Thought about it, snce it’s near New Year’s.
In my opinion, exercising/training/stretching atleast once a week would be a good thing for most people.
Reading books on daily basis. It’s a qualitatively different experience from reading websites or consuming other form of media. If you have trouble getting into reading, I recommend picking a particular time and place, then reading at least a few pages every day. Eventually, it will turn into a habit and you’ll be reading for longer periods. Another thing I recommend is finding books on topics you’re interested in, be it fiction or non fiction, and don’t feel bad about abandoning books if you find you’re not enjoying it.
For me, it’s reading or watching philosophies. Philosophy can change how we view things around us.
Getting an electric toothbrush, and flossing daily. My dental hygienists love me.
Absolutely lifting weights has been my all time favorite self improvement thing, would highly recommend it
I second this as a non-sporty person. I bought a couple of barbells (15kg apiece) for use at home and 20-30 minutes of just messing around with them daily has solved so many joint aches, it’s almost ridiculous…
Just to note, the form has an impact and can cause more negatives than it solves if not done properly.
That’s why you start off light until you get your form down then work your way up.
Duly noted and you are very right! I looked up a couple of simple exercises beforehand as I’m really not keen on getting a herniated disk or something.
From what I’ve seen, as long as it’s nothing fancy like advanced calisthenics and power training, the exercises are straightforward and easy to grasp.
Not waiting for a day like new years to make a change that helps you.
The best time to do it was probably years ago.
The second best time is today.
Because if you make it about “new years” or some event, then it isn’t about YOU.
Do it for YOU, because you know that you’re worth the same amount of effort and affection as the others in your life.
Would you want this change for your friend? Turn don’t you think you skills care enough about you to give it to yourself?
I quit smoking the day my niece was born.
I quit drinking on April 1st, I’ve lost track of how many years ago it was, so that’s nice.
don’t discount the power of a specific date to reinforce a change and don’t let the reputation of new years resolutions stop you from setting and crushing them.
Neither of those are New Year’s resolutions.
“The day my niece was born” is actually exactly the type of thing I’m talking about. You didn’t wait until new years, or your birthday, or something else unrelated to your motivations. You picked “now” because that was when you felt the desire.
So yes, special days can matter, but the days that matter to YOU are way more important than a day some guy named “Gregorian” chose 2000 years ago.
Nice backtracking on “some other event,” that’s better than what 90% of the internet would do!
I still think it’s fine to use external dates for self improvement. I’m not very religious, but I love lent specifically because it’s a socially encouraged time to change a habit that lasts nearly the two months it takes to make a new habit or break an old one.
One year it was soda because I drank a few cans a week, since then I very rarely have any in the house. Last year I gave up meat, which is something I would never have pushed myself to do on my own.
It’s just a lot easier to test a change when it’s not permanent. There’s certainly an argument to be made that a full year of change at new years is too long to successfully commit to, but that doesn’t mean the whole thing should be discounted.
You’re assuming it was backtracking rather than a simple clarification.
That’s unnecessarily unpleasant, and it’s cool you want to feel like you won the argument, but if you add in the context of “new years eve” and then read it as “some other event external to the reason you want to make a change” it’s not backtracking.
In fact it’s just context you missed because of your own life experiences and emotions.
Which is cool, but you look like an ass when you try and secure a win by pointing out your own misunderstanding rather than hearing my clarification.
It’s an argument on the internet, there are never really winners. It seemed like backtracking because saying that a dissenting response is “actually the type of thing I’m talking about” carries an implication that the person responding misunderstood you, rather than acknowledging the possibility that you did not clearly/fully communicate your thoughts. As far as I and I assume the person you responded to could tell, that wasn’t “actually the type of thing” you were talking about. Backtracking may have been the wrong term, but there was a level of condescension in your comment that was so close to being sincere that it rubbed me the wrong way. Combine that with me half-disagreeing with you and that made for a response with some snark at the front. I am a little sorry for that. Also, why would you write “because of your own life experiences and emotions?” Unless the discussion is focused on something related to how people become the way they are, that statement has about as much meaning as “this is an aspen. You can tell it’s an aspen because of the way it is.” All it says is that you assume there is something wrong with the person rather than actually say anything about what that person has said or done. At worst it’s empty words and at best it’s an empty ad hominem.
