AUTHOR
Our team is committed to bringing you mental health information that you can fully trust. We want you to feel confident that Tracking Happiness provides unbiased, trustworthy, and accurate information about your mental health, which is why we’re so committed to our editorial process. This means that we don't depend on any AI tool to create our content. Unlike other publishers, we steer away from using automatically generated text, to protect you and ourselves from misinformation and unactionable content.
Finally, we try to include real examples and stories from our community. Mental health advice can often seem unactionable and ambiguous. We always aim to give you actual steps to help you incorporate best practices into your life.
Read more about our processes here.
“Having an eating disorder is so much more than just wanting to be thin. Yes, I was obsessed with wanting to lose weight, but there were many, many other things underneath that. I desperately wanted to feel good about myself and loved by others. At times, my eating disorder gave me that sense of identity, accomplishment, and approval I wanted.”
“I couldn’t allow myself to be happy. Even at my lowest weight (which is considered “underweight”), I hated who I saw in the mirror. It was never enough and it would never be enough because my actual body wasn’t the problem. I would never feel worthy until I gave that feeling of worthiness to myself. I always felt I was never enough. I was always anxious and nervous about food.”
“No one can change your life for you and help you. You have to make an effort to get better. It can be very difficult when you’re depressed, but you have to take at least one small step every day. Start with what is easiest for you.”
An example of self-awareness is the ability to recognize negative emotions in difficult situations. Here are more examples that can help you with compelling arguments why self-awareness is so important.
“Being sober or being ‘okay’ isn’t about becoming perfect. A lot of people expect to look better or earn more or fall in love and so on. Sure, it can happen – but those are not pillars to build yourself on, because they can fade. You need to do an inventory with yourself or a therapist, look into who you are that brings you such shame or guilt, and start confronting that.”
“When I started recovering, I realized that I had lost myself during that time. Not in a bad way but I had lost my confidence, purpose, and hope. That was when I came across a purpose mentorship program by a Zimbabwean author, entrepreneur, and purpose mentor Ralph Kadurira who has still remained my mentor to this day. The program was everything I needed to get back on my feet.”
“Depression and anxiety seemed to be controlling my life, and I felt like I had lost control of my own emotions. I remember once I tried to hide my depression and anxiety from those around me, thinking it would be easier to pretend that nothing was wrong. But it only made things worse and eventually I had to admit to myself that I needed help.”
Being envious keeps us from living a long and happy life. But how do you stop being envious all the time? It may be hard to realize, but it’s actually really simple. Here are 5 actionable tips to help you!
“I used my journal a lot at this time. Being in gratitude would truly help me cope with the anxiety. At the time, everyone was reaching out to us. But it was really something I had to process myself and in my own way. I was also trying to hold it together for my son. I never wanted him to feel how stressed I was or that there was anything wrong.”
“If you struggle with social anxiety, the best way to overcome it would be to take small steps to face it. Go to places that make you uncomfortable and take a look around. You’ll realize no one is looking at you.”