By Evelyn Peterson // EEW Magazine Online // Mental Health

Mental health, our emotional, psychological, and social well-being, impacts how we think, feel, and act daily. Though taking care of our mental health is of supreme importance, too many of us fail to treat it with the level of significance it deserves.

How often do you examine your patterns and behaviors and ask, is this helping or hurting my mental health? Asking this question can be a great way to do an emotional temperature check and see if any changes need to be made.

To get you started on your self-evaluation, EEW Magazine Online is offering insight into 3 things we often do that are terrible for our mental health and encouraging you to quit doing these things, effective immediately.

#1 We overwork ourselves. There is a trendy, “boss babe” mentality that says, a woman needs to stay on her grind 24/7. Hustle hard. Make stuff happen. Some even say, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

Well, that’s not healthy. Overworking and overextending ourselves can lead to burnout, anxiety, restlessness, negative health outcomes, and even death. Did you know that overwork and burnout contributed to more than 745,000 deaths in a year, according to a recent study by the World Health Organization?

Although there are life situations that don’t allow us the luxury of taking off all the time we need, when you do have time to turn off, sis, take advantage of it. Use those few and far between moments of refuge to refuel yourself, and your health will thank you!

#2 We don’t set boundaries. Many women, not all of us, are natural nurturers. It’s literally second nature to us to take care of others’ needs, often prioritizing everybody above ourselves. No wonder we’re stressed to the max, and our mental health is struggling! Setting boundaries helps you wisely place limits on what you do and helps us clearly define your roles in others people’s lives.

Though we all obviously are required to reach out a helping hand at times, we must put limits on the amount of time, energy, and resources we expend. Not doing so leads to disastrous outcomes.

Granted, knowing when to say yes and when to say no is not the easiest thing, but if you intentionally honor yourself and make you a priority first, boundary-setting will go much smoother.

#3 We compare ourselves to others. Your journey is your journey. Your path is unique. What God has for you is for you. Ever heard these things said? Sure, you have!

Yet, no matter how many times we hear them, the temptation to compare ourselves is ever-present. This certainly is not helped by the pervasiveness of social media and our tendency to spend too much time looking at other people’s profiles and highlight reels.

Are you aware that an estimated 4 billion people worldwide use networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram? Mental health experts agree that the increase in time spent on these sites can be linked to the rise in cases of depression. This happens, in part, because too many people have unlimited examples around them to compare themselves to, and comparison has long been known to be a thief of joy. So then, try to do a better job of guarding your mental health by minding your own feed and taking necessary breaks from social media.

What other things can you think of that you may be doing to contribute to the decline of your mental health? Pray on it and take action to begin making changes.