Reviews Are Killing Your Happiness. How To Build Resilience, Reduce Anxiety and Put Some Adventure Into Your Life

Online reviews can be useful for avoiding crooks but they also fuel mental health issues, including anxiety and low resilience.

If you compare living in 1980 (yes, I'm that old!) to living in 2023, there's a huge difference: there is very little spontaneity.

Too much information isn't good for your health

Deciding where to eat

1980s lunch: walk past a new place, like the look of it and go in – or your friend calls to say let's check it out

2023: Google for reviews, to see the menu, then check influencer opinion, maybe Google the owner or the chef, see if anyone you know has been and what they say – oh, and TripAdvisor

 

Picking a hotel for a week's holiday

1980: look at a travel brochure that lists a dozen or so hotels there and pick the one with the prettiest picture and a price tag you can afford.

2023: Google all hotels and airbnbs, check the different room photos, work out how far local attractions are, see what food they offer and read the top ten good reviews and the top bottom reviews on Google and TripAdvisor, then check Twitter and Insta

The Pros of Checking Online Reviews

Online reviews give us a sense of security. Reading reviews means we can predict what kind of experience we are likely to have and therefore it is easier to avoid poor experiences.  

What's great is that if you are making a big investment, like buying a car or luxury holiday, you are less likely to pick a model or destination that doesn't work for you.

Hyper focus on positives has consequences

How Checking Online Reviews Impacts on Mental Health

What sucks is that we hyper focus on having only joyful or positive experiences.

We are so keen to avoid anything uncomfortable or neutral, that we become less adventurous. We actively avoid taking chances, so we end up removing potential fun and adventure out of life.

Also, it is massively time consuming. You may spend more time fixating on finding the perfect dinner or hotel than you do eating at the restaurant or spending on your holiday.

Hassan won't go to a new restaurant unless it rates a 4+ over more than fifty reviews – and misses out on the 3 star coffee shop that does noodles just the way he loves them.

Jenny spent four evenings checking for rooms with sea views before booking her long weekend break at the beach – time that she could have spent having fun

Maura checks the reviews for every coffee shop in the new mall before deciding where to meet her friends for a trip the cinema – overkill much? It's just coffee!

Bill visits new pubs recommended by influencers even though he walks past two new places on his way to work – missing out on adventure and experiences

Finally, checking reviews is really about trying to control our environment. That is poor strategy because the world is complex. We cannot predict everything, it's not possible.  

As a result, trying and failing to control our environment fuels our anxiety and reduces resilience. We are less good at navigating neutral or poor experiences. So our coping skills suffer. In addition, the false belief "If I'd googled better I would be having a 5 star time" adds to our discomfort, piling on irrational blame and guilt.

Mental Health Boost: How To Add Adventure To Your Life

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

So for the Year of the Rabbit, I suggest you embrace adventure. Introduce a bit of 1980 into your life:

·         Go to the mall and eat in the third restaurant you see.

·         Go to the cinema and see whatever is on first.

·         In a restaurant you know, try the dish you've never had before.

·         When you walk past a new place, go in.

Live a little, learn to have a good laugh at stuff that doesn't work out perfectly well.  Embrace life!

Gong Xi Fa Cai! May the Year of the Rabbit bring you lots of good luck and health, prosperity and love.

Images by Public Domain,  Raka C. and Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The Secret To Building New Habits. How To Train Your Brain

Our brains are resistant to change

It's the new year and this time we're going to get fit, read a book a week, eat healthily and…. Hang on, are you getting a sense of déjà vu?

New beginnings can inspire, but very often the impulse soon loses steam. And before you know it, all that rah-rah converts into guilt with a touch of shame as we worry we don't have enough willpower.

Here's how you can tweak a bit to help you make effective change.

We Are Designed To Resist Change

We like to think that we are powerful beings who are completely in control. As part of that story, we tell ourselves that all it takes to change a habit is to have the right mindset.

That's probably not entirely true.

