Consumption Vs Creation: The Key to A Happy Life

Mental health seems to be getting worse and worse each generation, and the problem lies within the fact that there’s no real common solution to it.

But I know that a huge part of your mental well being has key links to your physical well being.

Healthy body. Healthy mind.

I’ve recently put things in place in my life to help me improve my mental well being, and I think they’re worth sharing to help anyone who might need it.

Reduce Your Consumption

Think about this for a minute.

How to people put on weight? How do people ruin their physical health?

By eating too much. Simple.

You put on weight by eating too much, and not doing enough exercise.

The input is far greater than the output, which leads to a reduction in your physical health, and you get fat.

To help you connect the dots, I’ll call this a poor physical health.

This, is common knowledge, right?

Well, it’s the same as your mental health.

Like over eating, mental health problems come from over consuming.

When feed your brain with too much useless information:

• TV

• News

• Social media (doom scrolling)

It gets clogged up, like your arteries when you eat too many Big Macs.

This is also in relation to your output, like your physical health.

If you aren’t creating, or producing enough:

• Work

• Studies

• Content

Much like your physical health in my first point, your mental health starts to deteriorate.

In truth, depression and obesity are the same.

One for your mind. One for your body.

Over consumption (food/information) and not enough output (exercise/creation)

Do you consume too much content?

Is your brain in constant need of stimulation and information?

It’s time to give this the attention it deserves.

Increase Your Production

Like the first point, it’s not always how much you consume, but how much you consume in relation to your output.

When you have periods of consumption, you need to balance this with period of creation.

Whether this be:

• Creating social media content.

• Starting a business.

• Starting a podcast.

• Writing a book.

• Drawing.

Honestly, it could be anything, but you need to put the information you learn and think about, to good use.

Think of information like fat: stored energy.

Whilst it has the potential to damage your health, it can also be put to good use, making your life better.

I’ve been writing every day since the beginning of November, and I’ve restricted by levels of content consumption for even longer than that.

To say that my mental health has improved would be an understatement.

I feel like a completely different person.

So, my advice to you…

Start something this week that will boost your creativity.

Find something you enjoy. For me, it was writing.

Find something you enjoy writing about. For me, it’s personal finance & self improvement.

And go from there.

It will feel great to contribute to something in a creative sense.

This will offset some of your consumption, which is also what you should look to reduce, as spoken about above.

Key Changes & Benefits

Happier

Over consumption is like living with a dark cloud over you, and it makes everything you do and see, all foggy.

You can’t appreciate the little things in life, and always need huge amounts of entertainment and stimulation just to feel a little bit of happiness.

By reducing the consumption of useless internet content, you can free up space in your brain to appreciate the little things, more often.

Social media is the worst culprit, and the negatives of it are still untapped because of how new it all is to us.

But since deleting socials, my mental health has improved drastically.

Why?

Because I consume less useless information. Junk food for the brain.

You need to do the same.

More Fulfilled

Your brain isn’t clogged up with useless information, which means you’re able to appreciate the little things in life.

• Fresh air.

• The sun on the back of your neck.

• An ice cold glass of water.

These things all sound super boring, but when you’re not in a state of overconsumption, they’re phenomenal.

In contrast, if you’re constant filling your brain with useless content and information, you need huge amounts of entertainment and stimulation just to feel the slightest bit of happiness.

This is a long spiral of deteriorating mental health that can be hard to get out of.

Better Relationships

Being happier will result directly in better relationships with other people, and it’s not just existing relationships.

You stand a much better chance of creating new ones too.

You’ll be:

• More approachable.

• More friendly.

• Easier and better to talk to.

Rather than someone who is more:

• Closed off.

• Less approachable.

• Not as nice to talk to.

Happiness compounds, much like investing your money.

Start the process of compounding your happiness today.

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