You are struggling with your mental health because you are making all the WRONG choices.
You are struggling with your mental health because you are making all the WRONG choices.
Make better choices… is that really true?
That’s the narrative around health and mental health right now and it’s hard to dispute.
Everyone knows broccoli is better for you than a chocolate bar.
Make the right choice more often than the wrong choice and you’ll produce health, right?
We could produce the same formula for mental health.
Going to bed Vs Staying Awake
Taking Rest Vs Workaholism
So then the logical conclusion is that poor health or poor mental health are willpower problems.
You don’t have the WILLPOWER to make the right choice so the masculine answer is you’re too weak.
The feminine answer is that you don’t love yourself enough.
This is why people silently suffer with impostor syndrome, stress, anxiety, overwhelm etc
Which all negatively impact health, relationships, performance, happiness etc.
Both explanations could be more incorrect.
Here is what’s actually happening.
The brain is making a negative prediction of the future based on associations from the past being triggered in the current environment.
The brain being a survival machine (not a happiness machine) switches to reactive (habit) patterns that allowed you to survive in the past when similar environments are formed in the present.
Even if we consciously know that smoking, drinking, getting angry, eating the chocolate, procrastinating, avoiding people or whatever aren’t necessarily skilful given your desired future survival always trumps goals.
(Survival being physical, social or potential loss of resources present or future).
So what’s the answer?
1. We need to deeply embed this understanding in ourselves and our organisations.
2. We need to implement processes that support teams and individuals to replace stress and overwhelm with clarity, direction, focus and strategy
Want to learn how to apply this to yourself and your organisation?
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