10 Habits for Wellness

10 habits and strategies that have transformed my life and wellness. Based on human physiology, psychology, spirituality and common sense.

The past few years, I have been on a journey to improve mental and physical health and vitality. I changed my perspective many times during this wellness-trek and have learned to be kinder to myself when things don't go as planned.

I realize now, looking back, that I've developed a sizable list of specific habits that are really powerful to elevate mood and bring more energy and clarity. These 10 things have been the most surprisingly and immediately effective to change my state and create new balance and direction. Definitely, they will have the biggest impact in connection with each other, but I am sharing in hope that you might find even one or two of these simple strategies helpful for you on your own journey. We will go through them, in an order by which one might lead to another. Of course, these are only recommendations I have found from personal experience and the experience of various health and psychology experts. Always consult your doctor first.

1. Water and Fats (Yum)

Start with the most basic. The majority of Americans are dehydrated on some level. We need to reach for water first before coffee, (though I love coffee) and good quality water. Warm or room temperature water is more harmonious and nourishing for your physiology than cold. Yet in the US sadly, we are saturated with ice cold drinks. To rebalance, make yourself a cup of hot tea each night. Heat up some warm water and add lemon in the morning for improved digestion.

Start your day with lemon water and tea before (or instead of) coffee. Coffee and high caffeine drinks depletes your body's ability to absorb vitamins and minerals, whereas tea has a more restorative, balancing effect. Consider adding a heaping scoop of a superfood powder to your coffee like the now ubiquitous Chaga and Reishi mushrooms, which can mix nicely into your favorite ritual. These superfoods are adaptogenic, antioxidant packed, full of healthy fats to help smooth the absorption of your morning caffeine. (More on these in another article.)

If I am feeling out of sorts or stressed, I make water a focus. Eventually after a few glasses, you may surprise yourself that you start to feel better. Of course it is best not to just gulp down your water whenever you reach the point of really needing it, but to drink consistently between meals, throughout your day. Nevertheless, as a quick remedy I will drink lots of water, and drink it seriously as something that can really help. Flax/Fish oil supplements and cooking with olive and coconut oils may also give a powerful boost to your mood, and certainly your vitality. These will also help reverse an imbalance of Omega 3 to Omega 6 essential fatty acids in your body, which is way out of balance in the Standard American Diet because of excess processed soy and other factors in the diet.

I think the challenge for most of us with water is that we take it for granted. We often treat it very casually. We are very good to ensure never to miss a meal. But water is more important, and we forget it consistently or settle for poor quality. Often times when we feel hunger we are mostly just chronically dehydrated. The quality of water matters too. Too often tap water is full chemicals and byproducts. This water will put a strain on our Kidney's filtering system and ultimately lead to fatigue and other problems. It is better to find access to spring water, which is naturally rich in the minerals we need, or to use water processed with reverse osmosis filtration or another high quality filter.

A Syrian poet once reminded me, "We are mostly water. The more we are in touch with this quantic reality, the lighter we are, the more we can lift ourselves up."

If you are into affirmations and mantras, try saying something like these throughout your day and see where it leads you:

“Muddy water, let settle becomes clear.” Lao Tzu

“Flowing Water never grows stale.” Bruce Lee

I am water. I am soft like water. I am strong as water. I will flow as water.

USE A WATER FILTER of some kind--this will help you feel back in control of your water. Don't take warm water directly from the faucet. Take only cold water, then heat it if you want. Hot water from the faucet is usually less clean than cold, as it sits in the boiler.

2. Cultivate Stillness

This works like a lynch pin for all other good habits you form. I feel that meditation and stillness practice provides the space and willpower for all of these other remedies and upgrades to follow, and the psychic space for your other habits to really work effectively. Stillness gives you the space and time to grow a kinder relationship with yourself, to take care and account of yourself. When we take the time to find some stillness in our day, we allow ourselves to process all of the more difficult things in our psyches which we have taken in that day, that year, or even decade. Stillness is the soil for resetting. Resetting frequently encourages you to create a beautiful, organic and evolving forum with yourself.

Sleep doesn't always get the peaceful-resting job done. When you wake up does the bed look neatly made as the night before or does it look like a war-zone, sheets by your feet, pillow on the floor?