Tell me more about my “faults” and “condescension” and “ad hominem”, then reread your comments. Yep, there’s some condescension from me here, but you’re also once again trying to throw judgement. “Glass houses” and all.
You win, Have a nice day.
Not the commenter you were arguing with, but I really liked that last sentence. I’m going to hang on to that feeling.
Biased take but you can’t remove meditation and mindfulness from its traditions specific goals. I get they have side benefits but therapy acting like they invested god through spreading it is just watering down what could help so many people
Do you care to elaborate?
I’ve tried getting into both a few times, to the point of noticing some benefits, but I fall off the wagon bc everything I read about it quickly goes into religious territory.
Since it appears you dislike all religion I’m not sure my main point fits your tastes but I could say many of the various goals of Buddhist meditation such as realization emptiness of self or of phenomena, realization of impermanence, especially dhyana are all absent from whitewashed or medical meditation. I would say these can all be labeled as helpful but not necessarily religious goals but ontological.
To me this does two things, one it presents a false narrative of meditation by displacing it from its thousands of years of tradition. Two, it robs the practitioners of multiple goals and benefits, instead presenting it as simply calming. Which was never its goal, except maybe samatha meditation.
Essentially, I feel western mainstream and medical meditation denies meditations long history, makes up some goals and benefits that are not within the proven one’s, all while acting like they did it themselves.
Reminds me of the Duke University Koru counseling group which gave a talk on how their program came up with walking meditation…
I hope that’s helpful or at least clear. I do prefer traditional what you would call religious Buddhist mediation but even traditional does not have to contain things you dislike. For instance traditional Chan/Zen and vipasana teachers have been quite open to all students while teaching the full meditation
Thank you for taking the time to reply and thoroughly so.
I think the best differentiation you made between ontology and religion is key. My issue with religious texts is that they (usually but not always) demand a full commitment with other practices and beliefs that I don’t find fitting for me personally, and it seems like an all or nothing approach, so I end up quitting.
Let alone as you mention how these ancient practices have been stripped of their original intentions to be made more palatable to western audiences. Not only that, but now some people have even tried to co-opt them by sticking a western religious approach, further (imo) disrespecting and confounding.
I’m being kinda contradictory, and this is why I haven’t sorted out my internal conflict between the search for inner peace -I wouldn’tbe so pretentious as to call it enlightment-, and my unwillingness to submit to religious dogma (I’ve had enough bad experiences, and not only with one religion).
Make your bed as soon as you wake up.
But I’m still in it!!
I don’t know if the mental benefits are outweighed by not airing out your linen. might depend on the weather.
I work from home and tried to do this, but it’s easier to just wait until lunch. Once you’re in the habit though you won’t know how you ever didn’t do it before.
Read books.
Really anything, philosophy is great but some don’t have the patience for it.
If it’s graphic novels or “kids” books, it’s all good. Spend a bit of time every day reading.
And to add, if reading just doesn’t seem to work, be open towards audio books. They are every bit as good as the books (unabridged, anyway) but can be a better fit for some.
I have adhd and most of my reading has evolved to be listening. It works well so I can get some stimming while doing boring like dishes or whatever, and this way I actually finish books.
Don’t listen to anyone telling you it’s “not reading”. It is. Whatever works for you.
If you are not used to, at first it may be difficult to pay attention to the audio and understand it. Sometimes for me, the audio becomes background noise.
I listen to several podcasts, while it’s not the same as an audiobook I started doing it to practice languages until I found some channels I like and it’s now part of my daily activities
What I’m getting at, is not about finishing books, it’s more about the time.
