How To Feel Better
Recently I’ve collected some great tips around the web and my experience that have really helped me pull it together. I’ve been sharing them around to my friends and decided to gather them all here.
I don’t want this to be just another internet post you mindlessly scroll through and relate to and move on. Nothing changes that way. I’m sure you want to change your life too. I want to aid you in this. Try to think of this list as a daily checklist even.
I would read tips like working out and sleeping enough and ignore them thinking “well how will this solve *insert worry some life problems here* but how can your brain ever feel better if you’re neglecting your body?
- Get enough sleep. If you wake up at 6 a.m. then go to bed by 10 pm. Everyday.
- Exercise. Do a free full workout from Fitness Blender every day.
- Drink enough water. They say to drink half your body weight in ounces every day.
- Eat clean. Refer here for tips on that. Take your vitamins and eat your vegetables. Even the green ones.
- Breathe. The left side of my chest gets tight when I’m anxious and not breathing sure doesn’t do your body any good. Who lives without oxygen?
- Meditate. This doesn’t have to be scary. Fall asleep to this guided one every night. Changed me practically overnight. “Fall asleep and all your problems will disappear! Only $19.99!” I can see it now. But really, do it.
- Realize when you’re overthinking. You’re probably deconstructing and analyzing (and judging) your life instead of living and experiencing it. You are stuck in your head. You’re probably not in tune with your senses. This is why working out is so great because it’s physically acting without thinking. You don’t need to think about working out. You just DO IT.
- Realize you are worth it. As much as you can work on confidence and a plethora of individual aspects, truly knowing your value independent of any other factors and truly loving and respecting yourself as you would a close friend really changes your behavior and thinking. Would you talk to a sad friend the way you criticize yourself?
- Do what you want. I cut the word should from my vocabulary. When you ask somebody what you should do all the time you are really giving up all of your power to really make the decision yourself. What what could be more devaluing? Having someone make all your decisions for you sounds pretty bad to me.
- Follow your dreams. Everyday. Do something that correlates to that dream in the back of your mind. Write 1 page of random thoughts. Don’t let it get any further away. Wake up half an hour early, before everyone wakes up so you can focus on what’s important to you before you get inundated with fulfilling other people’s needs. Tend to yourself first. The book War Of Art describes giving into the resistance of avoiding your life’s work accounts for much more trouble in your life than you’d think.
- Do not care what others think. “Don’t worry what others are thinking because they’re not.” Everybody is just as concerned with what you think of them as you are with what you think they think of you. Wouldn’t you rather not place your perceived value through the eyes of others and instead see it with your own eyes? Rekindle childhood hobbies. Watch cartoons. Daydream again. Color in some Hello Kitty coloring books. Maybe people will try to laugh. And if they do laugh with them. They’ll forget about it as soon as they noticed it.
- Garbage in, garbage out. You’re the sum of your closest anything in your life. If you’re surrounded by negativity and poor values, then guess what? So read inspiring books. Tell your friends about what you discover. Be the change.
- Habits. Everybody is so focused on the big picture, vision, and planning for the future but really, does anybody know what the world will be like even next year? Imagine if working out or writing your symphony was as easy as brushing your teeth. Building habits mean doing something every day. To the point that you don’t have to think about it, you just do it. Don’t plan for your future, create it.
- Conquer negative self-talk: Would you talk to a 5-year-old the way you talk to yourself? When you feel obsessive thoughts ask you “are these useful?“. Chances are they’re not. Saw an interesting thought somewhere that said, “would you treat your 5-year-old self the way you treat yourself now?”
- Discover your personality type: Take it here. Nothing feels better than feeling accepted by people who are just like you. My friend sent me the test and I thought it was a joke until I read the information that it gave me and also discovered 4/5 of my closest friends are the same personality type as me. It feels great to be understood.
- Practice gratitude: Keep a log book and every night jot down the best things that happened to you that day. It’s quite amazing how it adds up and how otherwise you would’ve missed it.
- Learn, to say no: The hell yeah philosophy I just found goes like this. “When considering committing to something, if it doesn’t make you say hell yeah I’m excited then say no. Imagine being free from other’s wants from you and instead, you make your own path? Don’t shame yourself for saying no. Don’t worry about pleasing everybody.
I hope you will benefit from these experiences. I would have a new epiphany every day until it all came full circle. I wasn’t sleeping enough. I was not exercising. I wasn’t treating myself that great. But alas, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And by that I mean you can change your life right at this moment.
“Worrying doesn’t take away tomorrow’s troubles. It takes away today’s peace.”
Sources:
Michael Sealy Guided Meditations
5 Books that will change your life
(None of these are affiliate links. I just want everybody to feel better with what’s helped me.)