In this way, meditation practice completes the job sleep undertakes but in a hyper-conscious state, bringing greater alertness. Waking up a little earlier to meditate, or taking the time to do this before dinner or bedtime will very likely help you become more productive, to sleep better and improve your clarity and creativity. Any input of meditation into a busy schedule actually yields you more time, not less. So the argument we often give ourselves, "we don't have time," doesn't logically pan out. Of course, you need to find a style and approach that really works for you and that you connect with personally. Focusing on stillness and breath is always a good place to start.

My favorite metaphor for this is from Thich Nat Hanh: that your mind is like a jar of water with many particles swirling about. This creates a muddy haze. Meditation is the stillness that lets the particles slowly settle to the bottom of the mind, allowing the water to clear. I find that for me 15-25 minutes provides the time to really enter and sustain a more peaceful state throughout the day. However, even starting with little 5 minute chunks may help in a huge way, especially if you can do this twice a day. Here are some basic tips on meditation practices.

3. Cold Showers and Energizing Breathing

Yes, Ahhh! This one can be terrifying right before you do it, but immediately you will feel renewed and empowered. Especially in the morning, this is such a great way to jumpstart your day. Right out of basic physiology, the age old science of cold therapy (and the Tony Robbins playbook), this will invigorate you and jumpstart your morning routine. It will give you a new confidence and strength of will, so that you will feel you can accomplish even the hardest tasks and challenges you might face today. If the prospect of frigid water feels particularly daunting, I will start with a hot shower then turn the water cold for the last 90 seconds.

Immersing yourself in a cold water brings blood to the center of your body, which revs up and massages your internal organs, and improves your mental function. It is also a shock to the system, and will work like a tonic or muscle resistance training, to strengthen your ability to adapt. Often in our modern world, we have a sort of low grade continual stress with few big shocks. Taking a cold shower in the morning can re-train you for how to deal with bigger shocks, which we had to face much more regularly in our evolutionary history dealing with predators and unknowns.

Maybe play some great music during or after your cold shower to psych you up and make it easier. Right afterwards, I combine this exercise with Dr. Andrew Weil's Energizing Breath, which gives a huge boost of electricity to get me going, usually after about 30 seconds of rapid breaths. This rapid deep breathing through the nose can help rebalance your oxygen levels and alkalize your blood.

Truly though, any shower is an accomplishment at the start of your day, hot or cold. You will be cleaned, and ready to start anew. Pulling from Tim Ferriss' well researched morning routine, I like to do a few reps to wake the whole body up before showering, which will help to center you in your body and give you a concrete accomplishment.

4. Less Animal Products

Going more plant-based can give a huge boost to your mood, clarity and strength of your whole system: body, mind and spirit. Provided you eat healthy, real meals with natural whole foods. you may find your taste buds realign in a matter of weeks and that you start to actually crave healthy fruits and vegetables

When you say no to something and cut a hard line away from it, you create power. This power comes from the new simplicity and commitment you have given yourself. Especially when it is a decision in line with your values. You create order out of chaos. In some of the most uncertain or challenging moments in my life, turning to and focusing on healthy diet has been a strong, reliable anchor.

There are many reasons why one might choose to cut out animal products, or at least dairy and meat, or dairy and red meat. The environmental reasons alone are huge. The animal industry is inhumane, and a huge resource drain. If the environmental externalities of meat production were factored into its cost, it would be prohibitively expensive for most people. The ethical reasons speak for themselves as well, especially in our factory-farm system.

A plant-based diet shift can indirectly yield another positive mental health boost as you will know you are saying "No" to this corrupt animal agricultural system. The holistic health benefits to a plant-based whole foods diet have been life changing for countless people. The idea that we need meat, egg and dairy products to live well is false. The idea that we need to drink the milk fluid designed for a baby calf is ridiculous. This hormonal fluid is evolutionarily designed to make baby cows grow into huge cows. Doesn't sound like a the perfect food for fully grown humans. Dairy, moreover, has not been shown to be good for your bones, and may also adversely affect mental health and neurological conditions for some people.

