What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?
Well-being and Well Practiced:
The strategies I use to maintain my health and well-being vary by the situation. Not every strategy, I’ve come to believe, is a one size fits all and I’m a kinesthetic kind of person. I usually experience things physically and I would need physical outlets to expel as much energy as I can. For example:
- I’m feeling excited: I have to differentiate which feeling of excitement I’m experiencing. If its anger, then it’ll manifest as my mind slowly latching on to a perceived problem, my shoulders will tense, a brick will drop in my stomach, my hands will ball into fists, and I’ll have the strong urge to want to break something
(or someone).
If I’m working at my warehouse job, then I’ll use it as strength to move more freight than usual, but I won’t be pleasant to be around. But if I’m working at my rage room job, then I can experience controlled chaos vicariously through the customers visiting because I can hype them up.
Otherwise, when I’m at home, I’ll take a walk around the neighborhood, I’ll use my kettlebell and perform: goblet squats, KB swings, KB halo casts, suitcase carry, or Turkish get-ups throughout the day as incidental training sets. I’ll do calisthenics, practice boxing and kicking in my apartment since I can’t practice my wrestling or BJJ without disturbing my downstairs neighbors with my sandbag. I’ll do what I can to keep myself active and fit with the small gym I made in my studio.
Else, if it’s not anger, then I’m feeling ecstatic: it’ll manifest as excessive energy has been injected into my legs. I can’t sit or stand still, I’ll be bouncing on my feet or rocking back in forth in place on my heels to my toes, and I’ll be a human equivalent to a dog that has the zoomies.
This is where I need to do something. If I’m at home, then this could mean anything: I want to watch a movie that looks interesting, I get to work on a personal project, I finally have enough money to attend a gym or an event I REALLY wanted to check out, try out a new skill, I want to explore an idea and I have it written down so I remember it, I get to hang out with somebody, or I’m going on vacation and I have my time for myself.
Although, when my energy is lower than usual, my mind is blank, and I’m not obsessing over something to the point where I think something is wrong, I revel in my slow days too. On these days, I take advantage of not having the compulsion to do something, and I can sit with my other, non-physical interests:
- Read a book for 5-15 minutes and get through my huge backlog.
- Meditate for between 1-5 minutes a day, at least.
- Box breathing with a 4-4-6 cadence for 1-5 minutes throughout the day.
- Work on a few sketches: line art, learn to blend color, add lighting, work on backgrounds, etc.
- Listen to a daily Alux lesson and contemplate how to incorporate it into my life or how it already has before the lesson.
- Journaling what’s interesting, what I liked, what I wished was better, and what steps I’m taking to make and be better.
- Playing video games for an hour or 2.
- Watch YouTube videos, revisit my online learning experiences, and apply it.
I have a lot of activities that has me doing something; whether it’s physical or mental challenges, I take in the very rare moments where I simply stare at my ceiling – I’m not thinking or dreading, I don’t feel compelled or depressed, I don’t have to feel the need to strive or put myself down – and I simply exist and I’m, finally, albeit briefly, content.
I also enjoy talking stories with certain people, my grandma especially, or I just listen to her talk. If anyone does something for their well-being that is different and interesting, I would love to know what it is that you do to keep yourself sane amidst the noise and chaos. Might inspire something new to explore and try out for fun.
