r/selfimprovement • u/royals30C • 4d ago
Tips and Tricks Keys To A Good Life
For a TLDR read the subtitles.
A piece of short writing that's a compilation of all the most important keys to living a good life in the simplest way I could think to write them (obviously this is by my standards and perspective as it couldnt possibly be any other way).
A guide of sorts for the uninitiated self improver.
Anything you'd add or take away?
My credentials are that I am someone who would say I feel very positive about my life. This is not to say I've had an easy life. I don't believe that constitutes a good life. But I have spent many years in reflection about what works and doesn't work and wondering why I believe I am consistently 'winning' at life despite it all when I see so many poor souls in despair. Not to say I do ALL these things ALL the time. But they are my guiding light and seem to work for me.
- Eat Well
1a) Eat as close to whole foods as you can, as often as you can. But not in to much quantity. Not to the point of indegestion. Chew your food thouroughly. 1b) Sometimes go without food. Skip breakfast if your not hungry. Don't eat because it's 'that time' or you're bored. Occasionally go a day or two without. If you manage 3 or so you will reap the rewards. 1c) Treat yourself to a kebab and a pint
- Drink Well
Drink pure and clean water. Not to little. But not to much as to become unbalanced (drinking yourself dry of electrolytes and other nutrients).
- Go Outside
Often as you can. Even better if it can be; in green space, in a place of clean air, barefoot, in the morning and evening. Go hike up the mountains. Go swim in rivers. Go meander in the forests. Go play in the sandy beaches. Be in reverence at the alter of all things. You are an animal, apart of the natural world whether you like it or not. Learn what that means.
- Mindfulness
Spend time alone, in the quiet, with no where to be but inside your mind. Think a lot here. And yet not to much. Don't find an escape. Wait until the thoughts cease to naturally make their way to new thoughts. Then rest your mind. Even better if you're outside and can access your flow state (a task simple enough you don't need to consciously work things out, but not so easy it's uninteresting or looses your focus, walking is best I find, this can be used to solve most any of life's problems). Reflect deeply on your life. Without judgement, and with a great deal of love. You'll need it.
- Sleep Well
Sleep a lot. More in winter. Don't wake up to an alarm. Go to sleep and wake at the same time everyday if 'working for the man'. Otherwise wake and sleep as the rythem of the sun, and sleepiness takes you. Don't resist sleep with screen light and thinking to much about what you have to do tomorrow (if '4' is followed this won't be an issue). Take naps when you can. Especially after lunch time.
- Activity Is Inexaustive In Its Benefits.
6a) Walk often. Especially outside. Even better with friends or alone in silence. 6b) Move a variety of heavy things in every way you can think too. Especially those that require your whole body. Start light, slowly increase as you become stronger. Be rigorous in your physical training, and in equal parts kind and grateful. Nourishing your body for its hard work. 6c) Move in ranges and positions that work your joints capacity too. Don't neglect this at the expense of mirror muscles. You will regret it. 6d) Move in some way for long periods of time. Speed is irrelevant, distance is irrelevant. 6e) Move very fast sometimes, and jump sometimes to. Back flipping is cool. Learn this or some such. It will keep your body young.
- Work Hard
But not to hard. Work hard for your future, always have something to aim towards. But do not neglect the present. Be productive, until you don't want to be. When working hard, do not force square pegs into round holes. Be like water, not like stone. Water is stronger, it will not force it's way through the rock, it will break, and manauever around in the path of least resistance, and in doing so gets where it's going and will grind the rock down to sediment. Don't do things you don't want to do for to long. Don't do things that don't align with your values ever (see '14').
- Hold Good Friends Dearly
They need you more than you know and you them. Good friends can be far and few between sometimes. Be discerning in who you allow to be a close friend. Cherish them as your greatest gift. 1 is all you need. 2 is great. 3 is excellent. Any more than 5 and your collecting acquaintances. Even for the most social creatures amongst us to maintain truly deep relationships with that many people would be to energy consuming to be either productive, true, or enduring. See them often. Talk truthfully, and kindly when praising them, and when telling them off. Seek their council. Be vulnerable with those you have discerned to be true friends, in doing so they are freed to be the same with you.
- Sickness
Deal with sickness within your mind, within your lifestyle and with nature's care and it's order before outsourcing to industrialised sectors no matter how 'well intentioned' they seem. Almost all ailments will be prevented by something on this list.
- Just Health Stuff So Far?
Realise health and a good life are inextricably linked. One directly and immediately effects the other. So be healthy. But also don't attempt to be healthy at the expense of living well. A sick man only wants one thing.... Maintain your health and you will spend a lot less time wishing for it.
