How can we improve our psychological health?

How can we improve our psychological health? I love this TED talk by Guy Winch, which encourages us to practice emotional first aid. We spend so much time looking after our physical health, but almost none on our psychological health.

Rejection and loneliness can impact our lives in dramatic ways. They create psychological wounds that distort our perception and thinking. We believe people care about us less than they actually do. Scientists have concluded that chronic loneliness is as significant a health risk as smoking.

Failure also creates psychological wounds that distort our perception and thinking. We all have a default set of feelings and beliefs that are triggered when we encounter setbacks and frustrations. It is important we become aware of how our mind reacts to failure. If we feel helpless, we may stop trying, or not even start trying in the first place. This, of course, further reinforces our belief that we can’t succeed.

Many people function below their potential because of a single failure that convinced them they can’t succeed. Once we become convinced, it is very difficult to change our mind. We feel demoralised after a failure, but we must not allow ourselves to become convinced that we cannot succeed. Fighting the feelings of helplessness will allow us to gain control over the situation, breaking the cycle of negativity before it begins.

Our negative inner critic treats us extremely harshly, especially after a rejection. We need to fight this tendency to damage our self-esteem, and instead offer ourselves self-compassion. Ruminating over upsetting events can also be damaging to our health, and we can fight this tendency using mindfulness.

Guy suggests we start changing some of these habits. We should take action when we’re lonely, change our response to failure, protect our self-esteem and battle negative thinking in order to heal our psychological wounds, and build emotional resilience. It will improve our quality of life, so we can all lead happier, healthier and more fulfilled lives.

Project 365

I set up this website after deciding that I want to build a more creative life for myself, so I can give up my job and be in control of my own destiny.

I have set myself a goal of publishing an article on my website every day this year, to document my journey from employment to self-employment.

The name I chose was Project 365 because I see this as a year that I have dedicated to learning and self-development, as I countdown to freedom. It started on 1st January 2021, so I have 276 days to go!