How to Know If You’re Actually Procrastinating on Your Own Peace

Some things are worth putting off: that pile of laundry, those emails, that home improvement project. But what about your mental well-being? Are you procrastinating on your own peace?

At Televero Health, we meet many people who’ve become experts at delaying their own healing. They come to us when they finally realize they’ve spent months, years, or even decades putting off addressing issues that have been quietly draining their energy, limiting their joy, or causing unnecessary suffering. Like most forms of procrastination, it didn’t start as a conscious choice. It happened one “I’ll deal with this later” at a time.

Maybe you recognize this pattern in yourself. Maybe you’ve been telling yourself that your anxiety isn’t “bad enough” to address yet. That your relationship struggles will improve on their own given enough time. That your grief just needs more space. That your burnout is just temporary. That your discontent is just a phase.

And maybe, on some level, you know that you’re avoiding facing things that need attention. But how can you tell for sure? How do you know if you’re giving yourself necessary time and space, or if you’re actually procrastinating on your own healing?

Here are some clues that might suggest you’re in a pattern of delay rather than just taking things at your own pace:

First, notice if the same issues keep resurfacing without substantial change. If you’ve been dealing with the same challenges for years and nothing seems to shift, it might be a sign that time alone isn’t the solution. Just like a physical injury that doesn’t heal properly on its own, emotional and psychological challenges sometimes need direct, intentional attention to truly resolve.

Second, pay attention to whether your reasons for waiting keep shifting. If you originally told yourself you’d address your mental health after that big work project, but then it became after the holidays, and then after the kids’ school year, and then after summer vacation… this moving target might indicate avoidance rather than thoughtful timing.

Third, check if you’re applying different standards to your mental health than you would to your physical health. Would you postpone treating persistent physical pain the way you’re postponing addressing your emotional distress? Would you tell someone with a broken arm to “just give it more time” without proper care? If not, why accept that approach for your mental wellbeing?

Fourth, notice if the thought of actually taking action brings immediate relief or increased anxiety. Procrastination often involves short-term avoidance of discomfort at the expense of long-term wellbeing. If the idea of finally addressing your mental health challenges makes you anxious rather than hopeful, it might be a sign that avoidance has become a protective pattern.

Finally, consider whether you’re waiting for problems to reach crisis levels before addressing them. Many people believe they need to hit some sort of breaking point before seeking help is justified. But just as we don’t wait for small health issues to become emergencies before seeing a doctor, we don’t need to wait for mental health challenges to become debilitating before addressing them.

We see these patterns of procrastination with many of the people who come to us. The client who spent years trying to manage panic attacks on their own, only to discover that skilled help could have saved them years of suffering. The couple who delayed addressing communication problems until they were barely speaking to each other, making the path back to connection much steeper than it needed to be. The person who pushed through burnout for so long that recovery required a complete life overhaul rather than the simpler adjustments that might have been possible with earlier intervention.

These aren’t failures or character flaws. Procrastinating on our own healing is a deeply human response to the discomfort of change, vulnerability, or facing difficult emotions. It’s often rooted in understandable concerns: fear of what we might discover, worry about being judged, anxiety about whether help will actually work, uncertainty about whether we deserve to prioritize our own wellbeing.

But understanding why we procrastinate doesn’t mean we have to continue the pattern. We can acknowledge these concerns while also recognizing the cost of continued delay — the experiences we miss when we’re not fully present, the relationships that suffer when we’re not emotionally available, the life energy that goes into managing problems rather than addressing their roots.

What we’ve found is that most people who finally break the cycle of delay wish they hadn’t waited so long. Not because therapy is always easy or instantly transformative, but because even the process of beginning — of saying “this matters enough to address now” — often brings a sense of relief and possibility that no amount of waiting could provide.

If you recognize that you’ve been procrastinating on your own peace, know that you’re not alone. Know that the pattern can be broken, not through self-criticism, but through a simple decision to take one small step from exactly where you are. Know that beginning doesn’t require certainty or perfect readiness — just enough willingness to consider that perhaps your wellbeing doesn’t have to wait any longer.

The peace you’ve been postponing? It’s still available. And it might be closer than you think.

Ready to stop procrastinating on your own healing? Start here.