When “Healthy Habits” Aren’t Always Healthy

This blew my mind when I first found out.

I used to think you could classify habits as either doing something harmful or wasteful or something beneficial or productive.

In my head, you could either rot your brain doing something like watching tv for hours (right, mom?) or you could do something productive like making art, practicing an instrument, or playing a sport.

As it turns out, that line of thinking is wrong. Here’s what science is beginning to uncover:

It’s not what you do with your time that’s helpful or harmful, it’s your motivation behind what you do that makes it helpful or harmful.

Let’s see why.

Engaging in Escapism

According to a growing number of studies such as this one by Stenseng, et al., you can do the exact same activity in your time off and it can be either beneficial or detrimental, depending on your mindset.

For example: You’re super stressed with work. You’re having problems with your coworkers you don’t want to think about, and you just want to forget about things. So you decide to go for a run.

Running is great, right? We like to think of exercise as a healthy outlet.

But that’s not always the case. In this example, if you’re trying to escape a life situation or smother your feelings about it, you could be doing more harm than good.

When you engage in an activity to try to avoid your problems, escape from reality (or yourself), or to shut out your troubles and negative thoughts…

...you suppress your negative feelings, but you also suppress your ability to solve your problems.

When escapism becomes a habit it can be problematic because it lowers your self-efficacy (your belief in your ability to achieve what you set out to) and how much effort you put into solving your problems. Chronic escapism can lead to depression, anxiety, poor relationships, destructive addictions, and lower life satisfaction.

Psychologists call this engaging in self-suppression. When engaging in self-suppression, the primary purpose of your activities is to suppress negative emotions.

And while this is most commonly done through activities that are traditionally considered wasteful or harmful, like playing video games, browsing social media, or watching tv…

…“healthy” habits like meditating, listening to music, exercising, or napping, can ALSO be forms of escapism.

Engaging in Expansion

Let’s take a look at the flip side: If I got home from work and started playing video games, most people would think that’s a waste of time.

However, if I spent that time consciously cultivating positive thoughts and feelings, learning about myself, or thinking of it as an enriching experience, I would experience positive results.

As you might expect, they are the opposite results of an escapist mindset: greater happiness, better health, better relationships and stronger social support, fewer addictive behaviors, and greater life satisfaction.

Psychology call this type of practice self-expansion. When engaging in self-suppression, the primary purpose of your activities is to promote positive emotions.

Because most people already associate traditional “healthy habits” like exercise, meditation, reading, and so on, with positive results, it’s easy to extract their benefits.

But just like we’re able to use healthy habits as a form of escapism, we’re able to use many different activities, like video games or social media, to our benefit—provided you actively seek them out.

Cultivating Self-Expansion

When you engage in leisure activities, are you avoiding problems or seeking benefits?

Do you have a positive motivation, like achieving a goal, learning something new, improving a skill, or deepening connections? Or are you trying to avoid negative thoughts and feelings?

It’s important to be aware of whether you have an escapist mindset or an expansion mindset because escapism can become habitual, and the more you avoid problems, the harder it will be to face them, either immediately or after you’ve made them worse by putting them off.

If you recognize an escapist mindset in yourself, there’s no need to worry. Cultivating an expansion mindset is easier than it might seem.

All you need to do is identify and seek out the benefits of your leisure activities.

Not sure what benefits you might be getting? Here are a few to consider:

• Physical: more energy, better health, more strength, stronger immune system

• Emotional: improved mood, lower anxiety, more patience, more positive emotions: curiosity, pride, contentment, calmness

• Cognitive: improved attention or focus, more creativity, better problem-solving

• Social: more feelings of connection, improved communication skills, leadership skills, or social skills like negotiation or motivating others

If you think this sounds too easy, keep in mind that changing your mindset is not simply awareness of the benefits of an activity. You must actively seek them out.

If you’re working to achieve a specific goal, for an added bonus, connect them to your goal.

Here’s an example of connecting benefits to a goal:

If you’re working toward getting a promotion at work to a management position, and you go to the gym regularly, you could think about how lifting weights improves your posture and your confidence. When you look and feel more confident, you’re more likely to be seen as a leader, and you’re also more likely to act like one.

Even if you’re not working toward a specific goal, you can continue to look for the benefits you’ll receive from the activities you partake in, and find opportunities to apply them to everyday life situations.

Remember, the activities for escapism or expansion are the same—it’s your mindset that makes the difference. That’s why if you want to change your mindset toward food, exercise, your body, or yourself, Food Body Self® guides you through systematically rewiring your thoughts using evidence-based methods.

When you seek out and exercise your strengths or look for advantages in what you already like to do, you can access all the benefits of an expansion mindset, which is a powerful way to become more resilient, proactive, and to improve your health and happiness.

All it takes is for you to consciously activate the inherent benefits in what you like to do.

Note: This article was originally published on July 27, 2019 and was revised on April 24, 2023.