Slow down, take the time, even 10 minutes, to improve your mind. Reading, any type of reading, improves your thinking.
Couldn’t agree more.
Secondly, never ask for book recommendations on Lemmy or Reddit. You’ll just get a list of pretentious, wanky suggestions that people pretend to like
The best fiction is sometimes just a trashy, edge-of-your-seat thriller
I wouldn’t go that far - oftentimes people actually do like those books that get name dropped for clout.
I would say if you take a recommendation and aren’t digging the book, drop it with absolutely no guilt. If something like (for example) Infinite Jest just feels like a slog with no payoff, and you just wanna kick back with something trashy, do it and fuck the haters.
But you may find you dig it - you won’t know without giving it a shot.
Using a password manager and moving around every hour or so
3 - using an Oxford comma where appropriate
Open a Roth IRA and make max contributions to it every year. Most Americans will not be fortunate enough to rely on a pension upon retirement and that employer sponsored 401k will not be enough. They are throwing us to the wolves once they can no longer extract value from our bodies so start preparing now. The sooner the better.
Play Dumb, even if you’re the smartest person in the room.
Fortunately for me, this comes naturally to me. No need to pretend.
Bad linked article. Judging by the amount of sets of three bullets
- in: forms
- like: these,
along with the “in conclusion” prepositions and not-very-useful-but-broad headings, it was written by AI. :(
Most online sources about this Schopenhauer suggestion seem to be either AI-generated, mildly superficial (i.e. basically only talks about Schopenhauer’s mom calling him an annoying intellectual type), or MBA-manipulator-esque (e.g. Get Rich! 48 Laws of Power! Buy Today!)…
which is a bummer since scaling humility up and down can be a really useful instrument to get things done. Just be agreeably approachable, but be careful if you outshine others, especially if ego gets in the way. Idk, i wish there was a more compelling source for this
Learning how to say no, how to do it politely and how to do it firmly. I’m better at the latter but being able to do either is a goddamn superpower, it’s incredible how many Americans cannot regardless of their situation, title, age, wealth, etc.
Learn to eat healthy, in good portions, not too much, not too little and fast once in a while.
It’s a pain when you’re younger but gets easier with age because you start losing or degrading your sense of taste (like all your other senses) anyway.
If you get that habit early in life, you’ll keep it forever. And if you take care of your system early in life, your older self will thank you for it. Otherwise if you abuse yourself, and you do end up living a long life, you’ll be miserable for the last decade or two of your life and probably won’t know your name or where you’re from.
Get in the habit of developing habits.
Any good tips rabbited are so hard to break/make.
I added above about habit stacking. The idea is to lump a new habit onto an existing habit, which makes it so much easier to stick with. For example, when you brush your teeth in the evening, do your Duo lesson. Or, when you go make a cup of coffee add a new habit in during the three minutes it makes to boil the water.
Here’s a random article that explains it: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/habit-stacking
I will try that thanks.
rabbited?
oops typo I meant habbits
I’m divided on this.
In one hand, when I haven’t done my habits for awhile it seems like everything goes to chaos.
But many days I dread all the annoying chores I do making everyday feel the same.
when I haven’t done my habits for awhile it seems like everything goes to chaos
Yeah, happens to me too. Sometimes just doing one little thing quickly builds momentum back up again.
But many days I dread all the annoying chores I do making everyday feel the same.
Again, yeah, happens to me too. What helps me is to not do chores but to see how efficiently I can do chores. It’s more interesting to come up with processes/procedures/tools that get the job done faster. In the end the chore is done AND the next time it will go even faster because I’m more efficient. HTH
Habit stacking is huge. Add your new habit onto an existing habit, and it’s so so much easier to stick with it.
So many people don’t care about how their behaviors affect others. They are loud on the public transport, interrupt others when they talk, act like they are better because they got good looks, and a bunch of other things.
I really think people would get along better if all of us were more down to earth and listening and relaxing.
Be the opposite of what you see in reality shows.
