To prevent burnout, ensure you are living a life in accordance with your values, as a significant cause of burnout stems from boundary transgressions and not upholding what is important to you.
Seek and engage in a purpose that extends beyond your individual self, as this contributes significantly to mental health, overall well-being, and longevity.
Actively foster and maintain positive, meaningful social connections, as these are crucial for mental health, overall well-being, and longevity.
Understand that high cortisol levels due to stress can drive fat deposition, particularly in the belly, even if you are eating less and exercising more. Therefore, addressing stress is crucial for weight management.
Be aware that chronic stress can profoundly impact physical health, potentially leading to conditions like pre-diabetes, even in individuals who maintain a healthy diet and exercise routine. Addressing stress can significantly improve these conditions.
To effectively trust your gut feelings and intuition, ensure you are not in a stressed, rushed, or overly busy state, as a calm and regulated nervous system is essential for operating from a place of trust.
Prioritize fundamental health practices such as staying properly hydrated, eating a balanced diet to support gut microbiome health, and consistently getting enough sleep at regular times.
Cultivate interoception, your sense of your body’s internal physiological state, to become your own health expert, as you should know your body better than any external authority.
Accept that science is continually evolving and does not explain everything; cultivate comfort with uncertainty and the idea that there may be more to reality than currently proven, rather than adhering rigidly to current scientific understanding.
To discover your most strongly held values, reflect on the characteristics you most dislike in other people, as the opposite of these traits often reveals your core values.
If traditional spiritual terms are uncomfortable, define spirituality as living in alignment with your core values, recognizing that a transgression of these values can cause deep, non-physical hurt to your integrity.
Understand that chronic stress can literally change who you are, making you a ‘stressed version of yourself’ and impacting your perception of the world. Regularly assess your state to ensure you’re striving for your best self.
Engage in metacognition, or ’thinking about your thinking,’ to gain insight into your mental state; for example, if you have negative self-talk, recognize it as a sign of stress and challenge it as you wouldn’t speak to a friend.
Ensure that your motivation for making lifestyle changes comes from an energy of abundance and self-love, rather than an energy of lack or self-punishment, to foster sustainability and positive self-talk.
If you miss a day or break the regularity of a habit, do not waste energy on self-criticism; instead, simply start again the next day, recognizing that progress is not always linear.
Reduce cortisol levels and offload stress by engaging in physical exercise to sweat out cortisol, or by speaking your thoughts out loud to someone you trust, which also provides social connection. Journaling is a good second option if speaking to someone isn’t possible.
Incorporate practices like yoga, meditation, walking in nature, bathing with salts, and journaling into your routine to build mental resilience and better withstand stress, even if you are new to these activities.
If you have a type A personality and a highly stressful job, opt for more gentle exercise instead of high-intensity workouts, as the latter can spike cortisol levels and exacerbate stress.
Aim for at least 20 minutes, and ideally an hour, of time in nature daily to lower blood pressure and heart rate, boost your immune system, and significantly improve mental health.
Actively engage with beauty and creative activities (art, dance, music) by both making and beholding them, as this practice, known as neuroaesthetics, positively impacts brain health, mental well-being, and longevity.
If access to outdoor nature is limited, bring plants into your home or place a small vase of flowers by your bed to experience the benefits of nature and start your day with beauty.
If direct access to nature is not possible, view nature scapes or time-lapse photography on your phone or TV, as even looking at images of nature can help lower cortisol levels.
Instead of setting large, unachievable goals, focus on adding two or three small, easy-to-incorporate ‘micro habits’ each quarter to build sustainable change over time.
Even on days when you lack time for a full practice, engage in a minimal version of your habit (e.g., lying on your yoga mat for five minutes) to maintain momentum and prevent completely breaking the routine.
Immediately upon waking, before daily thoughts begin, practice gratitude for simple things like your bedding to intentionally shift into an oxytocin-rich, calm state rather than a cortisol-driven, stressed state.
Practice deep breathing while still in bed upon waking, focusing on the directions of your breath and identifying any physical tension, to tune into your body and promote calmness.
To prevent immediate distraction and allow for morning rituals, keep your phone out of your bedroom, ideally on a different floor, and use an old-fashioned alarm clock.
Transform your daily beverage preparation (e.g., tea or coffee) into a mindful ritual by engaging in it intentionally, leaving your phone aside, and savoring the moment as a form of meditation.
Use cooking as a mindful ritual to create a clear boundary between work and home life, intentionally preparing ingredients and savoring the process, which can act as a form of meditation.
Refrain from cooking when in a stressed or agitated state, as elevated cortisol can leak into the atmosphere and potentially stress out others who are about to eat your food.
Pay attention to physical and mental cues (e.g., calmness, facial expression, thought patterns) to identify whether you are in a relaxed (parasympathetic) or agitated (stressed) state, as this awareness helps determine if you’re capable of making your best decisions.
If your workload feels overwhelming due to stress or poor sleep, consider postponing non-urgent tasks until you are in a better mental state, as you’ll likely complete them much faster and more effectively then.
When facing a difficult decision, consult three trusted family members or friends for their opinions to gain perspective, and if possible, delay making a final decision until you are in a calmer state.
To access your intuition, pose a question to your present self, then physically step forward seven steps, turn around, and answer the question as if you are your future self (seven years older), looking back with wisdom.
To hone your intuition, journal about decisions by noting both logical and intuitive guidance. In low-risk situations where they conflict, experiment by following your intuition, documenting the outcome, and building confidence over time.
Engage in a daily solitude practice, ideally a consistent one like a short yoga sequence, to develop interoception by noticing subtle changes in your body and tuning into your internal state.
To maximize benefits, combine physical practices (like yoga or body scans) with mental practices (like journaling) to enhance the two-way brain-body connection and deepen self-awareness.
Keep a food diary for a week, noting what you eat and how it affects your body (e.g., bloating, bowel movements, mood, sleep), to better understand your body’s responses and hone your interoception.
Perform a body scan not just of external parts, but also internally, asking yourself how different organs (e.g., brain, throat, lungs, stomach, bladder) feel, to increase awareness of your body’s internal state.
If you struggle to feel your lungs during an internal body scan, focus on your breath for five minutes, as your breathing pattern is a good indicator of your lung’s state.
Limit caffeinated drinks to one per day and avoid consuming them after 10 AM, as caffeine has a 12-hour quarter-life and can circulate in your system, potentially disturbing sleep.
Prioritize leaving at least a two-hour gap between finishing eating and going to bed, as failing to do so can be as disruptive to your sleep as consuming alcohol before sleep.
Men are encouraged to confide in other men about stress and mental health issues, as this helps offload stress from the brain-body system and reduces cortisol levels.
When verbal communication is limited or challenging with a loved one, engage in physical touch like holding hands or stroking, as this can facilitate a deep level of non-verbal communication and connection.
Use journaling to foster spiritual evolution by practicing gratitude (e.g., listing 10 things you’re grateful for) and recording your mental and physical experiences from spiritual practices or time in nature.
Intentionally choose to operate and make decisions based on trust, recognizing that while others may break that trust, this approach allows you to control your own mindset and live authentically.