4 Habits We *Abandoned* Growing Up That Were (Actually) Good for Our Mental Health

3# Expressing Emotions Freely

When we’re young, we want to grow up.

You see your uncle bringing presents to the family, and you wonder when you can afford to bring the gifts. You want to make your parents proud, so you want to grow up fast.

Habits you practiced as a child weren’t naïve. Those habits were unbiased, based on pure affection and care. As a child, you never had to worry about leaving a wrong impression on someone because you knew your parents would cover up for your misbehaving acts.

Along the line of growing up, we lost all the adorable acts.

But it’s time to bring back the old, cute habits you need to survive your life. Not all that was gone was bad! Let’s get started.

1. Expressing Emotions Freely

As children, we never did what we:

• Didn’t like
• Hated
• Bored us

As adults, we push ourselves to do things our mind says otherwise. This doesn’t include pushing people out of their comfort zones.

In other words, we often try to sugarcoat our feelings to avoid hurting somebody or someone. We often try to stay quiet when our manager does favoritism after our very own eyes and when your friend insults our English skills.

If you dislike something, you should express your feelings.

Sugarcoating is not always right. Make it a habit to convey your feelings if you think someone’s feelings hurt you. Reacting is not bad. Instead, it allows the people around you to understand what topics make you sad and what don’t.

Friendship, career, and relationships are not easy. Those who must stick by you must know what you like and dislike. When you can go half of the way sugarcoating your feelings, those have to meet you in the middle, trying to understand what you prefer.

2. Living in the Present Moments

In 2023, people live more in the past and future than in the present.

• Past: Anxiety
• Future: Overconfidence

Residing in either of them brings pain and suffering. Thinking about anything other than your present state distracts you from your goals and gimmicks your thinking.

As children, we only cared about playing, eating, and going out with friends. The most we ever cared about was our next meal.

So why did we change?

Of course, long-term planning is good, but when did we start obsessing about the unknown? The chips will fall into their place. Everything will be fine. If you do your hard work, it will take you where you’re meant to be.

Live in the present moment. Every other thing is just out of control.

Care about people and things around you because they won’t live forever. Make the most out of your time.

3. Saying “No” to Something We Don’t Like

Every parent has these stories up their sleeve:

• When you cried
• When you said “no” to your guests/ friends on their faces as they entered your house
• When you were annoyed and arrogant as hell

I did #2 myself.

As we were adorable beings, nobody minded when we said “NO” bluntly into the face of incoming guests, and our mother shouted from behind, “He’s just being sarcastic.”

As a child, we had the liberty to say no to things we didn’t like — maybe it was food, a person, or even dressing up as yellow knowing our friends would make fun of us.

But as we grew up, we started saying “YES” often. It’s all right to say yes, but it shouldn’t sacrifice your dignity. Perhaps only go with the affirmative if it makes you feel like doing the task is worth your effort and time. Otherwise, you can master saying no in a variety of ways.

Remember that doing something with less spirit is better than not doing it at all. Try not to waste anyone’s time and your own if you don’t like something.

Start saying “no” often — it helps.

4. Forgiving and Letting Go

• We all have hardships.

But when did we start keeping the grudge? As children, we ultimately forgot what happened when our fathers bought us an ice cream cone or chocolate pie.

All problems would vanish as if chocolate bribed our minds.

Those practices were to train you to start forgiving and forgetting. As adults, don’t keep a grudge inside of your heart. Forgive everyone because your heart is a cottage where only good memories should live.

Forgive as if nothing happened.

In this world, we all are learning because it’s our first try. We’re all here for the first time. No one was here before.

Do more of forgetting and forgiving. Ultimately, forgiving and forgetting give you a positive and joyful outlook that attracts positivity. Hence, a win-win situation.

Final Thoughts:

Fear not.

Above are all the habits we once had. Therefore, you just have to swim inside your heart and mind and wake up those lost habits from a deep sleep.

We all were once cute, nice, and kind. While growing up, nobody told us we could bring our cute and kind habits into our mature worlds.

Tug those habits back into you — now!

One habit at a time.

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