Right now I eat fish or chicken 1-2 times a week and will occasionally have eggs. I find this an excellent balance for me. You have to find what works best for you, but you also need to give it time to work. Evolutionarily, meat was more of a luxury item. We are not used to the heavy doses of animal products which we now eat even three times a day. Yes, on a more plant based diet you need to make sure you are getting your Vitamin B12--as this vitamin is no longer found on vegetable because of cleaning processes.

5. Cut Down Gluten, Sugar and Processed Grains

Trade bread for spinach and reap the rewards. Bread is very satisfying. But it is a processed nutritionally poor food. Moreover, wheat, corn, soy and sugar are now often genetically modified so they can be sprayed with chemicals and pesticides like glyphosate. However, unbiased research suggests this pesticide can interrupt our gut bacteria, thereby causing all sorts of chemical mental imbalances. Long term consumption of sugar in particular has been linked to chronic low-grade inflammation. I have found that even after 2 days of cutting out gluten and processed grains I feel more energized and elevated with less variability in mood. Personally, this makes a huge difference for me. I tried the totally grain and sugar-free Whole-30, a 30-day diet reset, and within days I was more productive and optimistic, waking earlier, and more energized. Sometimes there can be an adjustment period in the first few days. I still enjoy bread now and then, but not as a staple of my diet. I think for most people wanting to improve their vitality this adjustment will be helpful. You may not need to totally avoid processed grains and sugar, but only to be aware of how they are entering your diet, and how they affect you.

The Chinese Medicine view of disease resonates with these scientific findings. For them, wheat, dairy and sugar can cause damp heat to form in the body, a kind of sticky infectious incubation of foods which slow our system down and cause it to rebel, as in the case of so many like myself who have struggled with new food allergies. With proper diet, our bodies can reset, and eliminating these foods from our daily diet can be a huge first step.

Psychologically speaking, making a hard line diet shift like this is simply empowering. Making a strong decision to strictly eliminate certain less healthy foods and focus on healthier whole ones gives an assurance and order to your life. It creates something concrete that you can point to, a signal of self-care.

If you are feeling stuck or imbalanced, eliminating processed foods is definitely a worthwhile experiment. Heavy grain diets, particularly with processed grains and the famous gluten, can prevent optimal mental functions and interrupt or reopen linings in the small intestine that allow bacteria and toxins to enter your bloodstream, what we hear of as "leaky gut." Alcohol also contributes to this. The gut-brain connection has been shown to be one of the most powerful systems in mental health and cognitive function, and you may want to consider being even kinder to yours.

Personally, I have found that beans, quinoa and sweet potatoes are the most energizing and balancing carbs. With a very low glycemic index, beans indeed are considered the perfect food to regain control of your blood sugar levels. With grains, it can be well worthwhile to carefully note which work for you and which may slow you down. In more ways than one, processed grains and sugar can hinder our healing process, fuel addiction, and allow negative habits to cycle.

6. Rise Early

Before electricity, people were much more inclined to go sleep once it was dark, but now, it is easy to stay up, well lit through all hours of the night. This is the subliminal message that electricity give us, that we can write our own rules. However, we don't have to listen.

Rising early is one of the most simple and joyful habits. You will feel immediate feedback. Nothing gives me more simple pleasure than a full, new morning, (and I am a night-person). Rising early begins to restore us to our natural circadian rhythm. I have found my sweet spot, between 5:30 - 7:30am. Yours may differ. Drink 2 glasses of water to wake up quickly and naturally. Add a little exercise, even just 10-20 reps, and a cold shower.

Getting up early is easy to do once you are in the swing of it, but can be hard to jumpstart. One trick I used to help me make this shift, after many periods trying unsuccessfully, was gravity. Immediately upon waking, I turn off the alarm, go to a cushion or rolled blanket against the wall, and hold a supported headstand against the wall for a few minutes. This increases blood flow and energy to the brain and central nervous system, and wakes up the mind and body simultaneously through focus, balance and inversion. It is easier to do than it looks. However, be sure to research proper form or ask a yoga instructor to teach you!

