3 Mental Habits That Saved Me During My Lowest Phase

I didn’t hit rock bottom in one dramatic moment.

It happened slowly.

Days blurred together. Nights felt endless. I smiled in front of people and collapsed the moment I was alone. I wasn’t lazy, weak, or broken—but I felt like all three. Every plan I made felt pointless. Every effort felt invisible. And the scariest part was this: I started believing that this version of my life was permanent.

I didn’t need motivation speeches. I didn’t need someone to tell me to “stay positive.” What I needed was something small enough to hold onto when everything else felt like it was slipping away.

That’s when I unknowingly built three mental habits. I didn’t call them habits back then. I just knew they were the only things keeping me afloat. Looking back now, I can say this with honesty:

These three mental habits saved me during my lowest phase.

1. I Stopped Asking “Why Me?” and Started Asking “What’s Next?”

When life hurts, the mind looks for someone to blame. For a long time, that someone was me.

Why am I like this?

Why can’t I handle life better?

Why do others move forward while I stay stuck?

Those questions didn’t bring clarity. They brought shame. And shame is heavy. It keeps you frozen.

One exhausted evening, I caught myself spiraling again. Same questions. Same pain. And something inside me quietly said, This isn’t helping.

So I changed the question.

Not to something inspirational. Not to something big. Just to something neutral:

“What’s next?”

What’s the next small thing I can do right now?

Drink water.

Take a shower.

Send one email.

Go to sleep.

This habit didn’t fix my life. But it stopped me from drowning in it. “What’s next?” pulled me out of the past and away from the fear of the future. It anchored me to the present moment—where survival was actually possible.

2. I Learned to Speak to Myself Like Someone I Loved

I used to be brutal with myself.

Every mistake became proof that I wasn’t enough. Every slow day became evidence that I was failing. I wouldn’t speak to a stranger the way I spoke to myself—but I thought self-criticism was discipline.

It wasn’t.

It was emotional self-harm.

One day, after a particularly hard week, I imagined my younger self sitting across from me. Same fear in the eyes. Same confusion. Same exhaustion.

And I realized something painful:

I would never talk to that version of me the way I was talking now.

So I tried something uncomfortable.

When I failed, instead of saying “You always mess things up,” I said, “That was hard. You’re still trying.”

When I felt behind, instead of “You’re wasting your life,” I said, “You’re learning at your own pace.”

At first, it felt fake. Weak. Almost embarrassing.

But over time, it softened something inside me.

This habit didn’t make me confident overnight. It made me safe inside my own mind. And once I felt safe, growth stopped feeling impossible.

3. I Treated Progress as Survival, Not Success

During my lowest phase, success felt like a word meant for other people.

Big goals overwhelmed me. Long-term plans made me anxious. Every comparison crushed what little energy I had left.

So I changed how I defined progress.

Progress wasn’t achieving something impressive.

Progress was getting out of bed.

Progress was choosing not to quit on a bad day.

Progress was doing one small thing even when my mind screamed, “What’s the point?”

Some days, progress looked like rest.

Other days, it looked like effort.

Both counted.

This mental habit saved me because it removed pressure. I wasn’t trying to win at life—I was trying to stay in it. And once I stopped demanding results from myself, consistency became possible.

Slowly, survival turned into stability.

Stability turned into confidence.

Confidence turned into forward motion.

What These Habits Gave Me

These habits didn’t erase my problems. They didn’t make life easy. But they did something more important:

They gave me back my sense of control.

I learned that I don’t need to fix my entire life to move forward. I just need to protect my mind when it’s tired, scared, and overwhelmed.

If you’re in a low phase right now, please hear this:

You don’t need to be strong today.

You don’t need to be hopeful today.

You just need to be kind to your mind and take the next small step.

That’s how healing starts. Quietly. Slowly. Honestly.

And one day, you’ll look back and realize—you didn’t just survive.

You rebuilt yourself from the inside out.

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Thank you for reading...

Regards: Fazal Hadi