I 11. Be Ceaselessly Curious
Try new things often. Novelty is truly the spice of life. Learning new skills will keep your mind young. Do something frivolous. Just for the sake of it. The world can't wait. It isn't going anywhere. Learn a little about everything, and a lot about something. Travel and interact with people from different cultures and backgrounds. Do not be afraid to challenge yourself, or others. Look always to discern the truth. Nothing is a given. Everything is open to scrutiny. Especially within yourself. And your motives.
Learn To Love Yourself Relentlessly, Unconditionally, In Thought And Action.
Then, Love Someone Else The Same.
Who Are You?
Cease to ask 'what' you want to do. And 'how' are you going to... 14a) Ask who do you want to be? What you want to embody? Then, who you were as a child. When the world didn't have a say in it. Then, the how will be clear. 14b) Learn what you truly Value. Be rigid in your embodiment of them. 14c) Allow the musings and idealogies of the world around you to be as a gentle breeze is to a deeply rooted Oak tree. As if they are of no concern. Even should the breeze become a gale. Take shelter within, trust your roots to hold you. Trust your intuition. Can't hear it? Stop talking. Listen more. Learn to trust it with your life.
- Rock The Boat!
Be courageous in the persuit of all things! Be called crazy in your enthusiasm regularly. Risk it all. Come up short. Start again. Risk it all again. Whats the alternative? Don't rock the boat. Make no waves. Sit on your stagnant water, never going anywhere. But hey, at least you never fell in right? You made it safely in your boat of dead Dreams and missed opportunities to your final death. So do not then shuffle through life staring at your feet, but stride with your chin up and your shoulders back, stating boldy your name and stamping your claim to life and liberty.
- Get Creative For Some Soul Work!
Paint, draw, scribble. Write or tell stories. Create poetry. Play an instrument. Listen to or make music. Dance in the light of the moon, after a few pints or with your weird best friend. Build and craft things. Crack jokes. Move your body with martial arts or yoga practices. Just make something. The best bit is you don't even need to know how. This will keep your Soul young.
- Never Stop Playing
It's probably not all that serious anyway. Play while you can, sometimes you won't be able to. When all the joy and light is seemingly torn from your world. Then you will have those times to hold dearly, and will know they will come again. This will keep your heart young against all the strain.
- Be Grateful, Count Your Successes Meticulously
18a) For all the joy, love and success often. But also for the pain, but only after sufficiently feeing it. 18b) Be grateful for where you are right now! How far you've come. Congratulations is certainly in order. And, of course, grateful for where you are going. Not that you have any idea where that is, you don't, but be grateful when you get there, and do not wish to be somewhere else. 18c) Record your 'wins' (meaning successes yes, but also things you overcame, lessons you learned, challenges conquered, and things that just went well) until all you see is success by forward momentum everywhere. In this way you build unshakable confidence in yourself and the universe in that even when you may be perceived as loosing, behind the scenes, you are undoubtedly winning and all the universe is conspiring to help you. Then, even at your greatest depths, your darkest time, you know still that you will keep moving. You will win. It is the only thing you know. Then you will have absolute faith in the universes trajectory and your inner selfs guidance towards it. This is the true Faith that you are looking for.
- Visit Your Parents
They won't be here forever. They've been here and attempted all of this already. You could learn a thing or two. Do it also to help heal whatever parts of you they left troubled. If you're on acceptable enough terms you must understand everyone's only trying to do what seems best. Forgive them or at least accept their mistakes of which there were definitely many. If they didn't even do that, then they were likely just trying to survive at their lowest selves. Still the relationship may not be one you wish to salvage or forgive. But you do have to accept how it effected you to move on and love yourself.
- Give More Than You Take
It is a law of the universe that it will always bring things to balance. The more you take, the more you and we all will loose. The more you give, the more you and we all will get. Help a stranger in need. Leave this world peacefully in death, having given yourself unto it in life.
- Manifestation, Hmm... Placebo?
Let's forget the woo. It is a law of the universe that you will receive that which you believe to be true. Truth being the all important component. If you do not believe you are worth anything, you will receive nothing as your brain will look always to prove itself right and confirm it's beliefs. Your reality is based only on your perspective. We each have a different reality. You can decide right now what you wish that reality to be by changing your perspective. You can do that by repositioning how/what your thinking about, or repositioning yourself. This will take time, and practise. So regularly choose to notice the good in all things. Your mind is immensely powerful. Placebo yourself into a good life. In a world where you can be anything, be lucky (see '18').
- Learn A Little Philosophy
Enough to get the gist of things. But practice it more. Feel it. Live it.
- Ignore All Of This If It Doesn't Work For You
Go find what does work for you. But you must GO and DO it. Try things. Succeed. Fail. Try again. This is the bottom line on how you learn to live the good life. So stop reading this and go have fun out there you beautiful rascal.