Once in a consistent routine, rising early, I feel imbued with more optimism, productivity and confidence. Getting up between 5-7am or so, you are blessed with the feeling of time. The sense of rush immediately starts to dissolve. Like you have a head start, you can take more time to center yourself and prepare mentally, emotionally, and logistically for your day. It is a great time to do a short work out, breathing exercises, meditate, journal, organize or simply enjoy a cup of tea, sit and think. If you do get up early, I would try not to immediately go for your coffee. Delaying it a bit can give you more time to do some of these softer things, where the coffee may light you up too quickly. Of course, test out what feels right for you, across many mornings. I am only saying not to mindlessly go for coffee and to be aware of how you are feeling as you start your day and what you really want. Take three long breaths, and then decide whether you want to have coffee/tea right away or to wait. Start with some more mildly caffeinated tea to help you warm up and allow you to really enjoy the morning. Feel the day build!

Pick some things you otherwise put off that are important to you and try doing them in your early morning. Maybe work on a creative project you tell yourself you don't have time for, maybe a new practice or skill, or just read a book or study something new.

Jon Kabat-Zinn argues that there is a natural meditative quality to simply arising early and enjoying that time, whether you formally meditate or not. My father has always taken the time in the early morning to have green tea and practice some light martial arts, then maybe read or do some work. For him it is the most sacred and quiet part of the day.

Pulling from Chinese medicine, there is a huge advantage to rising early as your Lung Meridian starts to awaken between 3-5am. This brings you oxygen and energy, so the closer you are to that early 5am hour the more in line with this energy you will be. It is also key here not to eat right away when you get up. Allow some time before your first meal. In the Chinese clock, based on careful observation, eating rather between 7-11am will better suit your body. Intermittent fasters will agree, this delay will allow time for your "night-crew" to finish digestion and flush out toxins. Often in our current framework we eat early, and late at night too. In this way we fail to give our body any break to process yesterday's food and clean itself. This can slowly lead to lower energy and disease. To reset, try an intermittent fasting routine.

It's good to note here a detail relayed in Ben Franklin's Autobiography, that he actually often went to bed quite late, being a very industrious printer. However, he would still push to get himself up in the early hours of the morning, knowing the benefit.

7. Clean, Fold and Organize. Repeat

Make your bed in the morning to give you an immediate sense of order and accomplishment and to send the signal to your brain that "the bed is closed," and you will now start your day. Just focus on starting the first action of the process and the rest will happen naturally.

Take even five minutes each day to clean your room and part of your home. Make your desk a clean simplified work environment. Taking ownership over your environment empowers you and offers psychic relief and reset. Clean up your space for 5 minutes each day. Make your bed every morning. Clean your kitchen. Clean up your computer desktop. Declutter your living room. To start this process or continue it every so often, you may need to do a big clean, providing a total refresh.

You might find that there is one area in your life where you allow a lot of clutter to pile up. Knocking this area out could bring you a powerful sense of balance. External clutter leads to internal cutter, or at least promotes it and allows it to continue to cycle. A good hard clean breaks this cycle. As well, it can be hard to do a lot of these other strategies if you don't have a clean home base.

8. Monitor and Upgrade your Narrative, Vocab and Metaphors

Throughout our day (and our lives), our vocabulary continually empowers or disempowers us. Reading Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within opened me up to how we can systematically improve our lives when we focus on this. We have the power to change our state and outlook simply by shifting the words we use, to take power out of challenges and negative situations and bring more joy into good ones. Don Miguel Ruiz in his popular Toltec philosophy book The Four Agreements hammers home as the central empowering agreement, "Be impeccable with your word." He elaborates one element of this, advocating that we not use our word to cut against ourselves, or others for that matter. Yet without knowing it, this is what we do all day long.

How often do you hear someone say, "uhh I HATE this [insert small thing that does not make much of an impact in the grand scheme of things]?" This is a key word that we use way too often. Instead you could say "I prefer when this does not happen." "Ah that's too bad. Oh well." Or even make a joke out of it. Often when we say, "ugh we hate this" we are using it as a kind of joke, attempting to gain solidarity with a friend or coworker, but underneath this joke, I think it weakens us and has a negative effect on our mood and spirit.

