Steven Lucero | Source | Licensed Psychologist at Brightside

When mental health goes awry, everything else tends to go with it. Anxiety, depression, and relationship problems tend to be the biggest issues bought to the counseling center. I like to think about a story of the woodcutter, chopping away at a tree when a visitor comes along and notices he’s not really making much of a dent in the tree. The visitor asks, why are you doing this? Why is it taking so long? And the woodcutter responds I have to just keep chopping this tree, the visitor says well if you took a break and sharpened your axe maybe it wouldn’t take so long, but the woodcutter just says no I have to keep going, I have to keep chopping this tree. That is exactly every one of us we are so busy trying to push through our schedule that we can’t take a break to exercise, to be mindful, to hang out with friends if we did more self-care we’d be much more effective at completing our work.