I am sure with the pandemic many of you have picked up habits you are wanting to let go of. It's easy to white knuckle life and pick up some habits to cope with all the stress. Those habits can eventually lead to ruts. It’s easy to let things likeunhealthy eating patterns, porn use, gambling, shopping, recreational drug and alcohol use, etc. get your life a bit out of balance.
No shame, it happens. But real talk, just because "it happens" doesn’t mean it needs to continue. Maybe what you're doing with food, alcohol, porn or weed is not diagnosable. It’s probably not as bad as other people you know. And it might not be hurting other people, but if those are the standards you’re going off of then that’s pretty low when it comes to your life! Why wait for your doctor or your friends or loved ones to bring it up? Why wait for it to be a "problem"!?
Are you in verging into an unhealthy territory? Let's catch it now.
Here are some indicators that your habits are moving towards being unhealthy:
The substance or behavior takes up a lot of brain space, shrinks your life, and/or gets in the way of connecting fully and freely to others.
You notice some anxiety if you can’t partake.
You've prioritized the substance or behavior over other parts of life, so that life starts to revolve around the behavior or substance and not the other way around.
If you clocked all the time you spent thinking about or planning or anticipating access to your substance or behavior, it would look like it's a major priority...and this priority doesn’t align with your goals and values.
Maybe you’re not "abusing" it but you go from enjoying it to using it to medicate/escape/numb out.
Life's not bad per say, but you feel blah or stuck or just not yourself.
You're writing permission slips for yourself "it's not that bad", "just this time, I'll be better tomorrow", "its doesn’t matter"...
It's not "fun" to look ourselves in the mirror sometimes. But not paying attention to behaviors erodes the relationship with yourself and your self-respect. When we decrease self-respect, we tend to start playing small and scared. Why play small? The world needs you (now more than ever, I'd argue!) to show up fully.
One of my favorite things is to help people get out of ruts and bad habits and to move from surviving to thriving. If there's a part of you that resonates with needing to make a change, reach out and start getting back to yourself today!