TLDR; #mindfulness, hobbies, no sugar, balance and clean dieting, exercise, a consistent sleep schedule with an early wake up time, cycling 🚴🏻♀️ 🚵🏾♀️ 🚴🏾
- Sports (once you’re older and realize you’re not going pro you can play pickup games or practice solo or with family/friends)
- Going for long walks (you can accomplish this by taking public transit to work or walking daily to relax your mind and get some fresh oxygen plus you’ll develop your Lowe extremities and improve your balance — when I was in my 20s I couldn’t stand on my feet for longer than 30-minutes or so and when I’d jog I’d experience soreness — I’ve always been athletic but once you stop stretching and working out you will be human again and feel pain— keep the routine going gang— you’ll love yourself for it)
- Conditioning (working out without air conditioning year round to improve your heart rate, stamina, and endurance— don’t try this for an extended period of time out of the gate cuz you’ll pass out — do a gradual build up over time — if you live in Antarctica 🇦🇶 you can probably still pull this off cuz Global Warming + Climate Crisis, but places like Florida, DC, Georgia, Texas, and are perfect 👌🏾)
- No shaving creams...unless ☝️- Ditch products high in chemical content— my face broke out in college cuz of I was a novice at make grooming and I knew nothing about how to properly shave 🪒. However, I did discover Proraso via 🚰 Amazon and it worked great 👍🏼
- Breathing exercises 🌬- even if you’re not a #yoga person (and it’s great zen if you are),, then 10 minutes of inhale/exhales cycles will help balance out your mood and keep your blood pressure at the proper baseline - there have been times I have been pinned up in the office and hope for weeks at a time and been oblivious to the fact that I’m stressed out for no reason — my heart rate gives me feedback during these moments and the jolt of chest pain finally manifests itself once my normal flow of breathing is no longer being stalked and assaulted (figuratively speaking but I have dealt with literally stalkers 👀 both in and out of the office in the past — so /- #scales aka it’s all the s
🅰️ 〽️e) - No carbonated beverages or sugary drinks (ok,, mostly ban them from your life but once a week at most cuz who don’t love a lil flavor) - this should be it no surprise this stuff slows you down, clogs your pores, dehydrates you, makes you fill sluggish, stresses the lining of your esophagus, and stresses your digestive system cuz evil chemistry 🧪 be real— not to mention it’s addictive)
- Plant based all the things with minimal read meat 🥩- I feel much much better after limiting my weekly red meat intake and spiking on the healthier food choices like fruits, vegetables, whole grain, seafood (thyroid cancer is real — there are powder based supplements you can purchase online if your anti-ocean but if you are pro-ocean then sardines with cilantro are great — basically try to consume a non-predatory fish 🎣 but who can resist a lobster 🦞 or crabs 🦀 from Pappadeaux w/ those beloved cheese 🧀 grits 🍽 — yes I’m aware that DC and New Orleans have seafood culture as well (who is the best is how to the universe) in addition to other Metro Areas but I cannot be YELP.com today unfortunately so— #brevity 👁 — again everything in #moderation)
- No sports drinks (e.g. Gatorade) - this comes w/ a caveat - if you are training or low on fluids then yes— it’ll give you a boost- I’m talking about my case where I drank Gatorade with meals multiple times a day and made it a regular part of my diet— that %%#* was a mistake and flat out wrong
- No sitting down 🪑 for extended periods of time throughout the day - in my experience this has hurt my blood circulation and can lead to vertigo vibes + increase stress as you are preoccupied with work or some for if activity (if it’s engineering related and a challenging problem to solve that you don’t have experience with or can not locate a solution to through coworkers or online resources then stress will spike as frustration sets in)—- take recurring breaks when work gets intense — this can be a great coping mechanism when you’re in an intense meeting with coworkers where sensitive issues and topics must be discussed (e.g. retrospectives, bikeshedding, microaggressions, why are we upgrading to or why are we sun setting