Critics would argue that it is good to use negative vocab words because it is being more honest. To say something is great when it is not and it is really "horrible" would be lying and would bottle the emotions you are trying to release. I think this is a cop-out for undergoing what is a challenging process to really evaluate your words and stories as objectively as you can. Yes we have all seen someone who says it is "great" when you can see they are seething or horribly down below the surface. This is not that. What spiritual-psychological thinkers like Ruiz and Robbins are trying to tell us is that we, in a profound way, create our own realities. And we can change them too.

If some situation is bad, you keep thinking, "this is horrible, this is torture," you are strengthening that situation and weakening yourself in relation to it. You start to become more and more of a victim, and lose your ability to dissolve negative things in life.

Is it a problem or a challenge? Is it torture or is it a call to change your approach? Are you overwhelmed, or a bit overloaded, or just stretching? Are you okay, or are you wonderful and grateful? Are you content or are you blessed? Are you "in big trouble?" Or do you have the opportunity to grow?

Remember to also watch what are the overall stories you tell others about yourself, and what metaphors you use. Look for the stories that you tell just to yourself too, as subtext. Often we perpetuate stories of illness, stress, victimhood and pain, and this certainly does not help our placebo or regenerative powers. I have noticed this personally in telling the story of having allergies and letting the conversation go to, "Oh man, that is so hard, I'm so sorry you have to deal with that. How unlucky..." Empathy is good, but it is better when it is empowering empathy and a call to change, hope and growth. Encouragement over commiseration.

All the stories we tell have an impact on our emotions, outlook, energy and physiology. It's not all or nothing either, that our narratives are either "good" or "bad." Rather, there is always a better more interesting and empowering story that we can create about our journey, always a larger perspective. When you have a deep conversation with someone, you often learn new empowering metaphors or ways of thinking. This is like adding tools to your toolbox.

Disempowering narratives often linger even when we become aware of them. They often operate partly below the level of language. Stories we imply through other things we say, unpleasant subtext that takes us further away from our love and power. Our society continually shoots out disempowering narratives at us, often to get us to appeal to a larger power, to protect us or to get us to buy something, or become reliant on a particular lifestyle. Or to turn us against each other. It happens constantly. But we don't have to become victim to these narratives. Because they are just that. Narratives. And there is always a better story.

9. Journal Everyday: Make Lists, Clarify Goals, Free Write, and Affirm

Write things out to release negative energy and stress, and to foster positive energy and creativity. Write order to your day, to give you more direction. Simple to-do lists can declutter your mind, release you from the worry of trying to keep track of what you may need to do. I like to make a list before I meditate sometimes because otherwise I will start to do this mentally while I am sitting as my mind settles. Even so, I usually remember something I forgot whenever I sit to meditate.

One organization I find very helpful is to start to split up journaling into several different notebooks each with their own function or topic. This definitely helped me to gain some psychic space and to get more out of journaling. Of course over-division might make things too cluttered and take away that free feeling of writing. But, at least for me, a bit of separation was helpful. Here is how I divide it.

1. A Dream journal. As soon as I started to keep a specific journal for dreams, I started to remember my dreams much more frequently and easily.

2. Daily journal for to-do lists, brainstorming, general notes, mapping out plans or focuses for coming months.

3. Study journal(s) for any subject or class I am specifically studying.

4. Creative journal for writing songs, poems, free writes, ideas.

5. Values and Operating System journal I am still working to maximize the use of this journal, but basically it is to categorize, reflect and spell out what is most important to you. To order your values. To write down inspiring quotes or things from authors you love. Anything that you think will be helpful for you to review often, and to refer to as one would to the operating system of a computer. Build your own myth!

Doodle or Drawing Book

The morning or evening can be a great time to doodle or draw as well to help you process the day, to release and find some stillness. For my friends who love to draw, I see this can be a kind regenerative meditation for them. Personally, I enjoy just small doodling, partly because it releases me from a strictly logos place of my brain and helps to activate the diffuse mode of thinking to make new connections.

Perhaps keep in your daily journal new stories that you want to tell yourself, more empowering vocab and phrases you want to start using. Mark down and cross out the stale, negative vocab and narratives that you want to eliminate and leave behind.

10. Design a Simple Exercise / Work Out Schedule

This one proved super helpful for me recently to create more order and rhythm to my week.

