Overdoing things is a common mistake that many people make whenever they’re tackling a new challenge in life. Doing too much self care right off the bat can cause you to burn out and not continue with your efforts, which ends up being more harmful and stressful to you later on.
Some people try too hard to get themselves where they want to be in terms of self care, and end up doing more harm than good. One example of this could be in terms of physical fitness and self-care.
Get Physical Slowly
While it’s certainly good to have a regular workout routine that caters to your health, you need to ease yourself into it. If you’ve hardly worked out in the last decade, and suddenly decide to work out almost every day of the week, your body is going to take to it poorly.
You can’t just suddenly go from sedentary to lifting weights almost every day. Your body will likely get more exhausted than you’d like, and you might even end up doing damage to certain tendons or nerves that you over-used too suddenly.
If you end up getting injured during a workout, chances are that you’re not going to go back any time soon, doing more long term damage than anything.
Don’t Overdo “Me” Time
This same idea applies to mental health, as well.
It’s good to take time to yourself for the sake of your emotional well being, but it’s not good to have too much free time. If you end up isolating yourself for longer periods of time, you’ll start to feel distant and will be more susceptible to things like depression.
You need to operate within reason, taking a day or two to yourself and then continuing as you normally would and socialize.
Set Your Own Course
You should also be wary of whose advice you choose to take in terms of your mental health.
Have you ever told people you were going on a diet, and had each person tell you how you should do it? If you try to listen to every person’s options for what to do to improve your mental health, you’ll probably be getting a lot of conflicting opinions and won’t make a whole lot of progress.
You need to be independent and think about what option sounds the best for you instead of trying so many different things and ending up frustrated. Additionally, you could come up with something yourself that you think would work well.
Don’t get caught up in trying to please everyone, or you may end up taking some bad advice and set yourself back even further. Don’t overdo it right out of the gate and cause yourself needless anxiety.
