient for many, they’re not a catch-all cure for all mental health conditions. We tend to believe that following the right habits means that you don’t need professional help, but that’s not always the case. This view often means that people only end up getting in touch with a professional as a last resort, when in fact they could benefit immensely by speaking to apsychiatrist and being prescribed medication for their mental health condition. Ultimately, while lifestyle improvements will nearly always provide a benefit, those with complex or persistent mental health symptoms will benefit from speaking to a trained professional.
Ignoring the Importance of Rest
People who are driven by wellness often try to fit in as many wellness-boosting activities into their day as they can. They may start the day at thegym, use their break for meditation and breathwork, and then spend their evenings at a yoga studio. Once home, they read a self-improvement book and write in their journal.
Those are all good pursuits, but it can potentially be detrimental if it’s notsupported by rest. Studies repeatedly show that getting enough rest is one of the best ways to enhance mental well-being. Allowing yourself space to really rest, rather than believing that you have to always be improving in some way, gives your body and mind the break it needs to do the behind-the-scenes work that can push your well-being forward.
Want to unlock greater wellness?
Listen to our friends over at the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast to unlock your best self with Dr. John Lieurance; Founder of MitoZen; creators of the ZEN Spray and Lumetol Blue™ Bars with Methylene Blue.
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