The Mental Health Digest - The decision you're not making...

The decision you're not making...

By Jordan Brown - Mental Health Newsletter Writer, Poet, Social Worker, and Advocate • Issue #282 • View online

How do you make the hard decisions?

How do you get past the anxiety?

There are decisions that are simple–decisions like brushing your teeth in the morning or caring for your children.

And then there are other decisions–the decisions you know you need to make–but just can’t bring yourself to do it.

In this article, you’ll learn what those decisions are, and then you’ll learn a simple method for making them so that you can move on with your life.

Not Deciding Can Destroy Your Mental Health

Thinking about tough decisions can often feel like you're lost in the woods.

Think about what’s going on in your life right now.

Think about all the different things you’re dealing with.

If you stop and think, I bet you can come up with more than ten situations that are weighing down the shifting sands that are your thoughts.

And I bet, if you really think about it, you can come up with one or two situations that are really weighing you down.

Those are the tough decisions I’m talking about. The big ones. The Big Kahunas. The Big Boppers. Ok…I’ll stop.

Those are the decisions that, if left the way they are, will slowly erode your mental health and sap you of your energy.

I can’t package those decisions into neat categories for you, but you know what they are. You know what they’re doing to you.

For me, it was working with the founder of the business I manage to fire someone earlier this week.

And it was forcing the tough conversation with someone else that it was not only OK to take some time off to deal with life–it was absolutely expected.

After the decisions were made, we felt huge waves of relief.

I’m getting better at making these decisions faster and faster.

How you do that is what we’re going to discuss right now.

A Mentally Healthy Way to Make Decisions

Bob's tough decision: Do I get the apple...or the apple?

Mental health is complex.

You know that, and I know that.

What doesn’t need to be complex, however, are the strategies you use to improve your mental health.

This one strategy just happens to deal with decision-making, but I’ve covered others in the past.

Without further ado, here’s the process I use to make decisions in a mentally healthy way.

Now, it’s not going to tell you HOW to decide. But it will inform you that a decision must be made.

1 - Ask yourself these questions: Is not making this decision hurting my quality of life? In other words, is not deciding in this situation preventing me from successfully carrying out my daily activities?

That’s it.

Those are the questions.

If you can honestly answer them and admit to yourself that, by not making the decision, you are not able to carry out your daily activities without massive anxiety or some other form of emotional pain, then it’s time to act.

2 - Make the decision.

That’s the end of step two.

If you were expecting more here, I’m sorry to disappoint you.

This truly is the answer.

It’s not so much about the decision you make as it is about making the decision, period.

This has been true over and over in my life.

Not deciding about the big things means that those big things boil away in your mind and steal your energy.

Making the decision sets those thoughts free.

Will you always make the right decision?

Probably not.

I don’t.

But I know with every fiber of my being that making a big decision is better than letting that big decision eat away at me for days, weeks, or months.

Follow this simple process, and you’ll cut down your decision-making time from months to days.

That’s what I’ve done.

And my mental health has thanked me for it.

What do you think? Is this something you can try this week? Do you have any questions about this process? Click or tap reply–and let me know!

With much respect for you,

Jordan

P.S. I’ve been going into detail about the Monday and Wednesday issues for Mental Health Update members. It’s $10 a month to become a member, and, if you sign up, you’ll get more help implementing the strategies and ideas I discuss each week. You’ll also get other perks, such as videos I record and other content before anyone else.

If you want to learn more, go here.

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By Jordan Brown - Mental Health Newsletter Writer, Poet, Social Worker, and Advocate

The Mental Health Update provides you with authentic mental health articles that make mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and OCD meaningful AND accessible.

This is different from typical mental health newsletters and articles.

It's not just an Anxiety Email Newsletter or a Depression Email Newsletter - It's three weekly articles packed with timeless mental health wisdom and inspiration to start your day in a thoughtful, uplifting way.

I was tired of other newsletters blasting out generic lists of links and articles. And I was especially tired of them not focusing on the everyday reality of mental health issues.

So I decided to come up with something I wanted to read.

This health newsletter is like a caring friend that just wants you to feel better.

Mental health awareness articles don't need to be all doom and gloom and filled with jargon.

With The Mental Health Update, you'll get practical mental health information, tips, and new ways to view the world. Especially now, with people reeling from the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic, we need trusted voices telling it like it is.

We discuss topics like anxiety, depression, OCD, the mental health to mental illness spectrum, social and communication skills, and much, much more.

This is what a few subscribers had to say about The Mental Health Update:

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The Mental Health Digest - The decision you're not making...

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