What to Do With All the Advice You’re Tired of Hearing
Drink more water. Meditate daily. Journal your feelings. Move your body. Wake up early. Rest more. Breathe.
Breathe.
If one more person tells you to breathe, you might just snap.
The irony isn’t lost on me. I’m writing this on a blog dedicated to mental health, the kind of blog that might recommend all of those things. And the truth is, I probably have!
But let’s be honest: most of us aren’t short on advice. We’re drowning in it.
The wellness overwhelm is real
We live in a world where helpful guidance is everywhere. Podcasts. Reels. LinkedIn thought leaders. That well-meaning friend who just discovered breathwork and now swears by it. It’s well-intentioned, sure. But it can also be exhausting.
When you’re struggling with your mental health, or just trying to stay afloat in your everyday life, the constant stream of advice can feel less like support and more like pressure. And it’s not just the volume, it’s the contradictions.
Wake up early and seize the day. But also sleep is the most important thing. Push yourself out of your comfort zone. But also protect your peace. Be disciplined. But also be kind to yourself.
No wonder we’re overwhelmed.
It’s not you. It’s the noise.
There’s a hidden message in all of this. If you’re not thriving, you’re not trying hard enough. If the advice isn’t working for you, maybe you’re the problem.
That couldn’t be further from the truth.
You’re not broken because the eleventh Instagram carousel didn’t change your life.
You’re not failing because meditation made you more irritated than peaceful.
You’re not the problem.
The problem is that we’ve turned wellbeing into something to be managed, measured, and perfected instead of something to be experienced.
So, what do you actually do with all this advice?
First, take a breath. (I know. But this time, it’s not an order. Just an invitation.)
Now, here’s what I try to remember, and what I remind my clients of, too.
You don’t have to apply everything.
You don’t even have to listen to everything. Your job isn’t to become a self-help sponge. It’s to figure out what’s helpful to you.
That’s it.
You might find that walking around the block helps reset your headspace. Great. Keep doing it.
You might also find that journaling just stresses you out more. Also fine. Let it go.
The goal is not to do what works in theory. It’s to find what works for you, right now, in your real life.
Morgan Byas
Less input. More integration.
The constant quest for advice can become its own distraction. At a certain point, more input doesn’t help; it just clutters your thinking. And often, we already know what we need. We just haven’t made space to follow through on it.
Try this instead: stop collecting. Start integrating.
Pick one thing. Make it tiny. Keep it realistic. And let that be enough for now.
Not because it’s the best advice. But because it’s yours.
The funny part? Some of it does still work.
Yes, deep breathing really does help. So does water. And moving your body. And getting sunlight. And asking for help. And resting.
The challenge isn’t that these things don’t work. It’s that we get so overloaded with options, expectations, and perfectionism that we forget how to listen to ourselves.
So maybe the advice isn’t wrong. Maybe we just need to approach it differently.
Final thought: You’re allowed to ignore what doesn’t help
You are not a problem to be solved.
If the advice is overwhelming, you’re allowed to turn down the volume. You’re allowed to ignore what doesn’t land. You’re allowed to find your own pace, your own rhythm, your own definition of progress.
And if this blog ever adds to the noise rather than helping cut through it, I hope you’ll skip that post, close the tab, and go do something that actually helps you feel human again!
That’s the advice I’d want you to remember 🙂
—MRB
My goal is to help people thrive in a complex world. While I write as a psychologist, this content is general in nature, does not constitute a therapeutic relationship, and is not a substitute for personalised mental healthcare advice. Further, some posts may include affiliate links to resources I recommend. Read my full site policy here.
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