Prioritize listening to your own body and cultivating inner expertise regarding your health, rather than solely relying on external experts for prescriptions on eating, sleeping, or overall well-being.
Recognize that living in a state of no stress is possible by properly ’engineering’ your internal system to operate with minimal friction in your mind, rather than accepting stress as a compulsory part of modern life.
Act as a ‘good CEO’ of your internal chemical factory (your body and mind) by consciously cultivating thoughts and emotions that produce chemistry leading to health, peace, joy, and bliss, rather than anxiety and stress.
Reduce mental activity by investing more energy in perception (how you take in the world through your senses) and less in constant expression (sharing thoughts and emotions), especially on social media.
Instead of prescribing a specific amount of sleep, focus on keeping your body very vibrant and energetic through proper eating and activity, allowing the body to naturally wake up when its rest needs are met, potentially reducing total sleep time.
Understand that chronic ailments are often self-manufactured; you can completely reverse them by changing your lifestyle, attitude, and overall way of being, even if it requires more effort due to genetic factors.
Upon waking, pinch yourself to confirm you’re alive and give yourself a smile, acknowledging that life itself is the greatest phenomenon and your most valuable possession.
Throughout the day, when you notice the time, acknowledge that you are still alive and smile, recognizing that life itself is the greatest phenomenon and paying attention to its throbbing presence within you.
Refrain from eating within three to four hours before bedtime to allow for proper digestion and prevent the heavy bag of food from crushing vital organs as metabolism drops during sleep.
Consume freshly prepared food, ideally within one and a half hours of cooking, to avoid accumulating ’tamas’ (inertia) in the body and mind, which can lead to dullness and lack of dynamism.
To improve sleep and reduce mental ‘diarrhea,’ increase your physical activity throughout the day and consciously work to reduce excessive, compulsive mental activity.
Use a ’litmus test’ for food: if you eat it and feel drowsy without stimulants, it’s likely the wrong food; if you eat food and feel very alive, that’s the right food for you.
Take a shower in the evening for physical cleansing from daily pollution and interactions, and to experience a certain release in the system as water flows over the body.
For most people whose minds are not disciplined enough to avoid confusion, establishing some kind of morning ritual is beneficial to provide structure and purpose to the start of the day.
Actively engage in conversations with individuals who hold different perspectives or come from varied backgrounds, as this broadens your worldview and offers powerful insights.
Understand yoga as a state of union by paying attention to the constant interaction of your body with everything around you, such as breathing (exchange with trees) and food (soil becoming body), fostering a profound experience of life.
Shift your personal learning and engagement strategy to cultivate attention rather than solely relying on memory, as the current societal reward system for memory is a flawed approach to human development.