Consuming consciously, living an eco-friendly lifestyle, and living purposefully: are goals that we have but can be very hard to achieve. Unfortunately, the fast-paced society we live in today, with its seemingly impossible demands, can leave us with no choice. But that does not mean you cannot come close to living the intentional lifestyle you want. If you often find it difficult to detach from societal expectations, changing your mindset, and letting go, you might find psychological counseling helpful.
Aside from external factors, challenges in changing your lifestyle have a lot to do with your inner beliefs and past experiences. Most people find it hard to let go of their preconceived notions and try new ways of doing things. Seeking counseling makes you aware of your beliefs, how they affect you, and how to change or work around them. Specifically, the following are how counseling can help you change your lifestyle.
Raising Self-Awareness
There is truth to the saying that change should start within yourself, but you cannot change what you cannot identify. Shifting to a new and cleaner lifestyle may require a similar shift in mindset, beliefs, and values. However, most of the time, we are not aware of our inner perspectives and set of values. This lack of knowledge can lead to discontinuity and dissatisfaction with lifestyle-changing steps you’re taking. With counseling, your counselor can walk you through discovering more of your inner self and how you affect the world around you.
Re-evaluating Choices
After awareness, counseling can help you re-evaluate the choices you make and your goals behind them. Your counseling sessions can help you realize and go back to why you do the things you do. Going back to your core intentions serves as your anchor and helps you focus on your track when things get tough. At the same time, your counselor can help you realize whether you want to make this shift in lifestyle and if you want it for the right reasons.
Oftentimes, these beliefs stem out from childhood experiences or other past traumatic experiences that need resolving. While in other cases, it can be more serious – not being able to let go can be a cause of underlying mental conditions. Or, clinging onto things can be a normal human response to what we’ve been used to. It is normal to hold and put our values onto materialistic possessions or to a way of living. Counseling can be a first step in addressing these psychological issues by talking them out and creating concrete solutions with your counselor.
Counseling can help you re-evaluate your worth channels, and you might find more value in the little and simple things.
Becoming Free From Expectations
A huge challenge we face in changing to a more eco-friendly life is social media and pressures from society. Social media, being a double-edged sword, can be helpful and harmful to our mental health. On the other hand, it inevitably influences our standards of how life should be and what we should consume, buy, and use. We see these almost impossible and sometimes senseless expectations, but trending is not necessarily right or suited for us. Yet, we tend to compare ourselves every time we indulge in every news feed or timeline.
Counseling can help create the boundary between what’s on social media and what’s appropriate for you. Your counselor can help you find alternative ways to spend your time than going for hours on social media. But more importantly, counseling can help change your outlook towards social media and not value your worth and life.
Finding Peace
In almost everything, awareness is key. But sometimes, the more you’re aware, the more you feel paralyzed and overwhelmed. However, it does not mean that being aware in itself is wrong; it just means you need to ease up. Counseling sessions can be safe spaces for you to release your worries and honest opinions and thoughts. Even though we are dedicated to a goal, the steps toward it can be challenging, and you might feel like departing from it. However, you must let these tendencies breathe out because sometimes, it might just be what you need.
Your counselor will work with you to find a solution for your problems. It can be a thought process that you can use every time an unhealthy or triggering situation or thinking arises. A counselor can also suggest new activities or hobbies you can try to help you relax. Your counselor can also suggest exercises, classes, or books that will train your emotional and mental stability.
New Purpose
From looking inwards and outwards, changing your mindset, and raising your awareness, counseling can help you in more ways. Besides helping you change towards a cleaner and better lifestyle, counseling might help you find a new purpose. As you proceed with counseling and discover more about yourself, it might come naturally for you to try something new. It can be something that you’ve always wanted to but never did because of fears or beliefs you previously had. Counseling can help you discover more strengths about yourself and appreciate yourself more.
Deciding to change your lifestyle is changing decade-olds practices, and anything established is hard to give up. However, going to the other side of doing things is not easy; that is why it’s alright to seek counseling and social support. Counseling can hold your hand as you transition and might even find better gems for you as you go through your journey.