Focus on all aspects of life improvement, including sleep, physical care, healthy relationships, and ethics, as these factors significantly enhance the effectiveness of practices like meditation.
Practice talking to yourself in a more supportive way, rewiring internal dialogue to reduce self-criticism and avoid ‘second arrow’ suffering.
Engage in loving kindness meditation consistently, even if it initially feels forced, to cultivate warmth towards yourself and others, which can profoundly impact your practice and demeanor.
When feeling anxious, engage in useful work or activities, as taking action can effectively absorb anxiety and help you cope with alarming situations.
Actively seek and prioritize in-person social connections with friends and family, as being ’embodied with other people’ is a powerful regulator for the nervous system and a source of deep happiness.
Adopt the phrase ‘Is that so?’ as a light, internal query for your own thoughts and stories, fostering intellectual humility and equanimity by recognizing you don’t always know what’s true.
Consistently listen to voices from across the ideological spectrum to challenge your own views, which can be counterintuitively calming and help maintain sanity.
Establish an end-of-day ritual, such as turning off lights, lighting candles, and engaging in low-input activities like listening to music or reading on paper, to reduce digital inputs and promote rest.
Spend 1 to 1.5 hours each morning reading physical materials (newspapers, books) in a pleasant space with coffee or tea, to promote sanity, deeper thought, and better information processing.
Employ a physical device like ’the brick’ to disable non-whitelisted apps on your phone most of the time, combating weak willpower, reducing ’energy leakage,’ and avoiding constant digital engagement.
Follow current events by reading one physical newspaper daily instead of being constantly hooked into digital feeds, as it’s a ‘saner technology’ that provides deeper understanding.
Keep your phone in another room while you sleep to improve sleep hygiene and reduce the temptation for constant digital engagement.
Pay close attention to how your body feels in different situations, as this ’embodiment’ provides valuable information and can serve as a resistance to increasingly inhuman ways of living.
Engage in meditation most days to develop a deeper level of attention and granularity to your internal state, providing valuable self-awareness.
Be mindful of your gaze, allowing it to be wide and relaxed when possible, as a tightly focused gaze (e.g., on a phone) can be anxiety-producing and lead to a ‘clenched’ feeling.
If prone to anxiety-driven productivity, avoid rigid ‘streak’ tracking for self-disciplines like meditation or exercise, as it can lead to exhaustion and unfulfillment rather than genuine well-being.
When facing difficult or undesirable internal states, use the mantra ‘It’s like this right now’ to acknowledge and accept the current reality as a step towards equanimity.