The world is complex and dangerous, yet our species survives very well. One theory is that we are so fantastic at surviving because we have some inbuilt approaches that guide our thinking and behaviour.

This includes our tendency to think familiar= safe and unfamiliar=suspicious.

This works great when you're embracing your safe, familiar hunting ground on the plain and avoiding those amazing looking woods teeming with snakes.

It's not so hot when 'familiar' is snacking while watching Netflix and 'unfamiliar' is that spin class you signed up for.

Soooo, accept that building new habits isn't really about your morals or willpower; it's about overcoming millions of years of programming.

Rule #1 Dump the guilt. It's a waste of time.

Rule #2 Dump your punishment mindset

Many of us unconsciously adopt a punishment mindset. That sucks for a lot of reasons. Let me explain:

Supposing you are helping 10-year-old Suzie exercise more. If she goes for a walk three days in a row and then misses a day, would you tell her she's a lazy cow and useless?

Of course not.

If someone did call her names, what effect would that have on Suzie?

It would make her feel awful about herself and it would drain her motivation.

You wouldn't try to terrorise a kid or your friend, so treat yourself with the same kindness.

The secret to creating the right mindset for positive change is Motivate Yourself By Connecting With Your Personal Values

You're not a serial killer, right? You haven't launched genocide lately? Then you're probably a good person. Not perfect, but mostly good with a bit of gnarly here and there.

To give yourself a motivation boost, connect with your values.

For example: I'm exercising because I value my body and my health
Or, I'm exercising because feeling strong and flexible makes me happy

Rule #3 Disrupt your programming by making your brain view the new desired behaviour as more familiar.

The trick lies in keeping it SMALL and EASY.  Ideally, you tack a teeny bit of the new stuff onto a behaviour you already have and enjoy.

For example, when you like to snack in front of the TV, you do so, BUT while you're sitting down, you do ten left leg lifts and then ten right leg lifts. You do this once a night for a week.

Pro Tip: set your phone to remind you to do this. Or do it during the credits of a programme.

It's not difficult, and before you know it, you'll be exercising those legs automatically.

By February, buy a set of super cheap half kilo hand weights. Add ten lifts so you exercise your upper body.

By March, you're feeling pretty good about yourself, so you bookmark a few two-minute stretch workouts on YouTube. You do one or two a week.

Rule #4 You reinforce the behaviour you want

If you're not anxious or depressed, and you like to journal, then go ahead.

Another way is to buy a set of fridge magnets. Make a bet with yourself: for every two-minute YouTube workout you do, you move a magnet into the win area.

Seeing yourself win will give you a boost. Supercharge is by promising yourself a reward; twenty of those and you treat yourself to one of your favourite things.

Little changes add up

Rule #5 Slow is successful

When you have a teeny bit of change going on, it adds up. Think of it like compound interest.

By April you should be feeling pretty fit. That's when you check out some bigger exercise project.

Don't go for a gym membership yet!  Try a short programme, something limited. Also, it has be something you love!

Maybe you want to go for a dive class. Or perhaps you sign up for ten dance lessons.

Whatever it is, you'll be a lot fitter already, so you'll have extra energy. When you go for that extra exercise, you'll enjoy it more.

And that enjoyment will have you going back. <- that is success!

Extra help: Find a supporting angel

Learning curves are slippery!  We do well and then we slide a bit and then we do well again.

As your brain will try to reset to old and familiar, it helps to have a person cheerlead when you're doing well, and to offer comfort and support when you're sliding.

That's where I come in. When you book me as a coach, we spend an hour working out a workable plan of action.

In addition, you can hire me as an accountability and support agent. We check in a few times a week for 5 minutes for encouragement and support. Basically, your very own angel.

The accountability and support service comprises of 5 ten-minute slots to be arranged at mutually agreeable times. Cost is RM200 if you're in Malaysia or US$45 if you're abroad.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed it, please share with a friend. 

Images by John Hain and Kevin Schneider from Pixabay