- Full body workouts (not for the faint of heart) - this is intense and took me years to master but it’s far better than using free weights and it makes you Navy Seal Strong 💪🏼 and Ford Truck Tough (that doesn’t not make you an instant member of Seal Team 6 or invincible but you’ll perform really well at all the things especially at night time when you know — sparks ⚡️ tend to fly— need to keep this PG13 as kids are watching 😉)— always stretch 🙆🏻♀️ 🙆🏻♂️ before your workout 🏋🏻♀️ 🏋🏽♂️ contrary to what narcissists tell you— you’ll love yourself afterwards
- Ditch the coffee and energy drinks - a little coffee here is there is great for flavor IMHO but I have never been a heavy coffee drinker and energy drinks are evil - there are cleaner coffees on the market these days so I’m all for that (especially from the mom & pop joints or the Italians — I could be mistaken but I think they’re like the OGs of organic, homegrown, authentic coffee ☕️ as they are w/ pizza, pasta, and <insert-addictive-cultural-thing-the-Western-world-loves?> — on behalf of #italy 🇮🇹 and my cousin Taj who is part #italian
- Jogging 🏃🏽♀️ 🏃🏾- you don’t need to be a Jamaican Olympic quarter finalist to pull this off. Something light will be plenty sufficient. There are of course treadmills are your local gyms but I prefer to mix it up and go outdoors cuz again.. oxygen+ stress relief+people watching+ sight seeing be lifeeeeeee 🦸🏻♀️ 🦸🏻♂️ - #extrovertmafia
- Reading+Writing - this helped sharpen my patience and increase my IQ in addition to making interviews less stressful as switching jobs comes with the territory in any career until you locate your Dream Job with the roof top terrace and 12th generation cubicles that can float on water and read you books and make you — never mind it was all a dream but yes— do read + write (30 minutes per day works great for me but sometimes I do much more cuz cognitive development is a thing plus it makes you more secure 📓 📔- we’re all natural born scientists 👩🏻🔬 👨🏿🔬 anyway)
- Hobbies (in general) - there are tons but yet to pick a few you love and do them for life (routine is the key — if you can’t do them for life then you don’t love them and if you have no hobbies then—- 👨🏻🦱 —.no worries it’s not the end of the world just a suggestion)
- Join online communities - my favorite are Reddit, Quora, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you want to keep a low profile then Twitter, Imgur, and Reddit are best from a privacy perspective as you can create scopes handles and not get spied on against your will (just don’t use your government name or anything that relates to your identity cuz search engines be real)
- Waking up early (no later than 0730) and in bed before 2200 on most nights - I don’t always play by the rules here but at least 4/7 days per week a minimum would be my suggestion (an engaging job with its highs and lows+kids+relationships+sh## happens will interfere at times — cuz #webehuman 💯)
- Socialize - learning other cultures in addition to the ones I am fortunate enough to be apart of due to my ancestral lineage go a long way. There are channels on Reddit scoped by city and country if you’re looking for a place to start, but the YouTube videos covering the history of Europe and are amazing. You can pickup new languages and learn how to travel abroad in style (the do’s and donts videos are great as well as the post-travel reviews travelers 🧳 upload to the universe 🪐 after they’ve completed their trip and returned home safely— start with Germany 🇩🇪- I’m biased cuz I’m — you guess it— part German and have traveled their twice already - 🍃 🚞 💶 🔌 🎒 👟 👖 🔋
✈️ 🚋 🚎 🚃 🎫 ) - Always be laughing 😝- this releases endorphins of course and again,, you’ll love yourself not only afterwards, but fuhevaaaaaa (you know all things, Jon Snow ⛄️ 🛡 ⚔️ 🗣🧑🏻🦱)
- Neuroscience+Mindfulness 🧠 - obviously everything I am writing about has to do with this subject in general. Psychologists such as myself will tell you that it’s all about flow and finding a grove. I will leave you this to you to research in your own time but WebMd has a great quiz and there are sure to be great videos on YouTube and other major platforms
Breaking old habits so hard to do - try to make good ones on behalf of Notorious B.I.G.
Mental stability is required to navigate systematic pressure (cost of living, guns, illegal searches, drugs, etc.)