Rebalance your overall flow and life by ensuring exercise on your terms. The endorphins are great but making this into a structure also gives you an assurance and anchor. All of a sudden you have less to think about, you don't have to "agonize" to decide when to go to the gym or for a run. With a schedule, it becomes relaxing. It will also help ensure that you do exercise regularly and get that endorphin-release and needed physical stimulation.

At the same time, you don't want to be brutally strict on yourself and make a completely rigid, or overly intense schedule. Try to find the balance, perhaps let your schedule be more of a template if that works better for you. I do a semi-strict MWF gym schedule. I may swap or drop a day if necessary, or add different exercises like yoga or a run to other days, but I keep to this schedule as best I can and it makes life much easier. It makes exercise a habit I look forward to, rather than a chore that I have to figure out how to fit in. As funny as it sounds, for me, the uncertainty of unplanned exercise became an unhelpful stress. Like anything, this energy and lack of clarity and structure can then seep over and enter other areas of your life. Scheduling your work out, or any other activity for that matter, in a consistent way, brings a healthy boost of order and reliability. Some things are more fun spontaneously, but it is worth experimenting and trying structure in different areas of your life to see how it helps. Maybe it is as simple as making Saturday into Yoga Day. Or Always going for a run on Monday and Thursday. Or it could be a jog every single morning.

Whenever you turn something into a habit, and make a strong commitment to it, you free up mental space to focus elsewhere, you don't need to worry or think about when you are going to do that activity, it's automatic. It's a relief. One less decision to make.

Bonus 1. Take a Course Online, Listen to an Audiobook or Podcast

Taking an online course or listening to an audiobook can bring a new dimension to your day.

Podcasts and audiobooks can be very relaxing and give you a sense of personality and storytelling greater than just reading a book. For me, they help me to feel like I have a companion on the journey of growth.

If you take a course online, you will have the wonderful sensation that you are learning something new everyday, and that you are taking ownership over this with something very concrete. You actively choose to engage with and learn and grow in this way. If you feel like you are growing every day or every week, you may start outgrowing some of the things which were holding you back before, and you will have the wonderful sense of moving forward and expanding.

My friend once said to me when I was in a difficult situation and didn't see a way out, "you're bigger than this." It shifted my perspective immediately, like a spell was broken. Finding a way to continually grow will bring you in touch with and remind you of your immense, growing internal self and all your potential-- this is invaluable.

I love Oprah's Super Soul Sunday and the Tim Ferriss Show. Additionally, a good fiction audiobook can give you that sense of oral fireside storytelling that we mostly lack today. This tradition is embedded in our DNA. Movies are powerful for the imagination, but to mix things up we might be surprised at the pleasure and healing powers of the unique stimulus of a good audiobook. Even better read aloud with a friend or family member. A movie doesn't fully replace what we get from the fireside story because it does not leave the same room for the imagination to work and run. I believe imagination is at the heart of catharsis, and builds your ability to connect to a larger story, which is super helpful to anchor you and elevate you from mundane life.

A non-fiction audiobook can work like a personal coach or teacher, giving you new philosophy, perspective, and knowledge in a personal way, with deeper connection.

I have found all of these strategies and digital tools very empowering and helpful to foster a happy, fulfilled, clean mental landscape.

Bonus 2. Affirmation and Prayer

Like the affirmations of journaling, I feel adding some kind of reflective prayer can be very empowering and super helpful to release negative energy and shift your focus.

However you choose to conceptualize it, whether to your highest self, to the Universe, to God, to the forces of goodness, to the highest rationality, to the force of interconnection:

Look up prayers or poems online and maybe pick a few that resonate to use consistently, or find a new one everyday and sit with it for a few minutes. Read a poem very carefully out loud. Whatever feels right to you. Start doing this and see how your practice evolves to fit you best.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed these strategies. If you are tempted to try a few of these in your own life, perhaps pick two that sound most appealing, and pick one that sounds really hard or out of your comfort zone. This will give you a good balance, building up your foundation and also stretching you in new ways. For me the most elusive habits on this list have been meditating and cutting down gluten, sugar and processed grains, however, these two have really transform my mood, energy, optimism, discipline and mental health.

Thank you for reading! I wish you all the health, well-being, joy and power on your own journey. Thank you.